Kneeling in 6 inches of muddy water in Dick's Bay behind Masonboro Island, Ted Wilgis hoisted a large clump of Eastern oysters in one rubber-gloved hand.

Shaffer:  The men arrived toting crocks of wild boar gravy, trays of deer quesadilla and plastic tubs of kangaroo meat.

When Heather Shepherd says she was born into hunting, she means it.

A pack of pickups parked along a puddle-dappled farm road in Duplin County, soybeans and corn in long-picked fields nearby giving way to planted crops of winter wheat or volunteer grasses and wild onions.

Alison Morton, a senior at Leesville Road High School, has hunted by herself for three years, but said she had never experienced anything like the 12-point buck she killed the weekend after Thanksgiving.

Bouncer Smith remembers heading out every Wednesday and Sunday to fish with other kids on the Newport Fishing Pier.

Surf fishers winced Wednesday when the National Park Service set the fees it will charge, starting Feb. 15, for permits to drive on beaches at the Cape Hatteras National Seashore: $50 for a week, $120 for a year.

Saltwater and freshwater