everyone who's been to florida's emerald coast knows the white sand beaches here
are among the most beautiful in the entire world the quaint and upscale resort and
residential communities along scenic highway 30a attract migratory tourists by the thousands
but locals know that just a few miles north of that translucent green gulf choctawhatchee bay
offers activities and a laid-back lifestyle that few tourists will ever experience or appreciate
named after the choctaw nation that once thrived in this region the term choctawhatchee means river
of the choctaws and the muskegon nation of florida still embraces the choctawhatchee riverbanks as
their rightful home stretching 30 miles from end to end and spanning some four to six miles across
at any given point choctawhatchee bay is home to a teeming abundance of sea life making it
a fisherman's dream redfish bluefish speckled trout flounder shrimp oysters blue crab striped
mullet white mullet choctawhatchee bay seafood menu is not only delicious it's also extensive
but if you're not skilled or lucky enough to land your own fresh catch don't worry there are dozens
of waterfront restaurants dotted all around the bay eager to welcome you by boat kayak seaplane
or paddle board or buy car if you must be so boring walton county local trey nick has been
fishing these waters since he was a toddler and his family's business nick's seafood restaurant
has been a bay front cinderblock institution since 1963. my granddaddy settled here in the 50s
bought this place which is a fish camp back in 1956
and a sold bait and rented boats and it was a little fishing village but uh but you know it's
kind of happening spot and then he uh realized he'd like to cook and and serve seafood right
right here where we're at i mean in this uh we have basin bayou to the north of us and
that's about a 800 acre lake or bayou is what we like to call it bass and brim are prevalent
but they also speckle trout and redfish chock national bay's great foster habitat here we've
lost that over the years we don't know why we've lost that but it's we're looking into those
measures of bringing them back but i can remember back when my granddaddy had the restaurant
we had oyster he'd go out there in oyster and then we had our oyster leases from the state
and uh and we'd work these local beds and put that product right here in the restaurant and that's
where i want to get back to i want to get back to harvesting the oysters that are in this bay
and putting them right back on the table here in these local restaurants growing up here on the bay
i fished but i fish mostly it started as a hobby and started as a hobby and then it evolved into
where i was you know when i realized i said you know what i can make a living doing this you know
because my granddaddy always told me he said learn to make your living from that chopping hatchery
bay that's your money right there learn to do that and that's what i started doing the mullet we
catch them locally here we turn about 500 pounds a week through the restaurant we take our mother we
fillet it and skin it and debone it so there's no bones no skin on it and it tastes different
than it would if you fried it with the skin on or fried it with a bone in that's that's what i
like about a mullet it tastes so many different ways and and just depends on how you clean it
i've been on a crab boat since i was six years old uh doing it with my granddad my grandma we'd pull
crab traps and i like crabbing i like getting on a boat and pulling crab traps and it's just
it just that salt water just gets in you man it's just an old commercial fisherman in me i guess
you'll find endangered gulf sturgeon here too although not usually on the end of your fishing
line these prehistoric creatures look like a bizarre fusion of carp and alligator and they can
grow up to 200 pounds but toothy grins aside these bottom feeders won't bite although they have been
known to leap out of the water unexpectedly and accidentally knocking the occasional fishermen
into the drink throw in alligators cow nose rays pelicans bull sharks seagulls bald eagles osprey
the occasional manatee and the ever crowd-pleasing dolphins and
well it's pretty easy to see why locals often leave the bustling touristy beach behind
opting instead for a more serene and satisfying life on the bay on the far east end of the bay you
can explore choctawhatchee river which runs 140 miles northeast all the way up into alabama or you
can cut through the intracoastal canal known as the ditch to locals which connects choctawhatchee
bay to west bay panama city and beyond locals and visitors alike often speculate about the 2000
wood pilings that jut up out of the water just east of the highway 331 bridge some claim the
pilings were remnants of the logging industry which once boomed here others say they had to do
with oyster beds but locals in the know will tell you that aluminum bowls once sat atop each post
where the seagulls and pelicans perched today as it turns out eglin air force base was behind these
mysterious pilings and those fabled metal dishes were omnidirectional radar corner reflectors
whatever that means after that project was abandoned by the air force in the 1960s
a few enterprising locals collected and sold aluminum reflectors for scrap metal
an entrepreneurial move that was apparently a frowned upon by the feds at least according to the
indictments but that's a story for another time the famous fishing communities of destin and fort
walton capped the west end of choctawhatchee bay where the ironically named east pass flows into
the gulf in the early 1900s the only path from choctawhatchee bay out into the gulf was about 1.5
miles east of where the current pass resides but in the 1920s a storm sealed off old past channel
as it was then known and heavy rains repeatedly caused choctawhatchee bay to back up fed up with
persistent flooding four local fishermen famously took matters into their own hands and dug a trench
in the hopes of allowing a little more water to escape into the sea much to their surprise
choctawhatchee bay exploded into the gulf overnight forming the pass that still
defines destin harbor to this day of course you really can't talk about choctawhatchee
bay without talking about crab island the famously beautiful sandbar along destin bridge crab island
was originally made from the sand that the army corps of engineer dredged up from the east pass
over the decades that transplanted sand has eroded to lie now just barely beneath the glistening
water surface making it a unique and idyllic anchorage for boaters seeking a day of fun and sun
if you haven't quite found your sea legs yet that's okay there's still plenty of ways to access
and enjoy choctawhatchee bay including dozens of public parks along her shores estuaries and bayous
but my personal favorite way is to find a good old bayside perch one that serves up the fresh fruits
of this ancient and beautiful body of water who says mullets went out of style i like mine fried
this is life on the bay and for me at least it just doesn't get any better