About

Two Scotsmen, J.O. Douglas and James Somerville, named the settlement Dunedin after applying for the first post office in northern Pinellas County after Richard L. Garrison was the first person given a land grant in 1852. With a dock built to accommodate larger sailing vessels, Dunedin became an important trading center and at one time it had the largest fleet of sailing vessels in the state. The coastal town has since become popular among spring training fans for the Blue Jays team, the annual Highland Games and Festival, Mardi Gras, the popular Art Harvest and the growing number of local craft breweries, seafood festivals and farmers markets.

Also located in Dunedin is Honeymoon Island and Caladesi Island, frequently listed as one of the best beaches in the United States. Dunedin is often noted in the press for being one of the most walkable towns to visit. The downtown runs along Main Street from the Gulf of Mexico to Milwaukee Avenue. While Main Street runs east and west, Broadway runs north and south and also features many businesses, particularly art galleries and home design stores. The intersection of these two streets form the heart of downtown.

Other shops can be found on the Douglas Avenue, Highland Avenue, and Virginia Lane. Many of the businesses on Main Street include antique stores, clothing stores, and gift shops. Along with the restaurants, you will also find several taverns and clubs to give the area a bit of nightlife. Our restaurant, Hog Island, is located just north of main street, and on the west side of Alt 19.

Our family settled in Florida during the Great Depression, right here on Old Clearwater Bay, and learned what bounty the local waters had to offer. At the time, before high-rise hotels and high-rent condos, a person could wade from the mainland to the barrier islands and rarely encounter water more than waist deep, netting mullet and casting for redfish the whole way.

Hog Island Fish Camp offers each guest a glimpse back to times when families could bond over a fresh caught dinner, conversation of the days adventures, and the anticipation of the best part of the day, the setting sun. It is our pleasure to be a part of the preservation of days gone by and make each visit enjoyable, memorable and a reason to return. When the clock strikes "sunset" and we've done our job right, you'll strole down the street to the marina, look out over Old Clearwater Bay to where the sun sets over Hog Island and realise… nothing has changed.

As you look over Old Clearwater Bay, it will make you think of a time not so long ago, when folks from the Southern states gravitated to the area, not for theme parks… but fish camps. Places on the rivers, lakes, and coasts, where you could find a rental rod, serenity, and someone to fry up their catch for dinner. These fish camps were places where dads taught their sons and daughters to cast, where husbands and wives could escape for a weekend, and where children could live out the stories they would inevitably tell their own kids someday.