This is my post for #freewriters 2640 prompt first established in hosted by
In my and my husband's fishing days, only 4 fish houses were left on our riverfront here in Sebastian Florida. From the north going south, you first come to Judah's fish house, next is Archie Smiths, Mays Marina. and Sembler's fish house. Now they are all gone.
Archie Smith's Fish House was first established in 1932. When Coolidge Judah first moved here with his wife and four children. Archie Smith let Coolidge and his family live in the building on his dock, they stayed in the room with the window.
It has sat like this for 20 years
Many years later Coolidge and his brother Clarence opened Judahs Fish house. Many years later Coolidge and his wife divorced and years after that, Coolidge married Archie Smith's daughter Viola, but she lived and ran Archie Smiths and Coolidge lived 2 miles to the north at Judahs fish house. My husband joked they had the perfect marriage.
They lived separately until the double hurricanes destroyed Archie Smiths, and it was closed. Then, Viola and all of her fishermen went to Judahs. The little building Coolidge lived in survived the two hurricanes. But the Fish house lost the ice machines, the dock, and part of the house, and like all of the fish houses, it had no insurance. The County offered them one million dollars how could they say no?
copied from https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=470685339418269&set=gm.3467767943526074&idorvanity=3099603853675820
This photo I copied shows the fish houses in my area, It was a thriving business. It is sad what man has done to a healthy river back then, to what we have now. Being a fisherman does not mean you want to catch the last fish, it means you want to keep a good stock, laws were also passed to ensure a good stock of fish.
Most people when asked about a gillnet, would say gillnets catch everything. That is not true, a fisherman does not want a bunch of small fish so they pick the mesh size of the net to match the size of the fish they want to catch. We also had laws, like how many pounds were allowed in a year, and when it was reached that type of fish was closed, there were closed seasons on other fish. With all of the regulations we had and thirty years ago our nets were banned I have to ask, where are the fish? They can no longer blame us.