Fishing the Fifty #34, North Carolina
North Carolina has a classic east coast profile, stretching from western Appalachian mountains with their trout streams, through the rolling hills of the central Piedmont plateau with its bass tournament-quality reservoirs, to the coastal plain, home to Cypress swamps and curious Carolina bays.
The fishing in the western mountain area is primarily in rivers. In the southwest near South Carolina are the headwaters of the French Broad River, which flows west, eventually joining the Tennessee River near Knoxville. Other mountain drainages come from the Kanawha (near West Virginia) and Hiwassee River (southwest, near Georgia). While the fishing hole in the title sequence for the Andy Griffith show was filmed outside Los Angeles, Mr. Griffith grew up in Mt. Airy, North Carolina, where you can fish the trout-stocked Ararat River (a tributary of the Yadkin). The central watersheds are the Catawba River and Yadkin River. Large reservoirs in the central Piedmont are popular for fishing, including Lake Norman outside Charlotte, High Rock Lake which serves as a Bass Master Classic location, and B. Everett Jordan Lake outside Raleigh. In the coastal plain are elliptical natural lakes called Carolina Bays such as Lake Mattamuskeet, Lake Phelps, and Alligator Lake, and near the Outer Banks, and Lake Waccamaw (you’re hearing it in your head, right?) between Wilmington and Myrtle Beach.
North Carolina fish species are varied as with their geography. Trout feature prominently in the mountain west, specifically the state freshwater fish, the Southern Appalachian brook trout, brown trout and rainbow trout. The mountain streams and reservoirs also hold walleye, muskie, yellow perch, white perch, and spotted bass. While not a game fish, the vividly colored tangerine darter is notable for its color, and can grow to seven inches. In the Piedmonts the classic four American fish (largemouth bass, bluegill, crappie, and channel catfish) are complemented by sunfish varieties (green sunfish, pumpkinseed, red breast sunfish, redear sunfish, and warmouth), Alabama bass, smallmouth bass and white bass. Two more unusual species are the Roanoke bass, akin to rock bass, and a hybrid striped “Bodie Bass”, named after outdoors writer Bodie McDowell of Greensboro. The coastal plain is the area to find chain pickerel, bowfin, blue and flathead catfish, along with American and hickory shad during the spring run.
The feature video is from one of the Carolina Bay lakes, Lake Phelps, formerly known as Lake Scuppernong (Algonquian for “the place where magnolias grow”), where two young men in electric trawlers sight fish for bass among the cypress trees: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vA5T2D9FYYk