(AP) -- CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - Nets will be flying and grits will be cooking around South Carolina with the start of shrimp-baiting season.
The 2010 season opens at noon on Friday and continues through noon on Nov. 9. Shrimp baiters attract shrimp by using a bait - generally fish meal mixed with clay and rolled into small balls. You have to have a license from the state to legally cast a net over areas that have been baited.
For South Carolina residents, licenses are only $25. But for those from outside the state, the licenses cost $500.
Shrimp baiting has declined in the state in the last decade or so. In 1998, almost 17,500 licenses were purchased. Last year, the number was about half that.
(Copyright ©2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
