Volume 18 Number 3 - March 2011

FEATURES:

	Bass-Sized Baits, Slab-Sized Crappie Late-winter crappie can be suckers for bigger baits when they’re fished in the right places. Forget those jigs and minnows this month. You can catch crappie with the stuff in your bass tackle box in the last few weeks of winter almost as well as with traditional baits and lures. You may not catch 100 fish a day, but you’ll catch some ... John E. Phillips

	Falls’ Slab King Durham’s Rod King is crappie-fishing royalty on Falls of Neuse Lake in the spring. Rod King had six rods spread in a semi-circle at his boat’s bow as he drifted across a big flat in Falls of Neuse Lake’s Little Lick Creek last March. ... Craig Holt

	Harbingers of Spring The shad run up the Cape Fear River is a sign that warm weather and good fishing are on the way. Here’s how to make the most of a trip to Lock & Dam No. 1. Capt. Jot Owens’ mood changed as soon as he topped the bluff and the Cape Fear River became visible, spilling over a nearly 100-year-old dam. ... Jerry Dilsaver

	Little Lakes, Big Bass Moss Lake and Lookout Shoals, two small western piedmont lakes, can hold their own when prespawn bass are the target. Standing on the casting deck of his boat, Andy Montgomery made a tight swing with his casting rod and deftly flicked a spinnerbait between the edge of the dock and the old boat moored to it. ... Phillip Gentry

	Saltwater Series: Little River / Sunset Beach Boundary waters abound with fish of all species, in all seasons. The inshore and nearshore waters around Little River, S.C., and Sunset Beach, N.C., are a complex saltwater ecosystem in a variety of ways. ... Jerry Dilsaver

	Spring Cleaning This Conover pro sweeps out Lake Wylie’s beds for the season’s best bass action. Whenever Brian Travis of Conover wets a line at Lake Wylie, he can’t help but relive the dream that began in April 2008 when he won the Bass Federation National Championship there. ... Tony Garitta

	Spring Speck Specialists Take tips from these two guides, and catch early-season trout on the Pamlico and Pungo rivers. Brutally cold weather plagued North Carolina this past winter, doing a number on speckled trout throughout the state’s coastal waters. ... Jeff Burleson