St. Marks scallops 7/9

[Boudreux]

Put in at the public landing right down from shields (st marks state park?) about 9 am. Parking lot and the side of the road was already full of trucks/trailers. Boat traffic was heavy going out and when we got on the scalloping grounds there were 100+ boats. Luckily we went to a spot past the crowd. Me and the wife were in our boat and some of our friends had 5 people in thier boat. We had our 2 person limit within 45 mins and our friends had thier 10 gallon limit in just over an hour. We literally didn't have to get more than 20 yards from the boat. It was easy pickings, no problem picking up 4 or 5 on a dive...and could've been more if I could hold my breath for more than 10 seconds! This was my wife's first time going and the 1st time I've been in years. The wife loves it. Forgot what a pain it was to clean them though, took us hours to clean 4 gallons! Trick and tips to cleaning would be helpful. The water was pretty choppy coming in (230 ish) and it made for some nice wake jumping with all the boats going in and out but we didn't have to Wait to get our boat out which was nice. Anyway that's my fishing report, good luck and don't catch them all!

[Flint River Pirate]

Thanks for the report! Glad you guys had fun


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[DEMON]

If you're not using a shop vac to suck the guts off, give it a try. You'll lose a few but it is faster.

[Hit-n-Miss]

Put in at the public landing right down from shields (st marks state park?) about 9 am. Parking lot and the side of the road was already full of trucks/trailers. Boat traffic was heavy going out and when we got on the scalloping grounds there were 100+ boats. Luckily we went to a spot past the crowd. Me and the wife were in our boat and some of our friends had 5 people in thier boat. We had our 2 person limit within 45 mins and our friends had thier 10 gallon limit in just over an hour. We literally didn't have to get more than 20 yards from the boat. It was easy pickings, no problem picking up 4 or 5 on a dive...and could've been more if I could hold my breath for more than 10 seconds! This was my wife's first time going and the 1st time I've been in years. The wife loves it. Forgot what a pain it was to clean them though, took us hours to clean 4 gallons! Trick and tips to cleaning would be helpful. The water was pretty choppy coming in (230 ish) and it made for some nice wake jumping with all the boats going in and out but we didn't have to Wait to get our boat out which was nice. Anyway that's my fishing report, good luck and don't catch them all!

. We always clean them on the boat. Way easier. . This is our set up for cleaning. Use a sharpened spoon to separate top shell from the meat of an open scallop. If right handed hold the scallop dark side up in your left hand hinge away and tilted down to give you a good angle. If left handed light side up in your right hand. This puts the meat toward your dominate hand. Makes it easier. If closed hold the scallop as described above. Put the front of the shell down on the cleaning board and give the hinge a solid whack with the back of the spoon. This will collapse the front of the shell allowing you to get the spoon in. I can clean a closed up scallop in ten seconds. With the top shell off use the spoon to loosen the viscera then pinch if between your spoon and thumb and pull away from the meat. Then scoop out the meat. 4 people can clean ten gallons in an hour easy. Hope this helps. And good report.


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[Boudreux]

Put in at the public landing right down from shields (st marks state park?) about 9 am. Parking lot and the side of the road was already full of trucks/trailers. Boat traffic was heavy going out and when we got on the scalloping grounds there were 100+ boats. Luckily we went to a spot past the crowd. Me and the wife were in our boat and some of our friends had 5 people in thier boat. We had our 2 person limit within 45 mins and our friends had thier 10 gallon limit in just over an hour. We literally didn't have to get more than 20 yards from the boat. It was easy pickings, no problem picking up 4 or 5 on a dive...and could've been more if I could hold my breath for more than 10 seconds! This was my wife's first time going and the 1st time I've been in years. The wife loves it. Forgot what a pain it was to clean them though, took us hours to clean 4 gallons! Trick and tips to cleaning would be helpful. The water was pretty choppy coming in (230 ish) and it made for some nice wake jumping with all the boats going in and out but we didn't have to Wait to get our boat out which was nice. Anyway that's my fishing report, good luck and don't catch them all!

. We always clean them on the boat. Way easier. . This is our set up for cleaning. Use a sharpened spoon to separate top shell from the meat of an open scallop. If right handed hold the scallop dark side up in your left hand hinge away and tilted down to give you a good angle. If left handed light side up in your right hand. This puts the meat toward your dominate hand. Makes it easier. If closed hold the scallop as described above. Put the front of the shell down on the cleaning board and give the hinge a solid whack with the back of the spoon. This will collapse the front of the shell allowing you to get the spoon in. I can clean a closed up scallop in ten seconds. With the top shell off use the spoon to loosen the viscera then pinch if between your spoon and thumb and pull away from the meat. Then scoop out the meat. 4 people can clean ten gallons in an hour easy. Hope this helps. And good report.


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We are definitely cleaning them on the boat next time. We made a dang mess on our front porch and every fly within a mile is swarming our garbage can haha. I tried the shop vac method and it worked decent. I am going to try the spoon method next time it's seems to be a lot easier. Next time I go I will take another person so we can have an assembly line going to clean them.

[lonesouth]

grapefruit spoons work really well also