What’s something you do every year that you look forward to? Every year my friends and I have a girl’s weekend and go scalloping in Crystal River. We’ve been going for about four years now! Here are the details on how to do scalloping the RIGHT way in Crystal River!
First things first! You MUST book with Captain Zac from Tried and True Outdoor Adventures! You can visit his website here, and don’t forget to tell him I sent you! We go with Captain Zac every year, and he is the best! One year we didn’t book early enough and had to go with another captain at another company, and he didn’t even come close. We learned our lesson that year!
It’s a great day on the water! Scalloping is fun because you get to snorkel around Crystal River all day, and when you see a scallop on the river floor, you just swim down, grab it, and put it in your mesh bag. It’s not something you really need skill, experience, or serious equipment for. It can be fun for everyone! Throughout the day, Zac will bring us around to different areas to look for scallops and lets us make the day whatever we want it to be. We can be in the water the whole time, on the boat; it’s up to us. We always bring a cooler with drinks, food, and water, and Zac also has a water cooler on board.
At the end of the day, we bring the boat in, and Captain Zac will clean our scallops for us right there so we can bring them home and cook. They can also be eaten right out of the shell! If you aren’t sure how to cook them, he had an awesome recommendation for grilling them on the half shell you’ll have to ask him about. You can also bring them to our favorite restaurant in town, Seafood Sellar, and they’ll clean and cook ‘em for you there too! (P.S.- Ask Zac to stop by the springhead on the way back in!)
Part of our yearly tradition is to have dinner at Seafood Cellar after our day of scalloping. We always order WAY too much food and share it among the four of us so we can basically eat some of everything. Jim, the owner, walks around doing magic tricks, too, and they are honestly really impressive LOL! The wait is always a minimum of an hour, but if you can snag a seat at the bar, they serve the full menu there, and it’s first come, first serve.
Honestly, this is SUCH a fun girl’s weekend for us, but it would be fun to do with family or friends or anything. The dates for scalloping season are July 1 through Sept. 24, so if you can’t make it this year, be sure to add it to your calendar for next!
