One never knows what a day on the water will bring...

And that's half the fun of it! I had the luck of going out twice in the past couple of weeks toward one of our barrier islands. The first time was with my best friend and son, William, to see what kind of hapless fish we could snag. Having had no luck at all in that pursuit, we headed out the sound a bit looking for a crabber. Fate was smiling. We spotted three guys pulling in their pots 50 yds away. We zeroed in and asked if they had any stone crab claws. Honestly these litle babies are just about the finest thing from the briny deep. They were flush with these delicacies and after a great conversation about crabs, boats, the weather, and general happy subjects, we came away with four pounds of these gorgeous edibles. As we drove the skiff further up our tidal creek, we started seeing more and more of the fine local oysters clustered on the shore. It didn't take much discussion to snuggle the bow of the boat up on the shore, giving us just the amount of space necessary to gather five or six bid daddy clusters. Homeward bound we were with our catch. I can honestly say that neither of us has ever experienced such a feast. Rich, chunky steamed stone crab clAWS dipped in simple lemon butter and perfectly steamed salty oysters with a little cocktail sauce and horseradish. Down it all with a good dry white wine and you'd think you had died and gone to heaven.

Then it was on to bigger prey. Later in the week, With the competent guidance of charter Capt, Ben Floyd of Charleston Fish Finder, my friend Paula and I were treated to a few hours on the water of pure joy.

One after another red fish helped themselves to our cut mullet. After kissing each and everyone good bye we gave them another chance to swim in their salty water. That is almost all of them. We did manage to keep a few to make delicious seviche and guacamole! Here's a snapshot of us happy fisherwomen!

Just a few of the perks of living in our Charleston lowcountry.