Posted on Saturday, 08.18.12

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Florida Gulf Coast

Scalloping: An easy, edible adventure

If you go

Getting there: Crystal River is in Citrus County, about 80 miles north of Tampa. From South Florida, it’s about a five-hour drive. Take Florida’s Turnpike north and continue as it turns into I-75 north after Orlando/Winter Garden exits. Take exit 329 and go west on State Road 44 toward Inverness/Wildwood. Continue following SR-44 as it turns slightly right. Turn left on U.S. 19 South/North Suncoast Boulevard, which runs through the heart of Crystal River.

SCALLOPING INFO

Season: This year, the bay scallop recreational harvest season runs through Sept. 24.

License: Scalloping requires a recreational saltwater license. An annual license for Floridians is $17 and can be purchased from Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, 888-347-4356, www.floridaconservation.org. If you charter a scalloping excursion, the boat captain’s license covers you.

Limits: State law limits each harvester to two gallons of whole scallops in the shell or one pint of scallop meat per person per day. No more than 10 gallons whole or a half-gallon meat per vessel is allowed.

Equipment: Mask, fins, snorkel, sunscreen, a mesh bag for gathering the harvest and a cooler of ice for storing the scallops. A dive flag must be visible when snorkelers are in the water.

SCALLOPING CHARTERS

Excursions last four to six hours.

Plantation at Crystal River Adventure Center, 9301 W. Fort Island Trail, Crystal River, 352-795-5797, www.crystalriverdivers.com. Scalloping charters are $300 for up to four people; $50 per additional person. Also offers manatee, sightseeing, scuba and snorkeling tours; rents jon boats, pontoons, kayaks and canoes.

Osprey Guide Services, 6115 Riverside Dr., Yankeetown, 352-400-0133, www.ospreyguides.com. Captain Rick LeFiles offers private scalloping charters, $50 per person; minimum four people, maximum six. Also offers fishing charters and eco tours.

Family Adventure Charters, Pete’s Pier & Marina, 1 SW First Pl., Crystal River, 352-445-5489, http://familyadventurecharters.com. Captain Tim Green offers scalloping excursions, $55 per person; up to six people. Also guides night shark fishing, manatee and dolphin tours, sunset cruises and sightseeing tours.

Runn’n Shallow Guide Service, 5566 S. Island Dr., Homosassa, 352-628-7397, http://homosassacharters.com. Captain Leo Riddle offers scalloping and fishing charters. $55 per person, up to six people. (Larger groups can be accommodated.)

WHERE TO STAY

Plantation on Crystal River, 9301 W. Fort Island Trail, Crystal River, 352-795-5797, www.PlantationonCrystalRiver.com. The newly-renovated inn-resort is the nicest property on Kings Bay, with 196 rooms and 12 golf villas. There’s a pool, Aveda spa, an 18-hole golf course, bar, restaurant and marina, plus seawall docking for guests with boats. Florida resident rate through Sept. 30 is $99 per night Sunday-Thursday and $129 per night Friday-Saturday; it includes a $25 nightly resort credit. Scalloping packages, which include a two-night stay, a welcome bag and a “cook your catch” dinner one night, start at $199 per person for those with their own boats and $250 per person for those who charter a captain on Sunday-Thursday; the rate goes up to $150 and $300 per person Friday-Saturday.

Port Hotel & Marina, 1610 SE Paradise Cir., Crystal River, 352-795-3111, www.porthotelandmarina.com. Old Florida relic on Kings Bay with dated rooms, small pool, dive center and marina, great views and on-site restaurant and bar. Its claim to fame is that Elvis slept here when he was filming the 1962 musical “Follow That Dream.” Standard room starts at $74 per night.

Quality Inn, 4486 N. Suncoast Blvd., Crystal River, 352-563-1500. Budget option on main highway within driving distance of water and marinas. Standard room starts at $80 a night.

Homosassa Riverside Resort, 5297 S. Cherokee Way, Homosassa, 352-628-2474, www.riversideresorts.com. More of a waterside motel than a resort, this rustic and rowdy property has docks for boaters, a small pool and very basic rooms; popular with locals and heavily booked on weekends. Standard rooms start at $85 per night.

WHERE TO EAT

West 82 Bar & Grill, Plantation on Crystal River’s on-site restaurant, 9301 W. Fort Island Trail, Crystal River, 352-795-4211, www.PlantationonCrystalRiver.com. One of the best restaurants in town, with Gulf-inspired seafood, such as pan-seared grouper with citrus slaw, mahi mahi ceviche and shrimp-n-grits with andouille sausage and peppers; also have steak, lamb and ribs. The kitchen will cook scallops you bring in for $11.95 if they are clean (an additional $5 a gallon if they have to clean them). Entrees $15-$26.

Riverside Crab House, 5297 S. Cherokee Way, Homosassa, 352-628-2474, www.riversideresorts.com/RiversideCrabHouse.html. Part of the Riverside Resort, this rustic wood building serves up fresh blue crabs caught locally and other seafood (will cook your catch); better known for its floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Homosassa River and the tiny “Monkey Island,” inhabited by spider and squirrel monkeys. Live music most nights in adjoining Monkey Bar. Entrees $10-$29.50.

