I was ten years old when my father, Ronald D. Mahan, created Fish Camp - a diving, skiing, sailing and fishing camp in the Florida Keys for boys, 9-16 years old. I recall when he decided to advertise at the Miami Boat Show. He had not yet operated the camp, but had created a brochure. We had a boat, I believe it was an 18-foot Woodsun.
He was unable to get into the boat show, so he talked the owner of a nearby hotel into allowing him to launch the boat, fully rigged with rods and reels and outriggers, into the hotel swimming pool.
He rented two rooms - one for himself and the other for food and drinks. He then called the Miami Herald and shared his dream of Fish Camp with them. The Herald printed a story on the front section of an inner portion of the the newspaper, maybe the community section or something.
Anyway, this attracted quite a crowd and he began signing up children to attend the summer camp and used the money to lease a hotel in Tavernier.
I attended Fish Camp as a camper, counselor and finally co-director in the late 1970s before it closed.
I'm hoping this blog will find its way around the world and allow others who experienced Fish Camp to share their stories.
I'm a potter in Seagrove, NC, now and I met another potter from Greensboro, NC, the other day. He said something about having a home in Tavernier, Florida, and I told him my father had a boys camp down there.
He then told me his son went to Fish Camp.
I'm sure the camp started in 1968, and I'm guessing about the year it closed. If anyone remembers differently, let me know, and please share some stories.
Thanks,
Michael Mahan
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
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The Beginning!
ReplyDeleteMichael, thanks for doing this. It will be more than just folks telling good old stories. Fish Camp was extremely formative for a lot of people's lives, and at the same time, incapable of description or explanation to those who didn't experience it. Hence these bonds, I guess.
Maybe it was a 12 year long, continuing and extraordinary wild-adventure party, with your dad as the Big Kahuna -- he was: The Mighty Hunter.
So sometimes I want to think about it, and sometimes touch it once in a while, without thinking that I'm wallowing in yesteryear. It conjurs up the memory of a healthy feeling; of being totally centered, in touch with the wonders of nature and the sea and your own life, of being the most alive you have ever been, of a time when the barometer for your daily activities was . . . a barometer. So when I sometimes feel a little out of balance, I let my mind go there, to that feeling. It's a good thing.
After I finally finished Georgia Tech (a painful "six year plan")and had been commissioned as a young Navy ensign, I wanted to visit with your dad on one of my commutes up and down the east coast. I pulled off of I-85 one spring day in 1982 in Charlotte and he bought me lunch. He was selling air conditioners again for Trane, I think, and had a model "home of the future" with a lot of automated energy saving gadgets.
He spent the time updating me with detailed news of all that he was proud of ... Robbie, Randy, Sherry, and you, with a little Fish Camp story or two, as well as stories about playing football for both Navy as well as Coach Bobby Dodd at Georgia Tech.
So Ron's version of "The Beginning" was an original concept about buying an old surplus Navy ship, or maybe a decommissioned mine-sweeper. Originaly, Camp would be cruising around exotic islands on this "mother ship" - the "Mighty Hunter" - and adventuring forth in small boats. Am I making this up or imagining this?
Chad,
ReplyDeleteYou've probably got it right, there. I seem to recall that concept being discussed somewhere. I was only 10 when camp started.
He got to play out that original idea, though, in a way, when we took those trips to Fort Jefferson. He was aboard the "Mighty Hunter" and the smaller boats were following along.
I remember going back to the Keys during one of those trips. I was sick as a dog. It probably had something to do with the turtle stew I had the night before. At any rate, I was on the flying bridge of the larger vessel and my dad was below tossing bags of lunch to the smaller vessels as they came alongside.
I leaned over the railing from above and added my own lunch to the mix.
He didn't appreciate that, but I didn't give a damn, as I was sick as a dog.
I spent years after camp not talking about the experience to people. I think it was just too good to be true. They wouldn't understand.
My children loved it when we'd go over and visit Randy and he'd start telling stories. He loved to tell the one about almost being decapitated by the "Cannon Ball" - a woodsun that rear-ended him in the backcountry one day after he ran out of gas and ducked down to change the tank real quick. I think the counselor in the other boat was busy changing his tank as well or something like that.
He yelled, "Hit the deck" and had to push the other boat off his boat when it slammed into his motor and careened to the side.
So many stories....
Thanks for posting.
Hi Michael and Chad,
ReplyDeleteI agree, wonderful idea!! Fish camp was for me both magical and unforgettable. People like you two, Al Cook, Randy M, Tommy Horn, Dave Hibbard, Chris Eckart, Brad Neat, Capt Gay, Gammy, Mrs Lee, and of course Captn Mahan. I sent you a long email about some of my experiences and will follow it up later.
But , excellent idea!!
Andy Bean
I was a camper at Fish Camp for two weeks back in the 70's ('75?). I saw the ad in Boys Life magazine and my mom sent me down on a plane from Boston. I was the only "Yankee" in camp and the other campers let me know it chanting "The South will rise again!". The counselors took pity on me and let me join in their card games - sorry I don't remember names, but they were terrific guys. As I remember it we would fish in the morning and dive in the afternoon, vice-versa the next day. We ate dolphin, caught dolphin, and eagerly awaited the pick up truck from Pfleuger Taxidermy to come get fish. There were some beautiful fish in the back of that truck! I failed my diving certification because I couldn't "ditch and don" in the alloted time... I couln't care less though, as I had come to fish. I remember a basket of rotton rays hanging off the end of the dock that was used as bait for trot lines of sorts for sharks, and Lemon shark jaws propped open with sticks and drying on the roof. The fishing was a blast- we saw flying fish and hammerheads and a huge Manta Ray leap from the water. It was a great experience in so many ways. Thanks for the memories! Al Stansell
ReplyDeleteHi Captain Mahan,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Jane and I'm with Dwellable.
