FIN TO FIRE

CHARLESTON CHEF JAMES LONDON SOAKS IN SUMMER WITH A DAY ON THE WATER FOLLOWED BY A FIRESIDE FEAST

- ERIN BYERS MURRAY

The rain had moved offshore, but roiling waves threatened to sideline James London from a day hooking grouper and black bass off the coast of Charleston last summer. The chef-owner of Chubby Fish, one of downtown Charleston's most revered seafood restaurants, wasn't afraid. Gripped with the fishing bug from an early age, he was anxious to get a rod baited that day-high seas be damned.

His friend and charter boat captain Shane Sinclair of Charleston Inshore Charters got London and a few friends about 18 miles out to sea, where the crew wrestled the swells to reel in their haul-one fisherman, Josh, hooked a bull shark that battled for about 45 minutes before the crew got him unhooked. The catch also included several red snapper, but they were quickly thrown back since the season had closed just the day before.

All that rocking kept the group on their toes until they brought the rig back to the home of a friend in West Ashley, where a long walkway over the marsh took them from the dock to the waterfront home. There, London and his wife, Yoanna, known as "YoYo," along with their puppy, Koji, were hosting a few friends for dinner, thanks to a makeshift outdoor kitchen complete with a Sea Island Forge kettle grill, where London set about prepping the day's catch.