Steinhatchee scallop/fishing trip 15-17

[flatsbroke22]

Took a trip down to the Hatch this past weekend with the girlfriend and her daughter. This was there vaction together for the summer. Just the second scallop trip for my girfriend and the first for her daughter. Got in to town around 3:00 and got our things unloaded and checked into Fiddlers. We then launched the boat at Riverhaven with their lift. Headed out the river with thunder cloud approching but it looked like it was fading fast so I wasn't too worried. All the other scallopers thought different as they ALL were heading in when I was trying to get out. What a FIASCO! Had to turn around and head back to the river as all the boats and wind made for a very rough ride. Waited about 15-20 min. and headed back out to a almost slick flat sea. Most of the others stayed in and I was ok with that as I didn't want my new crew to be around a bunch of idiots. Stopped at a few places to get the girls used to the idea and get familar with what to look for and they caught on very quickly. Picked up our 6 galons in just a couple hours and hardly a boat in sight. That would be a different story Sat. It took us quiet a bit longer to get our limit Sat. from the amout of boat we had to maneuver through but we did manage. As I was diving down on a scallop I spotted an out line of what I thought at first to be a fish skeleton. It turned out that a flounder was laying camouflaged on top of the grass. It took a min to see his entire body and I was only a foot away. I stood up and hollered for a knife. Got the knife and went back down to see if I could some how jab him. Even though I never moved it still took a while to find him again. It was a miracle I evere saw him in the first place but I did manage to spear him with my fillet knife! A nice size 18"er.

With a two day limit of scaloops already gathered up we dicided to fish Sun. I knew the fishing was going to be difficult with all the boaters and hot weather but we gave it a shot anyhow. I figured my best bet would be to stay in close away from everyone and try for reds esp. since high tide was at 12:30. Got to my first spot and saw alot of commotion in the water. I figured it was a couple manatees playing around. They started swimming toward the boat and I was right about the manatee part but there was not just a couple but probably 10-15. They swam right under the boat a couple of times nearly rocking us out! Got a short video of it, hope it loads. Girlfried then caught a puppy red and I caught a 17" trout and a few shorts and that was about it for fishing. One thing I saw while fishing in a foot of water was more sharks and stingrays than I have ever seen. They were everywhere.

Anyway we had a great weekend and a delicous dinner when we got back home. Can't wait to get back out there. Here are a few pics.

[DixieReb]

Glad yall got out and found some. You might have to rig up a short gig for the flounders, there might be more of them out there. That's a good-looking meal yall have right there!

[Salty Gator]

Nice work, those scallops look pretty big

[SS-342]

Nothing could be better! Thanks for the story and report!

[Hit-n-Miss]

Awesome. Thanks for the report.


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[Big Bend Brian]

Nice report! Gotta love introducing a new person to an activity like that!!
Well done Captain.
Brian

[brotherinlaw]

We were there Sat as well.
Stayed away from the crowd and still managed our 4 gallons in less than 2 hrs.