steve, not all of Hatteras is crowded. The point just happens to be a magnet for good fisherman and yayhoos.
In Adam's longer report, he picked his times to hit the point when it was least crowded, and scored well.
But as water temps rise, you should be able to fish unencumbered from the north beach of Hatteras. Other than that, the eastern shore barriers are good, but hard to get to.
You may want to try sandbridge if you don't want to head all the way to NC.
I fished false point near Hatteras inlet in mid march. Conditions seemed good, but we ended up with a dogfishathon. Other than that I haven't done a lot of drum fishing this spring. Gonna try the ES barriers in may though.