The Displays. The Photos. Tee Shirt COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT SHARE WITH US!

The Displays The items in and around the Fish Camp include: COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT For the past 35 years, Kimal has supported local businesses, schools, and organizations that are the heart of this area s culture and survival. We are sharing all Fish Camp photos and stories with the Sarasota Historical Society (at their request) to preserve the memory of Fish Camps. Fishing lures (dated 1930s) Fishing poles (dated 1930s) Pot bellied stove Grade School Desk Hurricane lantern Crank telephone Traps and nets Outboard Motors Glass bookcase/cabinet Cuckoo clock The Photos The photos were donated by: Dan Byrd, Jr Capt. Brian Martel Paul Jantzen Capt. Johnny Walker John Cross Marcel Kasten Kim Hart Kildahl Vicky and Jack Matthias Tee Shirt SHARE WITH US! Our mini museum is an ongoing project and we are asking anyone who can help us tell the story to please come forward! If you have stories to tell, pictures to share, old magazine or newspaper articles, any fish camp related tools or other items, please share them with us. Thank you. Contact: Al Bavry email: al@kimallumber.com or Lisa Ammerman tel# 941-786-3030 email: lisa@kimallumber.com Kimal Fish Camp Tee $15

Dedicated to: Jack & Vicky Matthias Jack passed away in April of 2015 and is survived by his wife of 51 years, Vicky, who remains dedicated to supporting our mini-museum in Jack s memory. JACK MATTHIAS was a 4th generation Sarasota native. Born in 1943, he was the grandson of Sarasota s first mayor, A.B. Edwards. Jack watched Sarasota grow into the busy city it is today. He developed a deep love for both the city and its waters. He had many interests (planes, jeeps, music) but it was fishing he was most passionate about. Skipper of a Mako 21, Eagle One, Jack became an ambassador of sorts from teaching others to fish and appreciate the sea life around them, to helping improve local reefs and prevent over-development that threatened to harm the bay s ecosystem. Jack worked for Florida Power and Light for 27 years. He helped make a reef of FPL insulators and received a plaque from the City for efforts. Jack first met Vicky when she was thirteen at the skating rink on Priceton Street, and went home convinced he would marry her someday. They have a son, Britt Matthias, who carries on his father s legacy as an angler and waterman. Jack s kindness, humor and charm touched everyone who knew him.

Al Bavry s Story When I arrived in Sarasota 56 years ago, it was still pretty much a "sleepy" fishing village at that time. It would soon change with the sale of "underwater" land that was reclaimed to form what is now Bird Key. In my view that was the biggest change that occurred after I arrived. At that time and for the next 25 or so years, we still retained a "Piece of old Florida" around the waterways. These were the Fish Camps and bait shops that eventually went away, along with a type of character and essence that has never come back. Speaking first hand, I remember with fond memories going to Demus Hart s Bait shop at the East end of the Ringling Bridge and getting "Hand-Pick" shrimp from Demus to go out and try to catch a Snook to eat...or anything I might catch. I got to know him fairly well and have some neat stories to tell. Also, "Pop" Jansen, was out on what we called "Radio" or "City" Island. My father-in-law and I would stop there, sometimes as late as 10:00 at night and get a Smoked Mullet to eat while we were fishing on either the New Pass or Ringling Bridge. And on new Pass Bridge (kind of attached to the south end of the bridge) was "Dan Byrd s." Everybody knew that we could get tackle and bait there, but the real feature was his little restaurant, where he prepared what had to be the best burgers in Sarasota on a grill not much bigger than a laptop. There was also the "Siesta Key" fish market. And if you went south down the road just a bit, to Vamo (or Osprey) there was a community of hard-working Mullet fisherman where I would stop at times to get some fresh mullet. So where am I going with this? As an owner of KIMAL Lumber, and with such fond memories of Sarasota s humble beginnings (especially those Fish Camps), I started to form a plan for our newest showroom at Kimal on Fruitville Road. What I had in mind was a very unique "Product Showroom," and since I m not a believer in showing products in very sterile "modules," I wanted to do something similar to what we did in our showroom in Nokomis, where we made the offices into "Store or House Fronts" (With a sales office inside!). That way we show products we sell...doors, windows, siding, etc., in "real world applications. For one of these showroom offices, I opted to make it look like an "Old Florida" bait, tackle, etc., store very rustic looking with some rusty metal, weathered Pecky Cypress, a few old crab traps laying around...you get the picture. Then it hit me. Why not make it a kind of museum honoring Demus, Dan, "Pop" and others? I knew to do that, I would have to reach out and contact family members: Sons, daughters, grandsons, whoever, and through pictures, items left from those days, be able to truly "tell a story" of what used to be here, and honor a very important piece of Sarasota's history. To pull together the people, pictures and memorabilia from the 1920 s to today, I began by contacting my good friends Jackie and Vicky Matthias and they contacted Paul Jantzen and others who dug out whatever they could find for memorabilia of the Fish Camp days. What we have now is a mini museum of these Fish Camps, honoring the local characters and displaying a few artifacts and pictures of what so many of us enjoyed and remember about the good old days of Sarasota s heritage. Our little mini museum hopefully captures the essence of a very important piece of Sarasota history that is now long gone.

The Camps New Pass Fish Camp late 1950s or early 1960s 1920s...1930s...1940s..1950s...1960s...1970s FISH CAMPS ON THE KEYS Midnight Pass Fish Camp Rose Coker Bait Stand Boats U Drive Harts Landing New Pass Fish Camp (City Island) New Pass Fish Camp (L.B.K.) Cannon s Marina Our Museum Built by the Kimal Family... Al Bavry Jeff Koerbel Kevin Hill Chris Milko The siding is old fencing from Matthias s... The metal roof is from Kimal s Nokomis Yard... The ice door is from Sarasota s original Ice House...