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Capt Rick

Florida Bay Scallop Harvest - Fun & Delicious!

By Larry Larsen

Florida ScallopWe boarded our charter boat moored at MacRae's Marina on the Homosassa River early one September morning with great expectations of only fun. After years of fishing and enjoying the Florida outdoors, our first scalloping experience ever, with Captain Rick Burns of Reel Burns Charters (www .homosassafishingguide.com), was very enjoyable. Captain Burns' knowledge of the most productive late season scalloping areas around Crystal River was definitely important in us finding enough in four hours.

The day was partly cloudy, which helped the scallops on the bottom to avoid detection by us snorkelers. A bright sun would have helped us more quickly identify them for capture. We stopped in a shallow area of the b Scallopingay that had an abundance of seagrass growing over a sandy bottom. Our party of four jumped in and slowly drifted with the current in four feet of water as we began our search for the elusive delicacy.

Bay scallops are easily camouflaged among the grassy shallows, but in a short time with instruction from the Captain, you may start to see the neon-blue eyes or open shells near the bottom between clumps of two-foot high grass. Whenever the scallop saw us, they would close the shells quickly and try to move away. Fortunately, they're not that fast and we were able to quickly grab them and place them in our individual mesh bag. It soon became like a search for gold. Whenever we found one, scallop fever would hit again and our search efforts would be renewed with even more vigor!  After a couple of hours our group had accumulated only 2 gallons of whole scallops, or about a quarter of our legal limit.

T Neon Leon'shere is a daily limit of two gallons of whole scallops (including shell) per person or one pint of cleaned scallop meat per person. You might discover enough for your limit at just one or two locations … or it might take every bit of searching effort to find the two gallons like it did for us late in the season!

"Scalloping" is one of those activities that anyone of any age can enjoy and participate in. For some reason, we never got around to doing it earlier in life. The Florida Bay Scallop season normally begins July 1 and ends in mid September each year. Florida Bay Scallops are only found along Florida's West Coast from St. Joseph Bay, the Steinhatchee area of the Big Bend, and the Citrus County areas near the Crystal and Homosassa Rivers.

All you need to gather a great meal that you won't soon forget is a snorkel, mask, and fins and a licensed fishing guide or charter captain who knows the best areas in which to search. A fishing license is required for those that want to boat out and chase scallop on their own.

Scallop appetizerOnce on the boat, the scallops are typically placed on ice, which helps their muscle relax and makes them easier to pry open (clean). An oyster knife or even a spoon can be used to open the shells and cut the white muscle free, discarding the soft "intestinal" parts which most people don't eat. Captain Burns' first mate began cleaning our catch as we boated back towards shore.

At their suggestion, we grabbed our cleaned catch drove to Neon Leon's (www .neonleonszydecosteakhouse.com), a local restaurant which didn't seem to mind that we were all in wet swimsuits. There, our scallops were prepared three ways: blackened, grilled and fried. Fortunately, our group had captured enough Scallops for a very filling appetizer. The restaurant itself has an interesting history, having been opened by Leon Wilkeson, guitarist for the Lynyrd Skynyrd band. Now it's managed by Leon's nephew. 

For more information on this outstanding resource and fun recreational activity, Citrus County Visitors and Convention Bureau (www.visitcitrus.com) has a great brochure with legal requirements, collecting, equipment, care and handling info, recipes and a great map of all county marinas and boat ramps offering access to the bountiful scallop grounds found few other places in the world. They can tell you about 37 scallop excursion tour operators that operate in the county. Contact them at 1-800-587-6667 or email info@visitcitrus.com.

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