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CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) -- Nets will be flying and grits will be cooking around South Carolina with the start of shrimp-baiting season.

The 2010 season opens at noon on Friday and continues through noon on Nov. 9.

Shrimp baiters attract shrimp by using a bait -- generally fish meal mixed with clay and rolled into small balls. You have to have a license from the state to legally cast a net over areas that have been baited.

For South Carolina residents, licenses are only $25. But for those from outside the state, the licenses cost $500.

Shrimp baiting has declined in the state in the last decade or so. In 1998, almost 17,500 licenses were purchased. Last year, the number was about half that.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)