Once we got to the bay, I helped Daniels throw four blade drudges into the water. These are wire frames the size with a chain-like netting underneath. The idea is that once the boat starts going, these baskets drag along the bottom of the bay, scraping up whatever lies in their path. We only drove about two to three knots because any faster and the net wouldn’t catch the shells, Daniels said. Any slower, and the weight of the drudge would cause the mollusks to burrow further into the sand.

After about five minutes of drudging, Daniels turned off the motor and we lifted our bounty to the sides of the boat, tipping all of its contents into a plastic bucket.

“Wow! Look at all of that!” I squealed.

“Junk,” Daniels said. And he was right.

Sure enough, during our first round in the bay, we had amassed a few conk shells, a couple clams, several lady crabs, and a good portion of empty scallop shells. “You have to see how much junk there is, that’s the key.”

Read the complete narrative from The Sag Harbor Express.