Written by: Emily Joswiak • September 25, 2020• Florida

Top Types of Shellfish To Catch in Florida During the Fall

Fishing enthusiasts can’t live on large-mouth bass alone. As summer melts into autumn, it’s a good chance to shake things up and switch to shellfish instead. Put away your rod and reel and prep instead for the top types of shellfish to catch in Florida during the fall.

Crab

You can catch blue crabs year-round, but you’ll have better luck in the warmer months. So gear up for stone crab season, which begins October 15 and runs through May 1, and head toward the southernmost part of the state. Adventurous recreational crabbers use scuba or snorkel gear to look for holes in rocks and reefs with broken shells outside them; they’re likely stone crab burrows. You can use a piece of coat hanger to gently encourage them to come out, when you can grab them. Wear thick gloves, because when stone crabs pinch you, they feel like pliers. Just remove one claw so that the crab can regrow it within a year while using the other claw to defend itself. You can take home a one-gallon bucketful per day, or two per boat, whichever is less.

Spiny Lobster

When it comes to Florida crustaceans, spiny lobster is the star. There’s more than one way to catch them, but the best place to find them is in the Keys on the Gulf side. During the day, you snorkel and scuba dive with small nets, using a “tickle” stick to prompt them to leave their hiding spots. But if you’d rather stay dry, you’ll definitely prefer bully-netting at night instead. The lobsters head to shallow waters at night to find food, so you can wait for them with a shallow drafting boat, some light, and a bully net.

Pink Shrimp

These are the largest, most common shrimp to catch in Florida, and they’re worth the effort. Pink shrimp are one of the top types of shellfish to catch in Florida in fall because they taste amazing: tender and sweet, without the ammonia flavor you can get with brown and white shrimp. Catching them is a lot of fun—no tickle stick is involved, but you do get to attract the shrimp by dropping a weighted light into the water and then scooping them up with a net. Shrimping at night is easier—the shrimp are on the move, swimming to shallower water. Pay attention to the changing tides, because shrimping is much more fruitful during outgoing tides, which pull the shrimp out of their hiding places.

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