Neon Leon’s Zydeco Steakhouse, 10350 W. Yulee Dr., Homosassa, 352-621-3663, http://neonleonszydecosteakhouse.com. Owned by the family of Leon Wilkeson, the bass guitarist for Lynyrd Skynyrd who died in 2001, the roadside joint features catfish, gator, grouper, hush puppies, fried okra, gumbo and other Cajun dishes, including a delicious jambalaya. Live Zydeco music Wednesday-Sunday. Reservations recommended. Entrees $8.69-$20.99.

Cody’s Original Roadhouse, 305 SE U.S. 19 North, Crystal River, 352-795-7223, www2.codysoriginalroadhouse.com. North Florida chain with burgers, wings, steaks, ribs and fish. Known for its buckets of roasted peanuts, with shell throwing on the floor encouraged. Entrees $7.89-$22.98.

OTHER ATTRACTIONS

Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park, 4150 S. Suncoast Blvd., Homosassa, 352-628-5343, www.floridastateparks.org/homosassasprings. View manatees year-round from underwater observatory; there’s also a small zoo, with black bears, bobcats, deer, alligators and river otters. Choose between a boat or tram to get to the park. Admission $13 adults, $5 ages 6-12.

The Shoppes of Heritage Village, 657 N. Citrus Ave., Crystal River, 352-564-1400, www.theshoppesofheritagevillage.com. Collection of gift shops, eateries, wine and tea bars in repurposed, cracker cottages in historic downtown shaded by oaks and magnolia trees.

Singing River Tour, departs from Angler’s Resort, 12189 S. Williams St., Dunnellon, 352-804-1573, www.singingrivertours.com. Boat captain and musician Jon Semmes guides eco tours on a 40-foot pontoon boat, with history, nature and education talk, guitar strumming and singing along the way through clear, spring-fed Rainbow River and dark, swamp-fed Withlacoochee River. $15 per person for two-hour tour.

Weeki Wachee Springs State Park, 6131 Commercial Way, Weeki Wachee, Spring Hill, 352-592-5656, http://weekiwachee.com. About 25 miles from Homosassa, one of Florida’s oldest roadside attractions features daily mermaid shows viewed from a theater submerged in the spring’s basin. There’s also a riverboat cruise, animal shows and an adjacent water park. Admission $13 adults, $8 ages 6-12, free for 5 and under.

INFORMATION

Citrus County Visitors & Convention Bureau, 800-587-6667, www.visitcitrus.com

River Cam: View King’s Bay in real time at www.visitcitrus.com/LiveRiverCam

By Jodi Mailander Farrell

Special to The Miami Herald

For city folks, Miamians have it pretty easy if they want to experience the thrill of hunting and gathering.

We have pick-em fields of strawberries in the Redland or tomatoes in Homestead. There’s mahi mahi just offshore, and snapper and snook in our mangroves. There are spiny lobsters, now in season, hiding among the rocks of Biscayne Bay.

But there is a marine delicacy just out of our reach that is worth a road trip, and we have one month left to reap its harvest: bay scallops.

To get to those fan-shaped shells hiding their mild, sweet meat inside, cross over to the west coast of Florida and head north. You don’t have to drive all the way to Steinhatchee, the remote, panhandle-meets-peninsula village synonymous with scalloping. There’s a closer, lesser-known option just north of Tampa. The coastal communities of Crystal River and Homosassa are better known as winter havens for manatees, but they’re enjoying a bountiful scallop season this summer — and they’re only a five-hour drive from Miami.

Scalloping is one of the easier sea adventures perfect for families. It requires only a snorkel, mask, fins, basic swimming skills and a boat. A state fishing license is required, too, but if you charter an excursion out of one of the multiple marinas or hotels that offer them in this area, you’re covered under the captain’s license.

Not to be confused with the larger and meatier sea scallop, bay scallops are dime-sized and super-sweet. Baked, broiled, blackened, fried, sautéed or citrus-scorched into ceviche, Florida’s bay scallops are culinary treats made all the more delicious by the fact that you have to catch them yourself to enjoy them. The commercial harvest of bay scallops has been closed in state waters since 1994.

The recreational scallop harvest season, which opened July 1, normally closes Sept. 11, but this year the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission extended it through Sept. 24. The commission closely monitors the state’s fragile scallop population in the Gulf to prevent over-harvesting because the tiny mollusks are at risk from declining seagrass habitats and other threats. The shellfish require just the right balance of clean, high-salinity water with low sediment — which also happens to be ideal conditions for spotting them.

Paddling around in clear water only three- to six-feet deep in the spring-fed Crystal Bay near Gomez Rocks, my 12-year-old was the first to spy one of the gray mollusks nestled not-so-discreetly in a bed of sea grass. “It’s like hunting for Easter eggs,” our guide, Captain Rick LeFiles, had told us.

“I see one,” my daughter shouted before turning upside down, her flippers frantically kicking in excitement. She surfaced triumphantly, waving the shell above her head.

Over the next two hours, the four of us settled into a contented search, disrupted only by the sound of our breathing in our ears and the occasional, competitive nudge — “How many do you have?” — as we compared the bounty in our netted bags. We pulled up anchor once to putter to another nearby spot when the pickings grew slim. More than 100 other boats were within eyesight, but far enough away that we didn’t feel crowded. Other than schools of mullet, bleached coral and a startling encounter with a stingray (they love scallops, too), scallops were the only sea life we spotted the entire afternoon.

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