Fish Camp

Name: Fish Camp
Author: Charlie Hailey
ISBN: 9780813081946

A Journey Through Florida at Water's Edge

by Charlie Hailey

Published by: University Press of Florida

Charlie Hailey takes readers on a journey to more than forty of Florida’s fish camps, chronicling their history and allure and exploring the deep connections between people and place fostered along the water’s edge.

330 Pages6.00 × 9.0054 b/w illus., notes, bibliography, index

Paperback
9780813081946
Published: March 30, 2027

$28.00

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EPUB
9780813075914
Published: March 30, 2027

(Ebook delivery via Leaf eReader app.)

$18.99

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Description
Authors
Praise

A journey into the disappearing world of fish camps, exploring how humans inhabit places where land and water meet

Fish camps are waterside retreats where people gather, bond, and commune with nature. They are witnesses—sites of family reunions, record catches and other triumphs, exchanges of tall tales, and quieter, more reflective moments immersed in the natural world. In this book, architect Charlie Hailey chronicles the history and allure of Florida’s fish camps.

Taking readers on a journey to more than forty camps located on salt and fresh waters, from Destin’s fish camps in the Panhandle to Pirate’s Cove in the Keys, Hailey shares lively histories and recent stories unique to each place. From land and by boat, he recounts fish camp conversations, explores places vulnerable to development and climate change, and describes spaces filled with memories and memorabilia. Where else can you find the Fisherman’s Ruler that measures 10 inches as 20? Above all, he ponders the deep connections between people and place fostered along the water’s edge.

Fish camps look backward and forward. They see what many do not—nature’s subtle rhythms and extraordinary wildlife. They are places to remember as they are also bellwethers for environmental change. A read that will be relished by armchair travelers, those with memories of visiting fish camps, and anyone looking to explore their local waterways, this book tells fish camp stories about our past and future.

Charlie Hailey is an architect, writer, and professor of architecture at the University of Florida. He is the award-winning author of six books, including The Porch: Meditations on the Edge of Nature and Slab City: Dispatches from the Last Free Place.

“An enormous achievement—a copiously researched, evocatively written, and deeply felt love letter to Florida’s wondrous fish camps.”—Andrew Furman, author of Of Slash Pines and Manatees: A Highly Selective Field Guide to My Suburban Wilderness
“Fish Camp makes me long for a fishing world I’ve never had the chance to know. It’s an opportunity to experience that world on its own unique, vibrant terms. This book reminds us that Florida fish camps are places that deserve to be remembered, and in this telling, remembrance is a pleasure, not a duty.”—Neil Norman, author of Tight Lines and Tall Tales: Stories of Southern Appalachian Fly Fishing
“Hailey’s approach to the subject of fish camps is fascinating and interesting, and this book serves as a historical document for a much-loved feature in our state.”—Tommy Thompson, author of The Saltwater Angler’s Guide to Tampa Bay and Southwest Florida
“Hailey’s delightful book meanders, in the best possible way, through the colorful history of Florida’s iconic fish camps. This is a book where past and present mingle and recompose, like Florida’s lively waterways, offering keen insights into how places endure, even amid enormous change.”—Laura A. Ogden, author of Loss and Wonder at the World’s End
“A lovely exploration of meanings: of fish, of water, of home and place and space, pasts and futures, and the intertwinings of human and more-than-human lives. I was—forgive me—hooked.”—Eric Wagner, author of Seabirds as Sentinels: Auklets, Puffins, Shearwaters, and the View from Destruction Island