Many anglers head to the state’s reservoirs and lakes in spring to take advantage of the ravenous appetites of pre-spawn and spawning crappie. Indeed, they catch some nice fish, primarily white crappie and stunted black crappie.

While the white crappie is certainly a prolific fish and grows large, a growing number of anglers prefer catching black crappie in their native habitat. There is just something special about fishing in a coastal river that stirs an angler’s blood. It could be uncrowded conditions or the scenic views along a winding waterway. It could also be the size and abundance of native fish.

“I’ve caught more crappie from the Cape Fear River than ever,” said Basil Watts, a river pilot on the lower Cape Fear. “The floods seemed to have helped the fishing.”

Watts referred to three successive years of high water during spring, summer and fall. Where he fishes, between Fayetteville and Elizabethtown, the river is actually a little tamer than most coastal rivers because of a series of locks and dams built in the early 1900s.

“The river can still flow fast,” Watts said. “It all depends on how much rain we get. I guess the important thing is that the river channel between the locks is always deep enough to get the angler to the fish.”

While reservoir anglers may disagree with Watts’ assessment of abundance, in a typical half day of fishing he can catch four to 18 black crappie. Most of the fish will be 10 to 14 inches long, fat and tasty. Every now and then, a 2-pound fish may strike his lure.

“I fish mostly with Beetlespins,” Watts said. “I catch a variety of fish with them. Lime-green is a good color followed by bright yellow with a black streak and white with a red dot. Once I fish a stretch of bank, I mark a tree so I won’t fish the same stretch soon afterward. You seem to cull out the fish as you work the bank if you keep the big ones and release the small ones.”

Watts launches his 16-foot skiff at Elwell Ferry or Lock and Dam No. 1 at the end of Lock and Dam No. 1 Road near Elizabethtown. There is also a ramp near the William O. Huske lock near Fayetteville. It doesn’t seem to matter what stretch of river an angler fishes. The river has a homogenous depth of about 20 feet. The feeder streams were all blocked at the time the dams were built to keep the water at a constant level. In essence, the river between the locks is a hybrid between a lake and a river because of the constant level and high flows. That may be what creates the excellent fishing.

Despite the fact that the feeder creeks are blocked, there are still many creek mouths that create dips in the bank. These old creek mouths do create a small amount of inflow after rains and the inflow causes crappie to congregate.

Anglers cast beetle grub spinners or live minnows on float rigs to the old creek mouths with good success. While reservoir anglers can catch several dozen crappie from a single good spot, catching a half-dozen black crappie at one such location is about all that can be expected between the locks.

Anglers drift along the bank with the river flow, using trolling motors to navigate. While they may have to anchor to fish a creek mouth, they can cast to erosion-felled trees and logjams as they drift along.

“A crappie can be almost anywhere there’s a piece of structure,” Watts said. “The trick is to keep moving. You can cover several miles of river in a single day. You need to cast to every little stick-up or log lying on the bank. Sometimes they are on a sandy stretch with no cover in sight. It’s a casting game. The more casts you make to different places, the more fish you’re going to catch.”

Below Lock and Dam No. 1 the river is wild and free all the way to the Atlantic. However, salt water in the stretches near Wilmington inhibits the number of crappie. So the creeks offer excellent fishing for crappie.

Access is from the Lock and Dam No. 1 ramp or from the ramp at Kelly Road (which provides access to Black River). Many early-spring anglers ply these stretches of black water and never see another angler. Two things keep other anglers at home — work and bad weather. Fishing during a rainy day and during the week will often provide an angler total solitude.