OutdoorSC.com

So many Lowcountry residents hail from other parts of the country, where the closest thing to saltwater is Epsom salts and water that you soak your feet in. Depending on what area you came from, I would be willing to wager that during your entire angling life, freshwater pond or stream fishing made up 99.9 percent of your fishing days. Am I right?Now, after working your fingers to the bone, you have moved to the sunny South to live out your dream of snowless winters and quite possibly, to do as much fishing as your wife will allow. Am I right again?

As we approach mid-summer, fishermen face oppressive heat and humidity that will force them to work a bit harder to find fish.These are uneasy times, particularly when life on the water tends to radiate discomfort. There is no real escape, only a somewhat mix of a happy medium to the period, and so we launch our boats and spend more time running than actually fishing. Gas prices have shortened many trips.

As we approach mid-summer, fishermen face oppressive heat and humidity that will force them to work a bit harder to find fish.These are uneasy times, particularly when life on the water tends to radiate discomfort. There is no real escape, only a somewhat mix of a happy medium to the period, and so we launch our boats and spend more time running than actually fishing. Gas prices have shortened many trips.

Writers never know whether folks really read their stuff. Being an outdoors writer, I have the additional pressure of not only wondering if people read my column, but also wondering whether they think I'm full of bull. Sometimes I can hear the comments that will surely be muttered over someone's morning coffee, even as I'm still typing out the text: "Yeah, I read his column, but 10 flounder, and all of them over 6 pounds?

According to The State newspaper over the weekend, Pure Fishing, which owns Shakespeare, Penn and Fenwick among its 12 national brands, is moving to South Carolina.
With it will come 150 jobs in Columbia, and the plant should open by 2009.
According to The State, "the company came to South Carolina because of the state's freshwater fishing sites and proximity to the Atlantic Ocean," and "the company plans to host South Carolina fishing trips for tackle buyers.

Solo fishing has its place, but sometimes someone else in the boat makes your trip more rewarding.Plus, it's always nice to have someone to whom you can delegate loading, packing, fish-cleaning and fetching chores.Of course, the benefits are obliterated by someone who doesn't know how to keep his yap shut, so I have only one rule in picking a fishing partner -- that someone must be relatively quiet.

When we first conjured up the idea for an outdoors page, the primary impetus was fishing. It was a no-brainer, really. How many boats are there in Beaufort County? And how many of those boats are trailerables? And how many of that segment pass you by on their way to one of the boatramps with fishing tackle lashed and bungeed down, guy in the front of his pickup with a smile on his face?
Like I said, it's a no-brainer.

Today's column is a mishmash -- kind of like my everyday thought patterns. Usually when I sit down to write my column, I start out with one thought and just roll with it but this week, there are just one too many thoughts in my pea brain to address any one subject. So here goes nothing. • I have been keeping my ear to the pipeline concerning one of the coolest fish out there, tarpon, and it seems they are finally starting to show up. For the past couple of years they have stopped just south of us down around St.

The Fourth of July weekend brings opportunity for escape. It is a time of celebration of past independence and hopes of a like future. It is a commercialized period of history shared through parades, fireworks, outlandish parties and visitors. For perspective, I suppose age has a good bit to do with the period as well as the celebration. My escape was one of necessity, a chance to spend time with family in Tennessee, a pilgrimage taken annually which is a welcome change.This year things are a bit different, yet are still common given present conditions.

"Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." Bull. Let's take a moment to dissect this age-old saying. From the time I was a little whipper snapper, I always got up early. We didn't have cows that needed to be milked or anything, but living on Hilton Head Island, my siblings and I would have to hop out of bed around 5 a.m. and commute to school in Savannah every day. We often didn't get home until 5 in the afternoon, when it was time for homework and then off to bed.So as you can see, I pretty much have been a poster boy for that famous saying.