I'm from NC and hunted quite a bit in coastal NC. I've been duck hunting down there before during bear season and there are many, many TN hunters down there with their hounds. I don't think it will matter to most. If you know bears and bear hunting, then you know NC has some of the largest black bears in the world. 100 bucks won't deter them at all, or at least the ones that I'm aware of. Truly world class bears.
From my experience in hiking the Appalachian Mountains, NC by far had the most bears. The largest ones have seen so far in that area were actually in GSMNP, but for numbers NC was tops. There is a bear sanctuary along the Appalachian Trail in NC and oddly I did not see a bear in there.