Scalloping in Port St. Joe, Florida

Hey Everyone,

We are back in Florida and camping at St. Joseph Peninsula State Park. Terry's boys are arriving today but we came a few days ago to scope out the place and figure out the plan for when the boys are here. We are used to Florida rain, but didn't know we were going to have rain amounts equivalent to some Tropical Storms and Hurricanes. Like some of our other forum members we were stuck in the rainy weather for several days. We left our RV back home so we only had a tent. We put a tarp up when we arrived here last Wednesday and we were high and dry and enjoyed the sound of the rain while we did everything else under the tarp. We were sure pleased with ourselves especially at how smart we were to pick up a huge tarp and some rope on our way here. That was Wednesday night. Thursday we got up and went around the peninsula in the truck and tried to scout things out but it was a deluge so we didn't do much. Thursday evening we went back to camp to cook dinner and had Oysters on the grill (yum!). The whole time it was pouring down rain and had been raining for days even before we arrived. We were just getting ready for bed when we noticed the water around our camp site had risen considerably in a short time frame. And it rose more and more and more and more.... LOL. So much for the tarp and us being master campers!. In the middle of the downpour we had to relocate our tent to slightly higher ground and tuff it out for the night. The next day our whole site was between ankle and calf deep in water. We stayed in a hotel Friday night and then went back to the State Park on Saturday and moved our campsite to a new site that was less flooded. By the way, they told us our original site would not flood, but get enough rain and anything will flood!

Well now everything is dried out and we did get a chance to go snorkeling for scallops and what fun that was. Crappie Girl 1, we have been thinking of you and want to go on a trip with you next year when your knee is all healed!!

We don't have cell service or wifi at our camping site so gotta run but will check in when we can. Can't wait to get back home and go speck fishing (soon baby soon!).

Attachment 130618

Will post more pictures when we get home or at least when we get somewhere that has faster internet.

Adios. Happy Fishing!

Ginny

Nice, glad ya'll are still enjoying yourselves.
We went tent camping in the keys once & it rained & rained. Tent /tarp set-up kept us dry in the tent but we woke up the next
morning on a floating air bed:yikes

A couple more pictures... :-)

Scallops in process of being cleaned.

Attachment 130633

Terry with the day's catch.
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Ginny

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Nice!!!! Love that campground!but it does get some serious thunderstormsSeen tents blown up in the tops of them pine trees, so yall got lucky! Yall go watch the surf shark guys at night yet?

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Ginny, thanks. Now I know what a scallop is. You sure are good at posting. Keep up the good work, like living it with y'all!

How do you cook em , My son went scalloping somewhere on the Gulf side , gave me some . RR

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Originally Posted by RiceRocket

How do you cook em , My son went scalloping somewhere on the Gulf side , gave me some . RR

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spray with WD40 and roll them in gunpowder...then throw them over an open flame grill......

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fiishergurl

Hey Everyone,

We are back in Florida and camping at St. Joseph Peninsula State Park. Terry's boys are arriving today but we came a few days ago to scope out the place and figure out the plan for when the boys are here. We are used to Florida rain, but didn't know we were going to have rain amounts equivalent to some Tropical Storms and Hurricanes. Like some of our other forum members we were stuck in the rainy weather for several days. We left our RV back home so we only had a tent. We put a tarp up when we arrived here last Wednesday and we were high and dry and enjoyed the sound of the rain while we did everything else under the tarp. We were sure pleased with ourselves especially at how smart we were to pick up a huge tarp and some rope on our way here. That was Wednesday night. Thursday we got up and went around the peninsula in the truck and tried to scout things out but it was a deluge so we didn't do much. Thursday evening we went back to camp to cook dinner and had Oysters on the grill (yum!). The whole time it was pouring down rain and had been raining for days even before we arrived. We were just getting ready for bed when we noticed the water around our camp site had risen considerably in a short time frame. And it rose more and more and more and more.... LOL. So much for the tarp and us being master campers!. In the middle of the downpour we had to relocate our tent to slightly higher ground and tuff it out for the night. The next day our whole site was between ankle and calf deep in water. We stayed in a hotel Friday night and then went back to the State Park on Saturday and moved our campsite to a new site that was less flooded. By the way, they told us our original site would not flood, but get enough rain and anything will flood!

Well now everything is dried out and we did get a chance to go snorkeling for scallops and what fun that was. Crappie Girl 1, we have been thinking of you and want to go on a trip with you next year when your knee is all healed!!

We don't have cell service or wifi at our camping site so gotta run but will check in when we can. Can't wait to get back home and go speck fishing (soon baby soon!).

Attachment 130618

Will post more pictures when we get home or at least when we get somewhere that has faster internet.

Adios. Happy Fishing!

Ginny

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I slightly remember going Scalloping once about 11 months ago. Still in Therapy lol

Note to Ginny: Don't go scalloping with CG1...:Rofl

Quote:

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Originally Posted by huntinslabs

Nice!!!! Love that campground!but it does get some serious thunderstormsSeen tents blown up in the tops of them pine trees, so yall got lucky! Yall go watch the surf shark guys at night yet?

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Mike,

We love it here!! So many nice people and lots of fun scalloping, snorkeling, fishing etc. As always you know the great parks!! We finally went to the beach last night and saw a couple guys shark fishing. Will check it out again tonight. I did see a baby two foot long shark swim by when we were scalloping. I was on the boat at the time so it was cool. Not sure how I woukd have felt if I saw him in the water. We are scalloping today and going flats fishing tomorrow to try for some flounder or anything.. lol.

