{"id":5719,"date":"2026-06-28T11:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T11:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=5719"},"modified":"2026-06-28T11:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T11:07:11","slug":"fishing-family-has-been-feeding-diners-wild-caught-st-johns-river-catfish-for-decades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=5719","title":{"rendered":"Fishing family has been feeding diners wild-caught St. John\u2019s River catfish for decades"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Right now, there\u2019s a current in the St. John\u2019s River, Richard Sanders tells me. It makes for good fishing.<\/p>\n

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\u201c[If] you get an east-northeast wind and the river flows backward, you don\u2019t catch nothing. But as long as it flows north like it\u2019s supposed to, you do pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanders, 82, and his wife, Betty, 81, have been doing pretty good for more than 63 years on their little stretch of Florida\u2019s longest river, one that \u2014 as Sanders noted \u2014 flows uniquely north. Its headwaters are in Indian River County, its mouth in the Atlantic near Jacksonville, which is the furthest place Sanders Fish House delivers its wild catch.<\/p>\n

They sell straight to restaurants, mostly \u2014 places like Shady Oak, Porkie\u2019s BBQ and the DeLand Fish House closest to home, Drifters Riverfront Bar & Grill in Astor, even Bradley\u2019s and Corky Bell\u2019s up in Palatka. There are local folks in the know, however, who come to stock their own freezers, as well.<\/p>\n

In 2026, farmed catfish are America\u2019s largest aquaculture industry according to the American Farm Bureau, though Asian competition is fierce. On the St. John\u2019s, however, the Sanders have outlasted virtually everyone.<\/p>\n

In the \u201960s, when they first set up shop, there were millions of figurative hooks in the water. These days, it\u2019s quiet when they pull up the morning\u2019s catch. Dead fish get tossed to the gators who\u2019ve come to know there\u2019s a free meal coming. Sometimes, they even lie on the nets, waiting \u2014 a display of reptilian patience.<\/p>\n

The Sanders\u2019 catch is as fresh as it gets.<\/p>\n

Sanders, along with two of his daughters, skins the fish straightaway.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI don\u2019t ice the fish,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you ice them first, then skin them, they don\u2019t look good. They look raggedy. When you do \u2019em fresh, they look much better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The haul gets a short bath before it is dispatched.<\/p>\n

\u201cI put them in a tub of water, chill \u2019em down to where they\u2019re not jumping all over the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fans of wild-caught catfish \u2014 bullheads, reds, yellows and channel cats mostly \u2014 say it\u2019s the only way to eat this white, flaky delight, and I\u2019m inclined to agree. Farmed fish can taste muddy, due in part to s.<\/p>\n

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A buttermilk soak is often used to remove that \u201cfarm-raised\u201d flavor, but when it\u2019s there, it\u2019s there, turning fine fillets into something that tastes more like fish food than fish.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey taste like what they eat,\u201d Gerri Sanders Roos agrees. \u201cAnd better when they\u2019re able to eat their natural diet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Circulating river water means there\u2019s nowhere for algae compounds to build up. Constant swimming means less fat and firmer muscles. And the catfish\u2019s naturally diverse good eating \u2014 mollusks, small fish, juvenile crabs, insects, as well as decaying plant and animal matter \u2014 makes them good eating for us.<\/p>\n

Grass shrimp and crawfish, also part of its natural diet, are among what the Sanders\u2019 use for bait, setting out 3,000 hooks \u2014 two sets of 1,500 when they use lines.<\/p>\n

The nets, for the most part, stay out consistently, says Roos, though they are checked regularly, every few days, which prevents not only the algae problem that plagues farmed fish, but also fishermen, as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll swap them out where the algae doesn\u2019t grow on them, so the fish will go into them easier,\u201d she explains. \u201cThey can catch the scent of something down there and won\u2019t go into a dirty net, plus dirty nets are harder and heavier to pull up.\u201d<\/p>\n

No matter the method \u2014 nets or trout lining \u2014 they\u2019re hauling up boatloads most mornings, then bringing them to their current space to process. It\u2019s a small cinderblock house with a colorful mural. A cardboard sign, inked in black marker, tells folks who drive up the dirt road to \u201cblow your horn for fish.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are large freezers outside, and a processing room-slash-office within. They bought the property and built the place, about two miles from their home, in 1998.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBefore that, I was skinning fish in my garage outside,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The couple met in Kissimmee and married shortly after high school. Betty\u2019s family, commercial fishermen, plied their trade on Lake Kissimmee, where her brothers taught Sanders to fish, but soon after, they came to DeLand, where many of Betty\u2019s family were originally from.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe took to fishing like a duck to water,\u201d she says of her husband.<\/p>\n

Fishing methods back then were often \u2026 creative.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven the nets I use now were illegal back then,\u201d he tells me. The trout lining was all you could do when folks were watching, though many fishermen \u2014 there were a lot more here back then \u2014 did what was called monkey fishing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a long, long time ago,\u201d he says, explaining the popular but prohibited process of electrofishing with an old-school, hand-cranked telephone. Current-stunned fish would float to the top, making them net-scoopable.<\/p>\n

Sanders catches more than fish in his nets, of course. A colorful collection of lures and lines \u2014 including a weighty, three-hook gator snatch \u2014\u00a0 sits above the desk in his office. It\u2019s a temporary art installation; he purges it every six months. More will come.<\/p>\n

\u201cI caught a pistol out there once,\u201d he tells me. \u201cPicked it up with a grapple hook.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roos\u2019 husband, a police officer, ran the numbers. The gun came up clean.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still got it,\u201d he says. \u201cIt looked like it had just been thrown in there. It wasn\u2019t rusted up or nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roos and her sisters grew up in the business, making lines after school at the table, setting them out, then returning home for dinner and homework.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t go anywhere Saturday mornings \u2019til the fish were done,\u201d she says, noting that sibling squabbles were likely more interesting at their house than most.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had knives,\u201d she jokes.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we made it through and were better for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Betty\u2019s retired now. She worked as a manager at Winn-Dixie for 20 years, but on this day, she\u2019s out, riding her own mower alongside her husband\u2019s. It\u2019s a rare non-fishing day. They are tidying the property.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe managed this business for years,\u201d she says. \u201cNow, I help with everything, but he draws the salary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re good help,\u201d he tells her. \u201cThe money all goes to one place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Betty chides her husband in the way couples married 63 years can. Tomorrow is their anniversary.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing I\u2019m sure he didn\u2019t tell you is that we never bought anything we couldn\u2019t pay for \u2026 We worked, we saved, and we bought what we needed, and it\u2019s been a blessing to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanders may not be the young dad Roos remembers, who could wrap heavy line around his hands and snap it, or hit the bottom out of a thick glass Coke bottle to her delight, then his grandchildren\u2019s, \u201cbut I\u2019m still going.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got a bad heart. One of these days I\u2019ll walk out of here and probably fall over, and that\u2019ll be that.\u201d<\/p>\n

But for the time being, he says, there are just as many fish as there have always been. Perhaps even more.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause now, I\u2019m the only fisherman here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Find me on Facebook, TikTok, Twitter or Instagram\u00a0<\/i>@amydroo<\/i>\u00a0or on the OSFoodie Instagram account\u00a0<\/i>@orlando.foodie<\/i>. Email:\u00a0<\/i>amthompson@orlandosentinel.com<\/i>, For more foodie fun, join the\u00a0<\/i>Let\u2019s Eat, Orlando Facebook group<\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n

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