July 4th Scalloping

We decided to hit the water early Saturday morning hoping to get a little fishing in before the sun got up and the mass of boats scalloping took over. Well, so much for this idea. We were met at the entrance to the ramp by Citrus County deputies routing all boats to one ramp because they had the Ft. Island Beach ramp shut down due to a bike race. After waiting in line for almost a half hour, we loaded the boat in and headed for the flats. It was an extremely strong outgoing tide in the morning which prohibited us from getting too far in the backcountry like I had hoped. I was able to catch one decent trout on a Smoky Shad MinnowZ. We then headed out to the scalloping "circus" off St. Martin's Key and did pretty well for just two people scalloping. Moved around a couple of times and found decent size scallops in both places. I wish I had taken a picture of the horizon around us but there must have been at least 500 boats in our view to the north and south. After scalloping, we decided to call it a day and head in to beat the crowds and the good ole Florida heat. All and all, it was a very nice day but I think I will wait to go fishing again until this holiday weekend traffic is gone.