Ginny

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RiceRocket

How do you cook em , My son went scalloping somewhere on the Gulf side , gave me some . RR

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Terry's sons got here yesterday. We didnt know if they would like scallops. We fried some in shrimp fry batter (rolled them in wet batter then dry batter) and they went nuts over them. We also sauteed some in garlic butter and olive oil. They liked the fried ones better but both ways were really good. We only fried them or sauteed them for 3 minutes.

Ginny

Ginny

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Originally Posted by Speckanator

spray with WD40 and roll them in gunpowder...then throw them over an open flame grill......

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You need to get out in your shiny new boat more... you are a little more ornery than usual... lol

Ginny

LOL Speckanator me thinks I 'll try something a little different RR

Try drifting bull minnows in intercoastal waterway near the metal wall on the rightside. Use zara spook bone silver for trout near Blacks Island.

I feel so stupid. Call me gewber and send me back to fresh water! But I never knew where Scallops came from. So these are the little critters. Thanks for sharing gurl.

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/attac...ps-2-small.jpg

Love me some scallops. This will be the 1st year in a long time that I won't be going. We usually do it out of Keaton Beach. Looks like ya'll are having a good time. I like mine broiled, and there is a recipe for using citrus juices and some other spices and stuff that you can add scallops to (or other raw fish meat) and the citrus actually cooks so to speak the meat. Anyway I can't remember the name for it, but it was EXCELLENT.

Slab these are bay scallops, not the big ones you get at most seafood restaurants. These are smaller and sweet tasting. They are only found in the Gulf of Mexico waters. You need to get some of these and see the difference. Night and day.

Bounce a Gulp shrimp in natural, new penny, or white for everything that swims in the Gulf.

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Originally Posted by TnT

Note to Ginny: Don't go scalloping with CG1...:Rofl

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And that's the Truth

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Originally Posted by Slab

I feel so stupid. Call me gewber and send me back to fresh water! But I never knew where Scallops came from. So these are the little critters. Thanks for sharing gurl.

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/attac...ps-2-small.jpg

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What did you think all these years, that a STORK dropped them off at PUBLIX?

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Terry and his two sons with about 7 1/2 gallons of scallops. After 2 hours of cleaning there was about 3 pints of scallop meat.

Slab, we didnt know either. There are only 5 counties in Florida that have scallops left due to loss of seagrass. These bay scallops are not available for commercial fishing, only recreational and only for about two months a year.

Its so much fun to snorkel for them. .. sort of like an easter egg hunt under water and you also see lots of other marine life.

Ginny

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Originally Posted by Shine Runner

Love me some scallops. This will be the 1st year in a long time that I won't be going. We usually do it out of Keaton Beach. Looks like ya'll are having a good time. I like mine broiled, and there is a recipe for using citrus juices and some other spices and stuff that you can add scallops to (or other raw fish meat) and the citrus actually cooks so to speak the meat. Anyway I can't remember the name for it, but it was EXCELLENT.

Slab these are bay scallops, not the big ones you get at most seafood restaurants. These are smaller and sweet tasting. They are only found in the Gulf of Mexico waters. You need to get some of these and see the difference. Night and day.

Bounce a Gulp shrimp in natural, new penny, or white for everything that swims in the Gulf.

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Thanks for the fishing tip. We are still here for a few more days and planning to give scalloping a break and focus on fishing and crabbing for a while. The boys went flounder gigging in the bay with one of our camping neighbors and they gigged two flounders. They just waded out in calf deep or less water. It was around 2 am when they went so the old folks (Terry and I) were in bed snoring already... lop.

That recipe is Ceviche. Ww love it and never thought about making it with scallops so thanks for the tip!

Ginny

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Originally Posted by Crappiegirl1

What did you think all these years, that a STORK dropped them off at PUBLIX?

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Well, I thought maybe it was a fish they fried up in shrimp sized pieces, or something like that. Never knew for sure.

And Shine Runner, do tell more: Bounce a Gulp shrimp in natural, new penny, or white for everything that swims in the Gulf.

Video feom toutube of scalloping in port st joe
http://youtu.be/sEkQ3VOY9E4
We saw more marine life... sea urchins star fish, sand dollars, baby shark, bait fish, blue crabs, sea turtle, manta rays,

Video of how to clean scallops with a shop vac... much quicker than doing it by hand.
Cleaning Scallops with a Shop Vac - YouTube

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Slab

Well, I thought maybe it was a fish they fried up in shrimp sized pieces, or something like that. Never knew for sure.

And Shine Runner, do tell more: Bounce a Gulp shrimp in natural, new penny, or white for everything that swims in the Gulf.

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I think they do sometimes make fake scallops out of skate or shark or something.

Ginny

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Slab

Well, I thought maybe it was a fish they fried up in shrimp sized pieces, or something like that. Never knew for sure.

And Shine Runner, do tell more: Bounce a Gulp shrimp in natural, new penny, or white for everything that swims in the Gulf.

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I learned a long time ago while trying keep two young boys busy catching that Gulp Saltwater Shrimp are the best money spent. We fish them on 1/4 to 1/2 oz Assassin red or white heads with the heavy wide gap hook. Toss them as far as you can with the wind and drift direction. Bounce them back trying to stay just above the grass. Also can put them 2-4' below a Cajun Thunder cork rig and pop'm or drift them behind the boat when there is a decent wind and chop on the water. We have caught trout, reds, flounder, spanish mackerel, ladyfish, sharks, cobia, bluefish, dropped them over deep water wrecks for snapper, probably some others I have forgotten,and even pinfish that can be used for bait too. Tough baits that will hold up to several toothy fish. Just about any bait store around the coast will have them.

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Originally Posted by Fiishergurl

That recipe is Ceviche. Ww love it and never thought about making it with scallops so thanks for the tip!

Ginny

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Yep that's it. Good stuff!