Scalloping on St. Joseph’s Bay or Lanark Beach is one of the benefits to living or vacationing in Franklin County, if you enjoy all the fruits of the sea. Fresh fish, shrimp and oysters are available most anytime, either those you’ve caught yourself or those you’ve purchased. One of our not-so-secret-anymore treasures has to be from July 1st, till early September, when the bay scallop season is open. Many different factors make these scallops special -there is no commercial harvest allowed – the only way to enjoy bay scallops is to head out and find them yourself. There are only a few places in our area where you can find scallops because they do NOT like fresh water so you have to make a trip to St. Joseph’s Bay or walk out into the water at Lanark Beach.
What you need when scalloping:
- Florida fishing license – and yes, they check!
- Snorkel, mask, fins and a mesh bag for collecting
- special scallop cleaning knife (not too pointy a tip) or a thin spoon
- Curiosity of all things living in the shallow waters…
- Healthy appetite for fresh scallops w/ a sundried tomato/basil cream/caper sauce over fresh pasta! or just plain, with olive oil.
My favorite way to catch scallops (yes, Virginia, they can swim, and they are much faster than you think!) is to either paddle a kayak or drive a boat out into St. Joe Bay, hop out with mask and snorkel on, and slowly go through the eel grass. If you see one scallop, there’s a good chance that you could reach about 4 more in a 3’ radius. You have to move slowly and be on the lookout for their almost totally camouflaged shells but once you’re trained in what to look for, you’ll see more and more! Sometimes they are hanging out on the edges of the sandy holes, sometimes they are in the sandy holes, and sometimes you just have to resort to hunting through the grass. Anyone that enjoyed an Easter egg hunt as a child will LOVE scalloping. Cleaning scallops is a learned art and usually one or two people in your party will be gifted – find them quickly and offer them anything they want in exchange for cleaning.
Always ask the locals and see where they’ve been finding scallops because they do migrate around the bay – even as often as the tide changes.
The resulting dinner is well worth the work!