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

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With sun-kissed skin and wobbly legs, we ended the day with about 60 shells on ice in our boat’s cooler – easily within the two-gallon, per-person limit set by the state, but enough to feed two to three of us.

Back at Plantation on Crystal River, a sprawling inn with old Southern charm and its own marina, Captain Rick tried to teach me how to clean the slippery bivalves by using a spoon to tap the shells apart and scoop out the slimy innards to get to the round, white meat inside. He kindly took over after watching me struggle with a few, then handed off two bags of the glistening, thumb-sized scallops to the resort’s kitchen staff.

That evening, our catch re-appeared table-side in the resort’s restaurant, where chef Eric Smith had sautéed them into two, steamy entrees: scallops scampi, with fresh garlic and chopped Florida tomatoes on linguine, and scallops-and-grits, with andouille sausage, peppers, onions, baby spinach and “pot likker” gravy over stone-ground cheese grits.

The newly-renovated, 232-acre resort is a genteel, oak-shaded gem in the middle of rural Citrus County, where chain hotels and restaurants dominate. Originally built in 1962, it’s now owned by a Massachusetts-based real estate company that also operates historic hotels in Martha’s Vineyard and Cape Cod. The two-story inn’s 196 rooms sport refined linens and flat-screen TVs. Warm wood floors in the common areas open to a large pool, outdoor bar, a sandy volleyball court and a croquet course on the lawn overlooking Kings Bay.

Two-day scalloping packages available until the end of the harvesting season include a “Scalloping 101” bag with instructions, a net and water bottles, plus a “cook your catch” dinner for one night. Although there’s a cheaper rate if you bring your own boat, most guests charter a captain through the resort’s marina. The half-day scalloping excursions occur at 7 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. The experience takes about six hours, with one hour spent idling and motoring out to the Gulf and another hour back.

Fortunately, this is one of the most beautiful areas of the state so there are plenty of distractions during the watery commute by barrier islands: jumping mullet, old cypress trees dripping with Spanish moss, water skiers and commercial crabbers, osprey, roseate spoonbills, endangered wood storks, the occasional manatee or bald eagle. Looming in the distance like an ominous Oz is the Crystal River Power Plant, with its plumes of smoke from burning fossil fuel.

Almost as surprising as the power plant anomaly was our discovery that, unlike other shellfish, free-living scallops can move around using jet propulsion. And they can see you coming. Scallops have up to 100 simple eyes lining the edges of their mantles. When you look down on them in the water, these eyes shine like an eerie, bright-blue string of beads between the two shells. The panic-stricken mollusks actually start to jiggle when you reach down to pluck them from grassy beds and sandy patches on the sea floor.

If you’re not careful, they can pinch your fingers — as one of my daughters discovered, then laughed off after the initial shock. From his watchful perch above us in the boat, Captain Rick smiled, knowing the last bite was ours.

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