Kayak Scalloping Florida Bay Scallops in Port St. Joe in the Gulf of Mexico
Eugene L. 09.17.24
Scalloping is a well-loved summer tradition in Florida, depending on the harvest region the season runs anywhere from July 1st to September 24th. Scalloping itself is reminiscent of an underwater Easter egg hunt. The activity is one of the easiest and most fun things to do inshore during the late summer. The target species of this egg hunt is a smaller bay scallop species, the Florida Bay Scallop (Argopecten irradians), a bivalve that grows in the seagrass along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. They filter out algae and organic matter from the water column and have 30 little blue eyes that are light sensitive and used to detect the shadows of potential predators so they can close their shells. They grow to a max size of 3.5″ in diameter and live generally only one year and spawn only once in the fall. They are also quite delicious and well sought after for that sweet meat. So with no plans for Labor Day Weekend, I suggested to my wife we go down to Port St. Joe for a quiet beach weekend and some kayak scalloping. She said it sounded like a good time, so I got about getting everything ready last minute. Loading up all the gear and Hobie on the truck so we could leave Friday right after work.
After a long drive down and checking in at the Port Inn late that night, we finally got out on the bay late the next morning. While I brought down my own Hobie PA 14 to take out on the bay, my wife needed to get a rental kayak for this trip. So we went over to Presnell’s Bayside Marina and got a rental kayak for her, only $40 for the full day. After that I got to unloading my kayak and making sure we had everything we needed to be out there. Snorkeling gear for both of us, water, and a dive flag. You have to have a dive flag out there, it’s the law and it’s to keep you safe. There are a lot of boaters out there and you want to have a safe and fun time.
From the marina launch, we paddled our way down the shore towards Conch Island. We had been given some tips on where to go and what to look for by Capt. Logan of Top to Bottom Fishing Company. Along the way, we did make a couple of stops to see if the bottom was what we were looking for but only found super thick and healthy seagrass on silt bottom. While great fishing bottom, we didn’t find any scallops in the stuff. Though I did see several legal flounder, and now will never go back out there without a pole spear. In the distance, we could see several boats with their dive flags out, and after seeing them there our whole paddle down, we knew there had to be better bottom that way. As we got closer and saw the bottom change to sandier and thinner sea grass, just like what Logan had told us to look for. So we set anchor, put up the dive flag in the rod holder, and tied the kayaks up, we were in probably 3 to 4 feet of water.
We immediately found plenty of old scallop signs at this spot, finding a ton of old scallop shells. So we knew were gonna find a live one soon, and as we snorkeled around we did finally find our first scallop. Not a giant, but after the first couple of spots being a bust we were excited to finally be on the scallops after that long paddle here.
After finding that first one it was smooth sailing from there. We spent the rest of the afternoon just slowly going across the seagrass and sand carefully looking for the scallops. Some were more silted in than others. Some scallops would react to our shadows and shut their shells, giving away their location. Occasionally you would find a red herring of a dead scallop shell, where instead of a scallop a little crab made their home in an empty shell and gave you a pinch when you picked them up.
As we were scalloping and clearing I made sure to pull along the kayaks and reposition the anchor to make sure we were still close by to the dive flag for safety. Usually, when I went back to do this I would also find some more scallops right under the kayaks. There always seem to be some that you missed right under the boat when it comes to scalloping. I even chased down a couple of blue crabs while I had the fins on to take home as an extra bonus catch while moving the kayaks.
While we were having a great time of doing this, after 4 hours out there we had about a gallon of whole scallops and she was getting a bit tired and hungry so it was time to call it a day. So we loaded back into the kayaks and paddled back to the marina with our catch. A much harder paddle back I have to say than the one we took out. Being tired and hungry from snorkeling all day along with the seagrass being right to the surface with low tide make for a slow paddle back. According to the wife, we’re not coming back out here without a boat, and she doesn’t like kayaks.
Once we finally made it back to the marina, I returned her kayak and loaded mine back onto the truck, about keeled over from trying to load it on uneven terrain. I’ll talk more about that when I finish the review on the kayak rack though. It was time to shuck and clean all of the scallops. While the legal limit of whole scallops per person is 2 gallons, we only got one gallon in total. While terrible compared to the last time I did this a decade ago, apparently the bay has had a tough go of it since Hurricane Michael and we did better than most scalloping.
Cleaning them is pretty simple, get a knife and cut the abducted muscle off the flatter top shell of the scallop, then pull off all the guts, and remove the remaining abductor muscle from the bottom shell. Make sure to keep them all cold, scallops can go bad quickly in the heat. I really recommend you try your hand at scalloping if you happen to be in the area, just make sure to have your fishing license and dive flag if you go out. Also, sunblock is a must, just because you’re in the water doesn’t mean you won’t roast out there.
