Goodland had all the building's and homes back them , they must of had 10 or so homes and the one business right at the bridge by the Marco River at the entrance to Goodland.
Next time you are down there just picture one narrow road into Marco from Goodland without any homes , buildings , nothing but palmettos and scrub trees with the sea oats and cactus. You could of loved it , it was wild and something else.
The locals were nothing to mess with.... One guy I know went down there and had a black farm hand with him to row the boat. He arrived at Marco and started to check in the cabin when the locals asked him what he planned on doing with is farm hand. He said he was staying with him and was going to row the boat in the morning so he could fish.
The locals told him that he was more then welcome but if the sun set on his farm hand that would be the last sunset the farm hand would ever see. The guy loaded up his stuff and the farm hand and drove back to Oviedo. That is when Dad and I found out what happen and the guy told us that he was really sure those folks down there were not joking but deadly serious. We agreed that they probably were.
Out fishing everyone had a firearm with them , rifle or pistol and gun shots were the normal thing in that area. You new that for the most part someone was getting some needle fish for snook bait. You go into the shallows of p a shallow creek and as the needle fish swim in front of the boat you take a 28 with wad cutters ( blunt or flat nose bullets ) and shoot right next to the needle fish to stun them. Pick them up and toss them in the bait well , when you think you had enough then go snook fishing.
There was a couple from Miami that would stay at Kelleys and they would take there boat , go across the flats to the far side and by the mangroves there was a deep channel running along there. The boating traffic used the main channel which was on the side closest to Kelleys so basically no one used the channel they were fishing. The would tie off a large rope to the strongest branch on the mangrove and at the end of the rope was a chunk of chain and on the end of the chain was one really big single hook. They would attach a bait fish , about a 5 to 6 pound one and let stay there over night.
In the morning they would go and check there lines and if that mangrove branch was doing a dance they were in for some fun. They set Jew Fish lines ( Called Grouper today ) It was nothing for them to get grouper in the 100 to 250 pound class and sometime even bigger ones. They would bring them back to Kelleys , clean and wrap the meat , then freeze it in Kelleys fish cooler , when they had whatever amount they had decided on , it was loaded up in there vehicle and taken over to Miami and sold. They keep some for themselves and the rest paid for there trip over and expenses.
Before leaving they would always give Dad and Mom a couple packages and that was some good eating. We would give them some snook since they did not fish for snook but liked to eat them.
Kelly had 7 cabins and going down there 2 or 3 times a year you got to know the usual group that would be there around that same time. Hell Dad almost bought the business from Kelley but Kelley changed his mind and decided not to sell.
Back then anything would go , basically there were no rules or limits or lengths on and fish that could be keep. The locals thought we were nuts for snook fishing , as they called them Soap Fish since they tasted like soap when cooked. The mistake they were making as that they did not skin then , they scaled them and fried them. You need to fillet and skin the snook. We explained it to Kelley and had him and his wife for a snook supper , after then the word slowly spread about the snook being a good eating fish besides being fun to catch.
