Fort Myers' Stone Crab Season Opens Oct. 15. The Fleet Bringing It In Is Still Rebuilding.

"The world doesn't stop turning around them."

That's Dallas Ryan, manager of Island Crab Company on Pine Island, talking about the crabbers who supply his operation. He said it after Hurricane Ian, when boats were torn up and traps still needed to go in the water because paychecks didn't wait for repairs. Four years and one more hurricane later, that sentence still describes the fleet bringing Southwest Florida's stone crab claws to your table this fall.

Florida's stone crab season opens October 15 and runs through May 1, the same seven-month window it always has. What's different this year isn't the calendar. It's who's still standing to fish it.

The Fifteenth Is Fixed, the Fleet Isn't

The season dates come from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and they don't move. Traps go in the water up to ten days early, but nobody pulls a claw until the fifteenth. Minimum claw size is 2 7/8 inches. One claw per crab, and the crab goes back alive to grow another.

What has moved, twice in four years, is the water those traps sit in. Hurricane Ian came through in September 2022 and hit the docks around Fort Myers Beach and the causeway linking Matlacha to Pine Island hard enough that getting to the island at all was the first problem, before anyone worried about traps. Two years later, Hurricane Milton added another round of damage to the same stretch of coastline, closing at least one Matlacha staple, the coffee shop Perfect Cup, that had only just reopened.

For a fishery that runs on the same boats, the same docks and largely the same families every October, that's not background weather. It's the reason this season's opener is worth more than a mark on the calendar.

What Sold Out, What Stayed

Not every operation made it back the same way. On Pine Island, the toll on one three-generation crabbing family was steep enough that they sold the big boat, 9,000 traps, a brand-new building and the entire wholesale operation. "This just devastated the stone crab industry," Eddie Barnhill told Florida Weekly. "My main source of income was gone."

Others stayed. Shane Dooley still runs traps out of Pine Island, tickling out the occasional grouper that hangs around a stone crab buoy. Dallas Ryan still manages Island Crab Company, the St. James City operation that supplies claws to restaurants across the region. When WINK News checked in on the fishery a year after Ian, the picture was boats patched together, homes still being repaired, and crabbers going out anyway because the traps don't fish themselves.

That mix, some families gone, some still working through the same damaged bridge and brown mangroves, is the fleet showing up for this year's opener. It's smaller than it was before Ian. It's not gone.

What That Meant for Your Bill Last Season

A smaller fleet shows up in the price before it shows up anywhere else. Last season, claws ran from around $35 a pound for mediums up toward $75 a pound for colossal, a genuine record for the market, driven less by demand than by how few traps were actually working the water.

But the number wasn't flat all season. Grant Phelan, whose Phelan Family Brands runs Pinchers, Bimini Basin Seafood, Deep Lagoon and Phuzzy's Boat Shack, described a 2025-2026 season that started tight and loosened as it went. "On a good day, we're catching 500 pounds," he said. "In a week, it's not unheard of to get 1,500 to 2,000 pounds." By his account, supply got good enough late in the season that prices actually eased before the May 1 close.

The lesson for anyone ordering claws this October isn't a specific dollar figure. It's that early-season pricing tends to run higher than late-season pricing, because the traps that are back in the water are still catching up to demand in October and November. If price matters more to you than freshness on day one, the smarter month to order is usually further into the season, not at the opener.

Where It Actually Lands on a Plate This Year

The map hasn't changed much, and that's its own kind of good news. In downtown Fort Myers, Izzy's Fish & Oyster puts claws on the menu alongside shucked oysters when the boats are in. On Fort Myers Beach, Dixie Fish Co. at 714 Fishermans Wharf and the Doc Ford's locations, all under HM Restaurant Group, keep claws moving through daily. "We buy enough to get us through the night," said managing partner Joe Harrity.

Across the bridge in Cape Coral, Bimini Basin Seafood at 458 Tudor Drive serves them with a view of the basin from every seat in the house, and Deep Lagoon does the same a short drive away. Head out toward the water and the towns get smaller but the claws don't get any less fresh: Blue Dog Bar & Grill in Matlacha sources its seafood from the market next door, and on Pine Island itself, Phuzzy's Boat Shack at 3051 Stringfellow Road in St. James City sits along the same canal where Island Crab Company's boats come in.

None of these places can promise claws on a given night. What comes off the boat that day is what's on the menu, which is exactly why locals who've done this before call ahead before driving out.

The Weekend That Turns Recovery Into a Party

If you want the season's opening acknowledged out loud rather than just served on a plate, mark November 8. That's the date for the Pine Island Stone Crab Music Fest, held from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Winn-Dixie Plaza in St. James City. Five dollars gets you in, and the proceeds go straight back to island businesses and nonprofits, which makes this less a festival about crab and more a fundraiser for the same docks this whole piece has been about.

For those who want a bigger production earlier in the month, Naples runs its own Stone Crab Festival October 23-25 along the waterfront at Tin City, with free water taxis connecting the participating restaurants. It's a fine excuse for a day trip. But the Pine Island event is the one where the money loops back to the fleet that's still putting itself back together three miles from where you're eating.

Claws will be on menus across Fort Myers by the time you read this in October. Where you buy them, and what you pay, is still being decided by boats and bridges most of us never think about until the season opens.

If there's a claw spot on this list you've found better luck at, or one that should be on it, Alicia at TimbercreekRealtor would genuinely like to hear about it. Let's connect.