# St. Joe scallops



## speedcop (Aug 28, 2016)

we hit st. joe Saturday morning out of presnells, we were in the water by 1100am and thru with our limit by 230pm. The scallops were scattered and you may go 10 min. without finding one but they are there and all of our 160 were "decent" size. Didn't have to throw any back for under size. In fact when we did our finale tally we had some left over to throw back. Wasn't crowded at all. Better hurry, ends sept 5.


----------



## Rabun (Aug 31, 2016)

i thought st. joe bay was closed to scallops this year due to last year's red tide.  am i mistaken or did they open it back up?  glad you got a mess of em.  i need to do that one year...sounds like a lot of fun.


----------



## bronco611 (Sep 2, 2016)

it was closed last thing I knew of,??????


----------



## doomtrpr_z71 (Sep 2, 2016)

St Joeis not closed, it just has a more limited season


----------



## speedcop (Sep 3, 2016)

st. joe is open from aug.22 to sept 5, limit is 40 scallops per person  per day. you still got time, hurry!


----------



## Rabun (Sep 9, 2016)

speedcop said:


> st. joe is open from aug.22 to sept 5, limit is 40 scallops per person  per day. you still got time, hurry!



well...missed that window.  I do hope to get down there the end of the month for a weekend snapper trip though.


----------



## speedcop (Sep 10, 2016)

you still got to the 25th of sept. everywhere else


----------



## Killer Kyle (Sep 12, 2016)

I was down at St. Joe, and Cape San Blas the second week of August. So get this....we had already planned our vacation before we found out the season had been shortened. So we couldn't collect any scallops, although we did look for them anyway. Funny thing is, we looked and looked and found ONE old scallop in all of our looking. Well, later in the week I heard someone ask a DNR guy about the shortened scallop season. He said that scallops had died or migrated to deeper water, and the "most shallow" scallops DNR divers could find were in 18' of water where most people can't get to them because of the depth. 
.....and there you go collecting your limit like it's a piece of cake. I wonder what the deal is. Most of the time we looked was when I was fishing the Bayside of St. Joseph State Park on the flats out there, and not Port St Joe itself.


----------



## jdgator (Sep 13, 2016)

Atlanta is sucking lots of fresh water out of the appalachicola river and injecting its waste water in return. It's killed the scallop and oyster fisheries down on the coast.


----------



## Mako22 (Sep 14, 2016)

jdgator said:


> Atlanta is sucking lots of fresh water out of the appalachicola river and injecting its waste water in return. It's killed the scallop and oyster fisheries down on the coast.



There is a valid argument that over harvest of the oysters is to blame.


----------



## MudDucker (Sep 14, 2016)

jdgator said:


> Atlanta is sucking lots of fresh water out of the appalachicola river and injecting its waste water in return. It's killed the scallop and oyster fisheries down on the coast.



Well, aren't we full of bull manure.  The oyster fishery was killed by over fishing ahead of the feared oil intrusion from the well blow out.  The oil never came and the oysters were devastated.  The scallops are not affected by the Apalachicola River.

I have hunted and fished that area for over 50 years, so what do I know.

You really should find a cure for your ignorance.


----------



## MudDucker (Sep 14, 2016)

Woodsman69 said:


> There is a valid argument that over harvest of the oysters is to blame.



When politics aren't involved the FWC admitted they allowed the rape of the oysters and that it will probably take 5 or more years for a good comeback.


----------



## doomtrpr_z71 (Sep 14, 2016)

UGA gave the FWC 10 recommendations to improve the Apalachicola bay area and did the exact opposite, the bay is actually receiving too much fresh water.


----------



## jdgator (Sep 14, 2016)

MudDucker said:


> Well, aren't we full of bull manure.  The oyster fishery was killed by over fishing ahead of the feared oil intrusion from the well blow out.  The oil never came and the oysters were devastated.  The scallops are not affected by the Apalachicola River.
> 
> I have hunted and fished that area for over 50 years, so what do I know.
> 
> You really should find a cure for your ignorance.



I grew up in the area so I would know. The increase in upstream chemicals and salinity has changed. It's not only killed oysters but also grass beds too. google scholar will clear it up for you, if your reading comprehension is up to the job.


