Scalloping in Hagen’s Cove, North Florida
This year I was really looking forward to renting a boat with a couple of friends, drinking some beers, and catching some scallops for dinner, but because of COVID, gathering with enough friends to split the cost of a boat from a marina wasn’t practical or safe, so I thought my plans were a bust.
That is, until a friend told me about Hagen’s Cove near Steinhatchee, Florida. Steinhatchee is known for being a great location for scalloping, so I was already excited. Hagen’s Cove is a little park with a boat ramp and grassy water that only gets about chest high even up to a mile off the shore. You could easily wade out into the water and snorkel to look for scallops, but my partner and I did one better and loaded up the kayaks to go explore.
Success! There was a bit of a learning curve to it and we didn’t have snorkels, so after 4-5 hours of paddling and swimming around, we only found about 20 scallops to show for it, but I had such a blast searching for the little guys among the grass. Scalloping doesn’t involve any particular skills besides patience and having a good eye. We basically found that the most efficient way of searching for them was to paddle far out and then let the tide push us back inwards as we swam, attached to the kayak, and scoured the ground for scallops shells, pausing to snatch any that we came across.
Literally all we needed to do this was our kayaks, rope, masks, and a cooler with ice. I highly suggest bringing snorkels as my neck will probably never be the same after constantly having to come up for air the whole day. We brought nets that ended up not being needed at all. The scallops are pretty fast (and hilarious) if they start trying to swim away from you by shooting a jet out of water, but most of the ones we found were nestled onto the sea grass and could be picked just like flowers. You wouldn’t have even known they were alive until we brought them out of the water and if you don’t keep a tight grip, they’ll spit water in your face and try to escape!
We also saw a few horseshoe crabs and while searching some of the sea grass, I found a teeny tiny starfish the size of my fingertip. It was the first time my partner and I had been free diving together and it was so fun. After a long day of swimming, paddling, and being in the sun we were absolutely exhausted for the drive back home, but we managed to stay up long enough to clean the salt off all our things and he cooked us up a quick, delicious pasta for the scallops.
I shucked scallops for the first time which was really gross but kind of fun once you get the hang of it. It’s also kind of a bummer to see how much of the scallop goes to waste when you’re cleaning them. I would not make a good hunter because as much fun as it was to find them, I felt pretty guilty and sorry for the little guys.
If you’re a Florida resident, you need to get the Saltwater Fishing License to collect scallops which is about $20 for one year with taxes and service fees. No one asked us for it, but if you do get stopped by a police officer and you don’t have a license, you can face a big fine and possibly have to surrender your catch! The limit as of 2020 is 2 gallons of whole scallops per person per day. We did not catch anywhere even close to that, but now that we’ve got the hang of it, I bet we could next time!
Have you ever been scalloping? What are your favorite scallop dishes?
