Take Our Trip

August is right in the middle of scalloping season in Florida so we headed down for a long weekend to fish, scallop and search for shells.

Day 1 (Thursday)

We took an evening flight down to Tampa so we didn’t have to take another day off work, arriving in Tampa around 7pm. We rented a car for the weekend because we planned on exploring up the coast to Crystal River.

We stayed at the Wyndham Grand Clearwater . We had a beautiful balcony view of the beach where we had amazing sunset views every night.

Day 2 (Friday)

Friday we got up bright and early to make the hour and fifteen minute drive up to Crystal River where we met our guide for the day, Zac of Tried and True Outdoor Adventures. We did a full day private scalloping and fishing charter (it was $750 before tip) so he was super flexible with the schedule. After about a 20 minute ride we arrived at the scalloping location where he provided fins, masks and snorkel bags and gave us the rundown on how to scallop.

I’ve been scalloping before so I was really excited to try to beat my numbers from last time. The location he took us to was amazing, the water was 2-3 feet deep so you could see easily. You snorkel around, keeping an eye as the sea grasses move around and you’ll spot scallops either lying on the bottom or swimming around. Once you see them you can just reach down and grab them and add them to your bag!

The weather was beautiful and we ended up scalloping for about 3 hours. We found about 20 scallops between the two of us and decided to head out to do some inshore fishing.

We got onto some fish almost immediately, and caught all sorts of varieties: grunt, catfish, pinfish, pigfish, and porgy.

I was reeling in one that was particularly strong and when it got closer we realized it was a bonnethead shark! It was so cool to reel in a bonus shark.

He took us to a spot to try for redfish and Spencer caught a nice one on his first cast. A pod of dolphins showed up which was so cool to see but you don’t want them sticking around because they’ll ruin your fishing so luckily they moved right along. I caught a redfish with 30 spots which was crazy to see! Our guide said he’s only seen one other redfish with more spots in the whole time he’s been fishing. We took a quick pic and sent him back into the ocean.

At the end of the day we headed back to the dock and Zac cleaned all our fish and scallops for us. He did an awesome job and was full of great knowledge and interesting stories. We can’t wait to go back out with him again!

Upon his recommendation, we took some of our fresh from the ocean redfish over to Seafood Seller’s for lunch. If you bring in your catch they’ll cook it for you and you can choose from a variety of cooking styles and sides. It was the perfect way to wrap up our fishing day!

Day 3 (Saturday)

On Saturday we wanted to just relax so we took a leisurely trip up to Honeymoon Island in the convertible. We stopped on the way at Glaz’d for coffee and donuts. Their donuts were really good and they had canned iced coffees which was fun!

Honeymoon Island was busy on a sunny Saturday morning but we walked the beach looking for shells (we found a lot of really nice small ones) and did some floating around in the clear blue water. Once we started getting hot we decided to pack it up and head back to explore the amenities at our hotel.

We hit the pool first, which had a fun DJ and they had towels and beach chair covers for everyone. A staff member walked around with popcorn in the afternoon and then in the evening they were handing out popsicles which was fun!

We grabbed some pina coladas at the pool bar and relaxed for a while and then we walked across the street to the Wyndham’s beach area. They had free chairs and umbrellas for guests so it was nice not to have to bring or worry about carrying anything the whole time you were there.

Once the sun went down, we headed out to dinner at Frenchy’s. It was only a 5 minute walk from the hotel and the night scene was really fun. A lot of the restaurants had live music out on their patios and people were hanging out on the beach. The food was amazing (we had a seafood only policy all weekend) and their drinks were so fun. They had several banana options- my personal favorite flavor- and a key lime colada that tasted like dessert.

Day 4 (Sunday)

We purposely booked an early flight, which put us back home at noon. I love getting home early on Sundays because then you can still have most of the day to get ready for the week. This trip was the perfect blend of action and relaxation and a super easy weekend trip!