Plan a fall week on the Southeast coast around the tide and the calendar rather than the mileage. From late September through the end of the year the creeks behind the barrier islands are at their most productive — shrimp still in the marsh, oysters back in season on October 1, crabs available all year — and the boat stops being transport and becomes the way you get at it.
This is the stretch most owners run straight through on the way somewhere else. The southbound fleet passes Charleston and Savannah in October with the autopilot on, ticking off bridge openings and the events that punctuate the run. The week is better spent the other way around: pick two or three anchorages, work the tide, and let the marsh do the provisioning.
Shrimp are in the creeks, but not for long
South Carolina's shrimp baiting season is fixed in law — 60 days, opening at noon on the last Friday on or before September 15 — and that timing tracks the shrimp rather than the calendar. White shrimp are first caught in the creeks in late July or early August and have usually moved out into the ocean by late October. The front half of the season is the good half; the back half is fishing water they have already left.
Georgia works differently. Recreational food shrimp follows the commercial season, which the Commissioner may open from May 15 through the end of February and generally runs mid-June to mid-January. Once it is open, cast nets may be used at any time of day in all of Georgia's saltwaters. The daily limit is 48 quarts of heads-on shrimp or 30 quarts of tails — and that is the ceiling for the boat as much as the person, so a crew of four does not multiply it.
Both states want paperwork before you get wet. South Carolina requires a Saltwater Fishing License for recreational shellfish harvest. Georgia requires a fishing licence plus a Saltwater Information Permit to take any seafood recreationally, bait included.
October 1 is the date that changes dinner
South Carolina's recreational shellfish season opens October 1 and runs into late May, with the closing date set each year. Two bushels of oysters and a half-bushel of clams per person per day, no more than two days in any seven, and a hard ceiling of three personal limits per boat. Georgia allows two bushels of oysters per person per day up to six per boat, with a three-inch minimum measured hinge to mouth.
The part people get wrong is the ground, not the limit. Public and state shellfish grounds are redrawn between seasons, so last year's chart is the wrong chart — pull the current maps from SCDNR or Georgia's coastal division before you plan the tender run. Low water is when you go, which puts both the trip out and the trip back on someone else's schedule.
Crabbing is the one that keeps children busy
Georgia's saltwaters are open for recreational crabbing year-round, at any hour, which makes blue crabs the one thing aboard that never needs a season checked first. Crabs must measure at least five inches spike to spike across the back. One bushel in any 24-hour period, or two bushels aboard a boat carrying more than one person.
It also asks the least of the boat and gives back the most. A dinghy, a few traps, a bucket of chicken necks, and an eight-year-old will happily lose a morning to it. What matters aboard is a cockpit you can make a mess in and hose down afterwards, which is why boats like the Boston Whaler 325 Conquest and the Pursuit D326 suit this water better than something with more varnish in it. For a bigger crew, a power catamaran such as the Aquila 42 Coupe trades a little marina convenience for deck space and shade that gets used all day.
From mid-November the water has rules
Two things arrive with the cold, and both change how you run the boat.
The calving ground for North Atlantic right whales runs from northern Florida up to North Carolina — this entire stretch of coast — and seasonal speed restrictions in the southeast calving area are in force from November 15 to April 15. Most vessels 65 feet and longer must travel at 10 knots or less inside them, and NOAA asks smaller boats to slow voluntarily, because a boat under 65 feet can still kill a whale. Approaching within 500 yards of a right whale is prohibited outright; if one surfaces inside that distance, the requirement is to leave, slowly and directly away. Before any run from November onward, check the NOAA speed zone dashboard — the voluntary slow zones move with the whales and that is where they appear.
In north Florida, manatee protection zones restrict vessel speed and operation through the cold months, and they are enforced off the signs posted on the water. Take the zone maps from FWC and mark them on the plotter before you leave the dock. The first indication that you have entered one should not be an officer explaining it to you.
Tony's Take
I'd give up a hundred miles of southbound progress for two nights behind a barrier island in early October. The bugs have gone, the shrimp are still in the creeks, the oysters have just come back, and the anchorage that held twenty boats in July has four. Most people run this coast. The ones who stop eat better.
— Tony Smith, Founder — Minted Yachts
If you are buying for this kind of week — a boat that earns its keep at anchor behind an island rather than tied to a dock — that is the conversation we have every day. Email TS@MintedYachts.com or call +1 (404) 805-9819, or send the short version through the lead form and we'll come back with the two or three boats that actually fit the way you'll use them.