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I know its starting this weekend in Keaton-Steinhatchee area. It seems earlier than usual. Has anyone noticed any? My last couple trips down we were fishing deep and I didn't think to look.

Did you go? We did not do well at Keaton.


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This early in the season they will be small and less plentiful. I have no idea what the State is doing opening the season before they need to. But then again when it comes to our fishery management, the "powers that be" appear clueless anyway.

rocket wrote:This early in the season they will be small and less plentiful. I have no idea what the State is doing opening the season before they need to. But then again when it comes to our fishery management, the "powers that be" appear clueless anyway.

Economic impact to the 2016 hurricane impact area.

Hit-n-Miss wrote:Did you go? We did not do well at Keaton.


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They did better further south around pepperfish. I got in some but they were almost to dallus creek and not very thick, had to put in some swim time for a good mess unlike last couple years. I'm sure they'll move in better around the first. I hope anyway.

Yes I did go. We fished a little that morning. got on the water around 7:30. had two people that had never fished before. Had very slow day. We decided around 12 to go look for scallops. I am new to scalloping and I was told to just go where there is a lot of boats. So we went down south and past the channel and anchored up where a few boats were. We did not do very well, not even enough to feed one person. We were at Keaton

Heath wrote:Yes I did go. We fished a little that morning. got on the water around 7:30. had two people that had never fished before. Had very slow day. We decided around 12 to go look for scallops. I am new to scalloping and I was told to just go where there is a lot of boats. So we went down south and past the channel and anchored up where a few boats were. We did not do very well, not even enough to feed one person. We were at Keaton

. Turns out the scallops were two miles further south than we went. It will get better. Keep trying.


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rocket wrote:This early in the season they will be small and less plentiful. I have no idea what the State is doing opening the season before they need to. But then again when it comes to our fishery management, the "powers that be" appear clueless anyway.

I was told by FWC that the change was requested by the businesses in Steinhatchee based on them losing business when school starts back up at the end of the season. They wanted the time moved up to capture more sales. I lodged my disappointment with that to a number of the FWC staff. The general response was that it was what the town wanted and they would try it for a year. I have not seen any scallop counts and I sounds like it was a bad idea so far. I wonder how many people changed their plans and spend their money early because of this.

relicshunter wrote:

rocket wrote:This early in the season they will be small and less plentiful. I have no idea what the State is doing opening the season before they need to. But then again when it comes to our fishery management, the "powers that be" appear clueless anyway.

I was told by FWC that the change was requested by the businesses in Steinhatchee based on them losing business when school starts back up at the end of the season. They wanted the time moved up to capture more sales. I lodged my disappointment with that to a number of the FWC staff. The general response was that it was what the town wanted and they would try it for a year. I have not seen any scallop counts and I sounds like it was a bad idea so far. I wonder how many people changed their plans and spend their money early because of this.

I am going out of Steinhatchee this weekend. I heard opening weekend Steinhatchee saw approximately 700 boats over the weekend. I am sure the early opener has helped with the small town economy. Not sure how great the scalloping has been though.

relicshunter wrote:

rocket wrote:This early in the season they will be small and less plentiful. I have no idea what the State is doing opening the season before they need to. But then again when it comes to our fishery management, the "powers that be" appear clueless anyway.

I was told by FWC that the change was requested by the businesses in Steinhatchee based on them losing business when school starts back up at the end of the season. They wanted the time moved up to capture more sales. I lodged my disappointment with that to a number of the FWC staff. The general response was that it was what the town wanted and they would try it for a year. I have not seen any scallop counts and I sounds like it was a bad idea so far. I wonder how many people changed their plans and spend their money early because of this.

There are plenty of scallops in Steinhatchee right now. I don't know at all about how opening the season early will impact scallop populations but they are there right now.

Less of a chance to breed before harvest. And as the numbers drop to lower then it would have been in mid July normally breeding is less successful. When there are lots around as a mass, better fertilzation happens. Drop the numbers earlier, we'll see what it does to the scallop population just so steinhatchee can get more business earlier.

relicshunter wrote:Less of a chance to breed before harvest. And as the numbers drop to lower then it would have been in mid July normally breeding is less successful. When there are lots around as a mass, better fertilzation happens. Drop the numbers earlier, we'll see what it does to the scallop population just so steinhatchee can get more business earlier.

Bay scallops breed in the fall when the water temps start to lower.

The biologist at the meeting said they breed over a wide range of late summer early fall. Also there has to be reasonable numbers left when they breed because of how they reproduce, just scattering it all in the water and hoping the eggs meet the sperm. We will see if this decision was a good one or it crashes the population in this area. I went out yesterday to get some hoping they are at least reasonable sized. I threw a couple dozen back that were the size of a quarter, and there were many more 1/2 dollar size.