LITMIR.BIZ

      I landed at Carolinas Restaurant, and I knew that seafood was going to play a big part of the menu. In those days, a guy would show up at the back door with 100 pounds of mahi-mahi, already cut into filets and packed in bags of ice, the ice sitting directly on the flesh. Having grown up on the water, I knew what happens when you catch a fish, how to handle it properly to keep it pristine—and that’s what I wanted to serve on my menu.

      I began to seek out and meet local fisherman like Tommy Edwards (shrimper), Clammer Dave (clams and oysters), Kimberly Carroll (blue crabs), and Mark Marhefka (fisherman). At the time, few chefs—like Ben Berryhill, Nico Romo, and Charles Arena—were buying from Mark, and we used to have to go pick the fish up at the docks. A year later, Mark got a truck with a cooler on it and started delivering downtown, and that helped fuel a new outlet of local seafood by chefs all over town.

      When I joined Steve Palmer at Oak Steakhouse in 2010, we introduced fresh local seafood and oysters to the classic steakhouse menu. A year later, when we opened The Macintosh, seafood played an even bigger role in what type of cuisine we serve.

      Buying from local producers, whether fishermen or farmers, is very important to us. You start getting the bigger picture and the whole story by making these connections and having relationships. When you buy from the folks who make their living on the land and water, you get to know their struggles and challenges, and to know the role we as customers play in that.

      We have been platinum members of the Sustainable Seafood Initiative, now known as the Good Catch Program, for the last nine years. It is a program put together by the South Carolina Aquarium that grades the seafood we are using and sourcing. We buy from local fisherman who make their living off the water, not recreational fisherman, and we take great pains to make sure they are, to use the motto of the Good Catch Program, “fishing for the future.”

      On down days, my wife and I get out on the water in our 15-foot creek boat. I’m extremely fortunate that she likes to fish, and she is pretty good at it, too. I get so much joy watching her catch a fish. Even if it’s a stingray that jumped on her line, her excitement is peak level. Other times when the fish aren’t biting we will just find a creek to tuck into and open up a bottle of wine. Those creeks are so peaceful, with long periods of silence broken only by a dolphin surfacing or an occasional plane passing overhead.

      One thing that fascinates me about the water is that it seems to exist in a continuous state of duality, carrying deep, eternal themes while also speaking in a present tense. It can move forth with such a slow and heavy force and at the same time have a dynamic and wild immediacy that is full of constant life.

      Out there on the water is where I feel most comfortable. Just rocking on the boat, sitting still and listening to the sound of the waves hitting the sides. It’s a place that forces me to listen, watch, feel the water, and have patience. It’s about what’s going on in a whole other world—the one on the water and the one under it.

      And, for me, it just feels like home.

      THE LOWCOUNTRY OF SOUTH CAROLINA is home to a fishery that is considered a success story. During the 1980s, conservation initiatives banned the use of gill nets and gave several species gamefish status, meaning they could no longer be sold commercially. The fishery has rebounded. Charleston guide Peter Brown was one of the first flats guides in the area and helped pioneer shallow water sight-fishing, now a common practice. “Catching fish on a consistent basis takes an understanding of tides, weather, wind, and moon phases. Tides range from 4-8 feet, a guide has to know precisely when, where, and how to fish, often in places that would otherwise be inaccessible.”

      SHALLOW WATER FISHING is a more technical way of chasing fish that are wary of any loud noise or disturbance from the boat. Getting close enough to cast and hook fish is more of a stalking technique; more like hunting. It’s a concerted effort between angler and guide. Communication is essential, and the guide will often spot the fish and tell the angler where to place the lure. Sometimes the right cast is just a few feet ahead of cruising fish, but often when casting to a school the approach is to cast beyond them and work the lure or fly into the fish. When people refer to fish “tailing” they are referring to high water feeding activity in which the fish are rooting for fiddler crabs in the salt marsh, often waving their tails above the surface. The cast usually needs to go within a foot or two of the fish and the main goal is just getting the fish to see the fly or lure. Sometimes the fish have to be tricked into eating the lure, but other times they devour it as soon as it hits the water.

      Most schooling activity occurs during the cooler months of the year, October through March, when the water is clear, bait is less prevalent and the fish respond well to flies and artificial lures. As the water warms into spring and summer, the fish eat a variety of natural baits like blue crab, mullet, shrimp, and fiddler crabs. They will still hit lures under the right conditions and particularly love to eat a fly when they are “tailing” in the grass, which typically happens on spring tides during the new and full moons. There are other times when the tide is wind-driven and will reach heights normally only seen during those moons, thus allowing fish to access the short “hard marsh” where the fiddler crabs live. Seeing a big redfish attack a fly in a foot of water is something that people never forget.

       GRILLED RED DRUM WITH SAUCE GRIBICHE

      SERVES 4

      Red drum is one of my favorite fish to catch and cook. This South Carolina fish is a huge conservation success story. Due to its popularity, it was becoming scarce. Fishing for it commercially was stopped for many years. Whereas it still cannot be sold commercially in South Carolina, red drum is a popular game fish here in South Carolina.

      Also, I think it is the perfect fish for the home cook as it is one of the easiest fishes to get a good crispy skin. Make sure the skin of the fish is extra dry before cooking. My trick is to run the edge of a knife back and forth across the grain of the skin. It’s almost like you a squeegeeing the moisture out of the skin.

      Sauce Gribiche is such a great sauce for summertime and grilling. There is such a nice contrast between the chilled sauce and the hot fish. This is my version of the classic

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