by Levi Cain
Over the last year I have had multiple opportunities to fish the various geographical regions of North Carolina from the coastal Tidewater region of Holden Beach, to the Tar River, Cape Fear River and Rhodes Pond in the Inner Coastal Plain. I’ve even fished the Lower Little River along with a few feeder creeks in the Sandhills. But it wasn’t until early to mid April that I was finally able to fish the Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina, Tennessee and northern Georgia. Although I must admit I have fished the Conasauga River in northern Georgia once before.
When fishing the Atlantic near Holden Beach, I targeted the salt marshes, focusing on the vegetation as the tide was rising. My rod of choice was a 13′ crappie rod with about 9′ of 10 lb mono and 2-3′ of 8x tippet. There was a slight wind present so I used a size 6 micro shot, attached about 4” above a Tanago hook baited with a small chunk of worm. I tried to focus most of my attention along the edges of the grass or small gaps in vegetation with sandy bottoms that were no more than 3′ deep. The area was teeming with one particular species. And nearly every cast was a fish-on.
