On Saturday I hopped in the car with a few friends for a scalloping trip to St. Joseph’s Bay.
St. Joseph’s is located just south of Port St. Joe, imagine that, and sprawls across a land mass that the locals have dubbed, the forgotten coast. This area of Florida can be thought of as a place where time as stood still – well at least since 1983. Past the sparse homes and beach side jute joints are some of the most precious and beautiful ecosystems in this part of Florida. Home to a great state park, St. Joseph’s State Park, the place is just begging for an adventure.
On the way to our drop off point, and our kayak rental, we needed to get a saltwater fishing license. I had no idea that picking up shells from the bottom of the bay was “fishing” but these are needed regardless, and i didn’t quite feel like breaking the law just right yet. Luckily there is an outdoor rigging store located in Port St. Joe, right next to the Piggly Wiggly where you can obtain a license – be sure to grab a net if you don’t have one.
For general supplies we needed: a net, snorkel, mask, water-shoes, bug spray, snacks that are cool to get wet, and a hell ton of water – we were a bit hungover and needed a lot of water (unfortunately we didn’t bring a lot). Just on a side note, I love a Piggly Wiggly. I love a Piggly Wiggly hot plate even more. After a quick shopping spree, downing a bottle of smart water, and a bite of pasta salad from the Pig’s deli counter, we were off.
We launched and rented our boats from Happily Ours, rental company. Basically a house with kayaks under it, a few chickens in the yard, and one donkey -so from the looks of it, a pretty cool place.
This my friends is where the bug spray comes into place. I bet you thought that sounded weird to bring bug spray when you are doing nothing but swimming around in water, but please be sure to spay yourself down prior to exiting your vehicle cause you will get eaten alive.
In the 10 minutes we spent getting our rigging ready and renting the kayaks a swarm of mosquitoes attacked us. They are ruthless and will suck every bit of soul and blood in your body. Not having any bug spray on me, I could only hope that the copious amout of booze I drank the night before was killing a few of them off as they sucked. So you get the drift – for the few minutes you are in and out of the water get some bug spray! After a quick enter / exit the boat lesson and an obsessive and slightly dumb safety orientation we were off.
So the best way to scallop is to float on top of the water and scan the area for our little bivalve friends, and when you see one scoop it up and put it in the net. I did a lot of floating and not much scooping. Although I did find a number of really cool things under the water I never found a scallop – or at least a live scallop.
Disappointed? Not really, i really didn’t want to have to deal with transporting the scallops back in a safe manner for cooking, and i didn’t want to have to clean the things. It was the last day in scallop season as well (runs from mid-summer to early September), so perhaps they were picked clean. I blame the sea urchins. I found tons of those guys and every time I did it had three or more scallop shells sucked clean on its back.
The bay is otherwise teeming with life. I saw numerous sea urchins (damn things), red fish, mullet, jack fish, starfish, coral or a sponge (i couldn’t tell but have inserted a photo for documentation), a few mystery creatures that i would rather not know about, a sea turtle (just its head for a moment but cool regardless), and a giant clamaaaamm (doing that in a B52’s rock lobster voice is the best.
So even though I didn’t catch anything we had a great time regardless. Much paddling was involved so be sure to do some stretches prior, and if you are slightly hungover take something to make your head stop swimming. Floating on top of constantly moving water is not good for the nausea. Floating on top of water is also not good for your back and neck. My sunburn is raging at this moment and even the tannest of friends fell host to the sun’s burning rays.
Until next time – I’m off to moisturize.