Kirk Fish Company's website includes an old photo of a boat stacked high with traps. The caption reads "Boat loaded with traps on the first day they can go in the water." That first day has already come and gone this year. FWC's commercial regulations page, still headed as a 2024-2025 season update, allows commercial stone crab traps to go into the water baited starting at 12:01 a.m. on October 5. The retail market at 417 Papaya Street sits on Buzzard's Bay across from Stan's Idle Hour, and it's still closed. Its homepage says it will be back October 15 at 10 a.m.
On Marco Island, most people treat October 15 as the day stone crab season starts. In Goodland, it falls in the middle of a longer sequence. Traps soak before it, the claws spend a night being cooked and graded after it, and the busiest stretch on the docks comes more than a month later. Knowing that sequence tells you what you'll find in the case depending on when you drive over the Goodland bridge.
Ten days when the traps can't be touched
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission lets stone crab traps be placed and baited 10 days before the season opens. It also says the traps can't be tended until the season begins. The same applies to recreational traps. If you have a permitted trap off your own dock, you can put it out early, but you can't pull it before the opener.
So the crabs have had more than a week to find the bait before anyone may haul a trap. The waiting happens offshore. The October 15 date controls when the traps can be pulled, not when they go in.
Thursday, October 15, in daylight only
This year the opener lands on a Thursday. Once the season starts, commercial traps can only be worked during daylight. Recreational traps have to be pulled in daylight too.
For residents with their own traps, FWC's recreational rules are short:
- Only claws may be taken, and the crab goes back in the water.
- Claws must be at least 2 7/8 inches.
- Claws can't be taken from females carrying eggs.
- The limit is one gallon of claws per person or two gallons per vessel, whichever is less.
- The season runs through May 1 and is closed on May 2.
The 2 7/8-inch minimum is fairly new. In 2020, FWC moved the season's end from May 15 to May 1. It raised the minimum claw size from 2 3/4 inches to 2 7/8. It also required a 2 3/16-inch escape ring on plastic and wood traps. FWC's current commercial page applies that ring rule from the 2024-25 season onward. Those escape rings let smaller crabs climb out, and they're part of the setup the boats bring to the dock on opening day.
Why the case runs a morning behind the boats
Kirk Fish describes how its own operation works. Commercial fishermen bring in their catch each day. The raw claws, which the fish house calls "green," are weighed, cooked, cooled and graded, and they are "ready to sell by the next morning." Under that process, claws pulled on a given afternoon reach the retail case the next day.
The cooking has a practical reason. FWC's account of the commercial fishery says claws are cooked when they arrive at the dock and then cooled for 10 minutes so the meat comes away from the shell. That's why stone crab at a fish market is always sold already cooked. Kirk says its claws are fully cooked and fresh, not frozen. The fish house also notes that a stone crab starts regrowing a claw within 30 to 90 days.
What the four grades mean at the counter
Grading happens overnight, and the grade decides most of what you pay for. Kirk sells claws by the pound in four sizes:
| Grade | Approximate claws per pound |
|---|---|
| Medium | about 7 |
| Large | 4 to 5 |
| Jumbo | about 3 |
| Colossal | 2 or fewer |
Kirk says bigger claws cost more but have a better meat-to-shell ratio, so you get "a little more meat" and do less work to reach it. Now and then a claw grows back with an extra claw or a bump. Kirk says the meat in those is fine. The fish house will show you how to crack claws. It will also crack them for you if you plan to eat them within a day or so. Most people eat them cold with Kirk's homemade mustard sauce or with melted butter. To warm them, steam them for one to two minutes in an inch of water.
One season, the big claws showed up early
The mix of grades in the case shifts from season to season. In an early-season report that carries no publication date, Coastal Breeze News visited Kirk Fish and found the family seeing a lot of colossals in the first week. Kelly Kirk, one of the owners, explained where they likely came from:
"Those colossal claws aren't crabs that we harvested last year. Those are crabs that have not been harvested for several years and have not been in the market for several years."
She also cautioned that cold fronts can change things, and that some seasons start slowly and then build. That article describes an earlier season. It isn't a forecast for this one. No local projection for the 2026-27 harvest or prices has been published.
Thanksgiving is when the docks fill
The opening weeks aren't the busiest time in Goodland. In the same Coastal Breeze News report, Kirk said the fish house had four full-time stone crabbers at that point in the season. She said it picks up five or more boats once the king mackerel run begins. Those boats spend the earlier months working out of Alabama, Louisiana or Apalachicola, and most of them arrive "around Thanksgiving time." In her words, "then we'll have full docks."
That changes what the counter offers through the fall. Kirk calls stone crab its primary catch, received daily and always in the case. Gulf shrimp have a permanent spot as well. The fish also changes by season, from offshore grouper, snapper and mackerel to inshore mullet, sheepshead and drum.
The fish house also posts holiday hours. Its regular season schedule is Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed Sundays, from October 15 to May 1 "(ish)." On Thanksgiving Eve, which falls on November 25 this year, it's open 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and it's closed on Thanksgiving Day. Those hours come from the shop's seasonal notice, so call (239) 394-8616 before a holiday trip. Kirk suggests bringing a cooler, and it will pack your seafood on ice for the ride home. You can also come by boat.
The rest of Goodland's calendar
Kirk Fish dates itself to 1950. Its history says the market first opened in the early 1950s and that Damas and Pat Kirk, along with their daughter Kelly, reopened it in October 2013. The neighbors on Papaya Street are on their own fall schedules:
- Stan's Idle Hour is open Friday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., through October 31, according to its October events listing. That means the first weekend after the opener, October 16 to 18, falls in its regular hours.
- The Little Bar says it reopens in October 2026 but hasn't posted an exact date. Its site describes local stone crab claws served cold with mustard sauce, a limited number each day once the season opens. Its reservation page announces the 47th season. Naples Daily News reported that the restaurant changed hands in November 2024 after 45 years, with local businessman Sami Rahman as a new co-owner and a promise to keep its character.
- The 17th annual Naples Stone Crab Festival takes place at Tin City, 1200 5th Avenue South in Naples, from October 23 to 25. It opens Friday, October 23, at 5 p.m.
The first claws of the season reach Kirk's case after their overnight cooking and grading, starting October 15 when the market reopens at 10 a.m. The visiting boats come in around Thanksgiving.
At MJ Team, we follow Goodland's seasonal routines the same way we follow the Marco Island market, one specific detail at a time. If you're thinking about a home where a trip for fresh claws is part of your fall, we'd be glad to show you how close the Papaya Street docks are to the water you're considering.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
