Florida Bay Scallops: The how to guide

You’ve ordered them in restaurants, you seen them on the Discovery Channel, and you may have even seen their shells on the beach. Well, now you’re going to find out how to hunt the little fella’s down, gather them up, and finally enjoy some of Florida Bay’s tastiest little morsels we affectingly adorn our seafood platters with.

First and foremost, MAKE SURE IT IS SCALLOPING SEASON. A second little tip, MAKE SURE YOU ARE IN A LEGAL HARVESTING AREA. Failing to make sure you are in compliance will mean you will no longer be able to call the little shells scallops, and will have to use the moniker, ‘baby clams.’

The folks that know me know the back story, but since there may be some Florida Wildlife Commission officers reading this, I have never intentionally, and let me repeat… almost never violated any rules or regulations as set forth by the legal eagles of the Great State of Florida and enforced by those with guns and ticket books.

Should you accidentally find yourself in an awkward situation whereas you may possess some baby clams, do not do anything that would draw attention to yourself until you are safely ashore and the sun has set. And most certainly do not anchor next to the nearest US Coast Guard station.

Anyhow, as it is presently legally scalloping season, let’s concentrate on the task at hand…

First off, you need to be in an area along the west coast of Florida between the Pasco-Hernando county lines and running up to Mexico Beach in the Florida panhandle. The season runs from July 1st to September 10th. The adept scalloper is permitted to collect two gallons of whole scallops a day, which is about one pint of cleaned meat, but no more than ten gallons whole scallops a day, for any boat.

You must capture the critters, and take them to shore in an area where it’s legal to harvest scallops. I suppose that this is should you actually be in possession of scallops, on a vessel outside the designated collection area, you will not be permitted to call them ‘baby clams’ and continue on your way. I would also suspect that you would face less of a punishment if you were in possession of 12 illegal immigrants and a kilo of cocaine.

Have a bag of baby clams in the onboard reefer while out of season, and outside the designated area… Well, you may get set adrift by the people who would seize your vessel and subsequently sell it back to you at a government auction six years from now. I suppose you could keep a pack of Ms. Paul’s fresh frozen sea scallops as a handy throw down box should you get boarded and searched.

Getting back to the original story, we went to Cross City which is due west of Gainesville Fl. We found a small RV park where we set up camp. The water along the coast here is too shallow for our sailboat, the AbbyGale. We cajoled our relatives into coming along, boats and trailers required. We found Poor-Boy’s RV park which was a really neat little campground. $23.00 a night for full hook-ups was a sweet bonus.

Our intended destination for boating is Horseshoe Beach, due west of Cross City, about 21 minutes by auto. They have a county park at the beach with a free boat ramp. They also have a couple of paid campsites there, but they are generally full, and they don’t have much for power, water, or sewage hook-ups. The drive from Poor Boy’s is not that long considering the convenience of the park and nearby restaurants and such.

This is also a great place if you are interested in going to any of the many natural springs in the area. Perhaps another post…

We put the boats in the water and parked the trailers. Within 20 minutes we were in scalloping territory. All you need is about 5-6 feet of clear water about five miles away from the ramp, and a desire to go swimming. We dropped the anchor in some wiregrass beds and began the hunt.

The scallops are easy to spot once you know what to look for. Once you get the hang of it, it’s very easy to get your limit in an hour or so. Some will be lying on the grass, and when you dive to get that one, you generally see one or two more. Some of our hunters were picking up five scallops in one dive.

We would bring them up to the mother ship dumping our collection bags and continue the hunt. Anyone not wanting to get wet can begin the cleaning process speeding things up.

Grasp the scallop in one hand and with a scallop knife, insert the blade into the side. The knife is curved, and not sharpened. You need to use the blade to scrape the membrane free from the inside of the top half of the scallop shell. Peel this shell off and toss in a bucket.

There will be a glob of goo remaining in the lower shell. The next step is to scrape the membrane away and into a bucket. What remains is the scallop muscle, which is white in color and about the size of your finger tip, from the knuckle up.

Using the backside of the blade, scrape off the scallop muscle and put it into a pint Tupperware container. (This helps with seeing when you have reached your limit)

There you have it… cleaned scallops. Feel free to try one of many recipes available for the tiny morsels. Just remember, do NOT overcook them. Drop a scallop in a hot skillet with butter, lemon, garlic, and a little seasoning, for an easy treat. It will take less than 60 seconds to completely cook the little guy.

Should you desire to relax and enjoy your catch, there is another way. For the truly lazy (which I’ve been known to be a time or two) there is a nice little restaurant at the end of Horseshoe Beach. You can get the standard frozen microwave fare if you’re absolutely starving, but for the true seafood lover; hand them your baggies of fresh caught seafood.

They will cook your catch for under $10.00 per person, which includes two sides. They will blacken or fry your catch and serve it up hot and steamy. It’s tough to get anything fresher. They did have fresh caught soft-shell crab available the night we were there, and it was mighty tasty.

And there you have it, another hidden Florida tasty treat just waiting to be plucked from the sea. Oh, and by the way, ‘baby clams’ taste amazingly like scallops!

Enjoy!

For more information please see the newest post on scalloping:

http://www.southerncrosses.com/2010/07/25/florida-bay-scallops-2010/

Filed Under: Travels

Tags: Fishing • Florida • Gulfport Florida • scallops