----------



## MudDucker (Sep 15, 2016)

jdgator said:


> I grew up in the area so I would know. The increase in upstream chemicals and salinity has changed. It's not only killed oysters but also grass beds too. google scholar will clear it up for you, if your reading comprehension is up to the job.



You are posting fairy tales.  I have been hunting and fishing that area for over 50 years.  I've spoken to several biologist and not one says anything close to what you are saying.  

St. Joe Bay gets virtually zero water from the App.  Even when there are floods, the sat pictures show the water from Indian Pass not making it to the end of St. Joseph Peninsula.

The grass is actually thicker than normal at the App.  I should know, I've run through it hunting and fishing for years and had more fowls early this year than most.  

The only issue the biologist point to and then they have no data to back it up is there might be some impact due to an increase in salinity at times of lower flow.  There were more times of lower flow before the dams.  When I ask about the increased in fresh water intrusion before the dams from floods, they all shrug their shoulder.  The dams have slowed that intrusion in most years.  Too much fresh is just as bad as too little.

When I ask why alligator harbor oysters, which have very little fresh water infusion, are doing so well, they shrug.

App oysters were booming before the rape ahead of the feared oil spill entering the bay.

Next time I am in Atlanta, I will drink more water and increase output!


----------



## jdgator (Sep 15, 2016)

You are aware Florida has a supreme court case against Georgia over this? They argue specifically that the pollution and overconsumption is killing the oyster fishery. Obviously the case has merit or it wouldn't make it this far. This article pretty much sums it up.  Anyway we'll have to agree to disagree on it.


----------



## MudDucker (Sep 15, 2016)

jdgator said:


> You are aware Florida has a supreme court case against Georgia over this? They argue specifically that the pollution and overconsumption is killing the oyster fishery. Obviously the case has merit or it wouldn't make it this far. This article pretty much sums it up.  Anyway we'll have to agree to disagree on it.



I sure do know about the lawsuit.  It hasn't been proven in court nor has Florida won.  You can sue over anything.  And no, disputes between states automatically go that far, so there has been no decision on the merits.  Appeals Court ruled in favor of Georgia and made COE back down on its release program.

I love the App region.  I have owned property in the area for last ten years.  This isn't a a GA vs FL thing to me.


----------



## doomtrpr_z71 (Sep 15, 2016)

The lawsuit now is over the city of Atlanta and it's use of lanier for drinking water which was not it's constructed purpose, Florida has no argument for the flow due to minimum flow rates being exceeded since 1990 which is when the lawsuit started. The oysters are the fault of the oystermen, not the flow of water. The bay actually has been knocked out of whack with the FWCs management of Tate's CensoredCensoredCensoredCensored. All this has done has made a bunch of lawyers a ton of money. The other argument is what would the condition of the basin been in if lanier was not there to retain water during the severe drought in 2011. Regardless, the lawsuits are going nowhere, the expert witnesses haven't even went before the special master and it has been pending since 2013.


----------



## MudDucker (Sep 16, 2016)

Somehow a thread about St. Joe Bay got turned into an argument about the Chattahoochee River basin.

The scallops in St. Joe Bay were decimated by a red tide.  No biologist or anyone else that I know has blamed the red tide on the processed urine flow from Atlanta.


----------



## jdgator (Sep 16, 2016)

Because when all else fails, Floridians prefer to blame GA.


----------



## speedcop (Sep 30, 2016)

Killer Kyle said:


> I was down at St. Joe, and Cape San Blas the second week of August. So get this....we had already planned our vacation before we found out the season had been shortened. So we couldn't collect any scallops, although we did look for them anyway. Funny thing is, we looked and looked and found ONE old scallop in all of our looking. Well, later in the week I heard someone ask a DNR guy about the shortened scallop season. He said that scallops had died or migrated to deeper water, and the "most shallow" scallops DNR divers could find were in 18' of water where most people can't get to them because of the depth.
> .....and there you go collecting your limit like it's a piece of cake. I wonder what the deal is. Most of the time we looked was when I was fishing the Bayside of St. Joseph State Park on the flats out there, and not Port St Joe itself.



contact me next yrs season and i'll be glad to tell you where we get ours


----------



## Dog Hunter (Feb 7, 2017)

When does season start this year?


----------