I was looking for blog posts about Tavernier to share on our site and I came across your post...If you're open to it, shoot me an email at jane(at)dwellable(dot)com.
Hope to hear from you :)
Jane
I don't remember it that fondly. I too saw the ad in Boys Life and got the brochure. The brochure made it sound like paradise. The truth is I believe most of the camp was sold off by then and only one row of cabins and pier was left. They also made us camp on "the island" which was rat and mosquito infested. On the island the "counselors" would throw us into the low tide when the jelly fish were coming in. They also made us touch the nose of a shark that they had tied to the pier they named Sydney before we could come out of the water. I'm surprised the place never got sued for false advertising. I remember a lot of kids writing home and begging their parents to get them the hell out of there. I was among them.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry Pete, that your experience was a bad one.
DeleteTook me time to read all the comments, but I really enjoyed the article. It proved to be Very helpful to me and I am sure to all the commenters here! It’s always nice when you can not only be informed, but also entertained! drone fishing central
ReplyDeleteI attended Fishcamp approximately 81 82. Best guess maybe earlier lifelong memory wish it was another one for my children
ReplyDeleteI attended fish camp in the late 70s for 2 weeks it was one of the best times of my life. I remember eating mai mai almost every day, we drank what they called bug juice . We had a soup they called jewfish chowder
ReplyDeleteI grew up in Southwest Miami and I remember that a friend was going to go to Fish Camp and someone was coming to give his family a presentation in their home. My parents arranged for a presentation in our home- a slide show as I recall. I did two weeks down in Tavernier and they were great times, although there were some rough patches. One was - sure go ahead and take the sunfish sailboat out- myself and fellow camper could not figure out how to turn it around to go back so we got out and pushed it back. Another rough patch was when the counselors arranged for a fight between me and another camper . Him and I met ahead of the fight and agreed to just make it a show- ooops silly me- we came out and he decked me- life lesson #2 learned. Fond memories were driving the boats, ( I have pictures somewhere), fishing and I caught a dolphin and had it sent to Plueger for mounting. I thought Adam Adams of the gum maker, flew done with his father to attend camp but that may be a bit fuzzy. I now live in the Carolina’s where I like to fish and have great memories of Fish Camp!!
ReplyDeleteI went to fish camp from 72- 76 it was probably the most fun I had all year during those times I'm now and have been a Backcountry fishing Guide for almost 25 years and I live a 1/4 mile from the camp. I move to the Keys in 1984.
ReplyDeleteMy name is Ezra Sultan. I went to fish camp in the summers of 1971 one and 1972 for two months each summer. It was a fabulous place to go for camp (The best). You had to be 11 years old in order to be able to go scuba diving.
ReplyDeleteSo my father changed my birthday by a year that first summer. I was 10 although far as the camp was concerned I was eleven. In order to go scuba diving , you had to be able to carry your own tank to the dock from the dive shed. I found this very challenging at 10 years old, But made my way to the dock with the tank for our first Scuba dive which was at Hens and Chickens. As we got to the bottom a school of Approximately 300 plus Great Barracudas swam by, Which was Spectacular and special. By the end of that first summer we were all seasoned divers and my favorite reef was Molasses reef. You could choose whole day or half days of scuba diving, fishing or water skiing. Those 2 summers of fishing were some of the most spectacular weed lines I ever remember seeing and i've been fishing my whole life all over the world. Miles long and extremely wide and full of dolphin. We would catch so many dolphin by mid-day that our counselor would cut our lines and throw all the bait in the water. You could hardly move around the boat because of the amount of dolphin on the deck in layers. We would have the best fish fry in the big dining room in the evening all together and it was delicious. We would wade on the flats in the back country and try to catch little sharks to cut their jaws out for souvenirs. One time we took a trip to Flamingo across the Bay from Tavernier. I love going through Tavernier creek and staying on Tavernier island. We would stay a couple of weeks in the cabins and sleep under mosquito nets, Thank goodness! There was a lot to explore on that island especially when on the hunt for firewood. There were a lot of mosquitoes and scorpions on this island. We would sit around the bomb fire and have our dinners. One night the counselors pulled a prank by checking everyone's hair and saying that they had lice and would walk us down the long narrow boardwalk to the dock and make us get in the water to dunk our heads underwater to get rid of the lice. I was too smart for this though and told them that even if I did have lice, which I said I didn't, dunking my head under water would not get rid of them. They still tried to get me to go into water, but I didn't. I was scared to go in that water at night anyhow. They got such a kick out of that prank! Water skating was always a blast whether around Tavernier island or on the smooth waters by the bayside. The camp was very educational.
and lots of fun, although some kids did not take a liking to it. In my second summer there our counselor taught us the song "Lean on me". We would sing it over and over and to this day whenever I hear that song.I think of my fond memories fish camp. Lean on Me" is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter Bill Withers. It was released in April 1972 as the first single from his second album, Still Bill. It was a number one single on both the soul and Billboard Hot 100 charts, the latter chart for three weeks in July 1972. Hearing that song today made me look up fish camp and found this Blog. I want to thank your father for the fond memories that I cherish from my time at his fish camp and all that it taught me and those two summers. There was a sign on offense at the entrance.
Something about all the fishermen who passed this point, blah, blah,blah. Do you know what it was? I hope you're still around to reply.
Fondly, Ezra
Some of my greatest experiences out on the water This fishing and scuba diving water sports camp was really nothing short of incredible and all aspects of nature part of just growing up South Florida on the beautiful waters of the Florida keys back then the coral fish life everything was lush and very plentiful.... Sadly today it is all gone due to warmth of the water killing the reef and all of its inhabitants including a variety of Peligic species
ReplyDelete