Best Bets for Bar Hopping

If you think the "bar scene" is all about overpriced drinks and lame pickup lines, you're looking at the wrong bar. Seriously, if you need a change of pace with a far more rewarding outcome than the bar-hopping routine, just trade the cramped dance floors and loud music for the open spaces and pleasant tranquility of hopping from one oyster bar to the next.

It takes many years of bivalve accumulation for oyster colonies to amass into the actual bars that generally occur in coastal waters near creek and river mouths, as well as spillways and drainage canals. Often covered with a slippery, muddy film, these jagged structures harbor a briny buffet of baitfish, crustaceans and...