OAK HILL, Fla. — With a late-fall sun overhead and a brisk breeze chopping the surface of the Mosquito Lagoon, longtime commercial fisherman and oysterman Tom Hall picks through a pile of oyster shells.
Every few handfuls, he mines a living jewel – a Mosquito Lagoon oyster – that he tosses into the basket floating along behind him.
"There is not much here," the 35-year-old Oak Hill resident said before heading back to the boat.
From mid- to late October to April, Hall can be found wading through the waters of the lagoon, selecting only the best of what some seafood lovers consider the best-tasting oyster available – the Mosquito Lagoon paper shell.
As temperatures cool, oystering throughout the state picks up as the bottom-dwelling bivalves are at their plumpest and tastiest, said Susan Collins-Cook and her partner, Jimmy Rayburn of the Oak Hill Seafood Co-op.
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