A unique website dedicated to fishing information from Florida's Northern Big Bend. This includes the area from the Econfina River west to the Apalachicola River
Where are all the reports? Lots of people have to have tried this early weekend. What I have gleaned so far from friends is thin amounts at Lanark and fair amount at Keaton. Who all went and what did you find? Were going somewhere on the 4th.
Just got home this afternoon. Plenty of scallops at Keaton, BIG Grassy. 10 gallon limit on Saturday with 2 first timers onboard took about 5 hrs. The wife and I took 4 gallon limits on Sunday and Monday. Trout were fairly cooperative north 4-5ft on pin fish under popping cork.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s (FWC) Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI) will not have finalized data on the 2014 scallop population counts until mid-July at the earliest. We're moving away from reporting the data in terms of average numbers for each location in favor of open and closed harvest area graphs that will depict long-term trends in the local scallop populations surveyed. This new format will better illustrate the seasonal fluctuations in scallop populations and will hopefully be more user-friendly for recreational harvesters. The Bay Scallop Season and Abundance Survey is located at http://myfwc.com/research/saltwater/mol ... ps/season/
Scallop and Survey questions can be addressed to BayScallops@MyFWC.com
The waters in the St. Marks and Steinhatchee areas are still stirred up so I'd recommend St. Joe Bay or Crystal River!
Everything I've heard is that you should be able to get a limit pretty quick just outside of the Big Grassy bird rack in about 7 feet of water. That's kind of a long trip for my little boat, so I don't have a first-hand report.
The gods do not deduct from man's allotted span the hours spent in fishing. ~Babylonian Proverb
We never scalloped in water deeper than 5' and did very well. During the morning low tide on Monday the scallops were almost too shallow. The water was a little cloudy in 7'.
I went to Lanark yesterday with a couple friends and their is very little scallops there or at least all the places we went to. We where their from about 10-3:30 and only got about 40. We tried various water depths with very little results.
I went to Lanark yesterday with a couple friends and their is very little scallops there or at least all the places we went to. We where their from about 10-3:30 and only got about 40. We tried various water depths with very little results.
Went to Hogens cove waded out what seemed to be two miles but probably closer to one and found a few (25)scallops. We were about 300 yards from the boats and the guys I talked to said their were tons out where they were. We got their late and it was high tide so we just couldn't get out their. Barefoot and no floatation makes it difficult to travel much past chin deep. I am going to get some flippers today and take some pvc pipe and build a float for a small styrafoam cooler. Water was clear and talked to a few guys who caught a nice red. A storm started to build and we had to get out just as the tide turned. If the weather clears heading to SGI today to see if the pompano are still their. If you are part of the trash that was at Hogens cove yesterday would it kill you to pickup your trash? We are all in this together. One lady (and I use that word loosely) pulled up looked out the window through out a Mc Donalds cup and drove off. I would support a shoot on site law for people like that. It was nasty trash everywhere.
Hiljun wrote:Went to Hogens cove waded out what seemed to be two miles but probably closer to one and found a few (25)scallops. We were about 300 yards from the boats and the guys I talked to said their were tons out where they were. We got their late and it was high tide so we just couldn't get out their. Barefoot and no floatation makes it difficult to travel much past chin deep. I am going to get some flippers today and take some pvc pipe and build a float for a small styrafoam cooler. Water was clear and talked to a few guys who caught a nice red. A storm started to build and we had to get out just as the tide turned. If the weather clears heading to SGI today to see if the pompano are still their. If you are part of the trash that was at Hogens cove yesterday would it kill you to pickup your trash? We are all in this together. One lady (and I use that word loosely) pulled up looked out the window through out a Mc Donalds cup and drove off. I would support a shoot on site law for people like that. It was nasty trash everywhere.
Put a large washtub in a truck tire innertube, set your cooler in that. We used to flounder gig this way, with the cooler and battery in the tub. Dont forget your dive flag and tether the tube to you with a long rope. A small anchor would not be a bad idea either. That way you can swim untethered.