scallops

pjones · Post by **pjones** » June 23rd, 2003, 11:48 am

this is my first time posting to any board, so forgive me of my goofups as i learn my way around.

there have been a few post over the last month about scalloping. has anyone been looking lately? i normally go out of keaton but am looking for places to scallop around st marks, panacea, and carabelle.

any help would be appreciated.

Post by **Tom Keels** » June 23rd, 2003, 12:39 pm

The water is tea colored from St. Marks east to the Aucilla, so I haven't seen any.

Post by **wevans** » June 24th, 2003, 9:10 am

Like Tom said, the visability is just to poor right now to tell

And if someone mentions sewage or turds floatin, just ignore it

We have been shootin the bull pretty thick about the Scallops

pjones · Post by **pjones** » June 24th, 2003, 10:14 am

hopefully i can fish some of the time and also maybe scallop the weekend of the 4th. we have rented a house at shellpoint for the 3rd through the 6th. if anyone wants to share their expertise of the area or possibly even join me for an afternoon on the flats, i am open to suggestions.

also, i am curious as to where the rock garden is. i have seen it mentioned on 2 different sites, but cannot find it on my charts

thanks

Post by **Tom Keels** » June 24th, 2003, 10:23 am

Go to the area charts page and get the numbers for Grey mare rock, Black rock, and the stoney bayou entrance. Plot them and draw a traingle between the points. The area in the triangle is the rock garden. Its about 3 miles east of the St. Marks lighthouse.

Post by **wevans** » June 24th, 2003, 10:44 am

I did this up real quick, maybe it will help also

pjones · Post by **pjones** » June 24th, 2003, 10:50 am

how hard is it to get across to there from shellpoint. lots of rocks or pretty even from shellpoint to st marks?

Post by **wevans** » June 24th, 2003, 11:35 am

I don't run over that way much, but when I do, I run out of Shell Point about 3 to 4 miles and then cut across

You don't have to worry about rocks or Oyster bars untill you get close to the St. Marks river

but there are some mighty shallow sand bars inbetween and some are out 2 miles or better

Try and make the run the first time on a high "there bouts" tide and watch the depth finder. If you draw less than 2 foot of draft you will have no worries on a high tide "I draw less than 6 inches when runing and have hit bottom on a low tide"

Tom can tell ya more about once ya get to the river headed East

Post by **tin can** » June 24th, 2003, 4:02 pm

There is a sand bar a little east of the Shell Point channel you have to watch out for. After that, you can run all the way to the river without much problem. Wevans is correct. There are several spoil bars on the west side of the river channel. There are only a couple of places you can get through them. One is almost due west of the light house. When you get within a quarter mile of the river, in close, slow down. If you try to make the crossing further out, there is a very big sand bar you will run aground on out west of the bird rack. If you run aground on that one you will have to wait for a high tide (how do I know that).

If you'll e-mail me a couple of days before you come, maybe I can fit a few hours of fishing into my busy schedule, and show you where to run.

Good luck!

Post by **Fish Masterson** » June 24th, 2003, 7:55 pm

Heck, I may need to tag along to. I lost about an hour this weekend on that big sand bar.

Post by **tin can** » June 24th, 2003, 9:07 pm

Come on, Fish. I can show ya how to run aground real good.