From fishing queens and charter boats
to tackle and trophies, Delray show reels in
history in a catchy way
Fishing around Delray Beach was portrayed in an alluring way to motorists who spotted this billboard.
The Wueppers, Smiths and others on Delray Beach in 1917.
Delray Beach Historical SocietyYoung Ray Priest of Delray Beach
receives a fishing trophy in this photo.
Old spear guns and a mounted dolphin (mahi mahi) are part of the ‘Fish Tales!’ exhibit
through December at the Delray Beach Historical Society.
Willie Howard/The Coastal Star
By Willie Howard
The Delray Beach Historical Society has plunged into a subject that has tied families together in this waterfront community together for more than 100 years: fishing.
The Fish Tales! history exhibit opened with a kickoff party June 17 and will remain on display through the end of December at the historical society’s campus in downtown Delray Beach.
“The response from the public has been spectacular,” said Howard Ellingsworth, historical society president and co-chairman of the exhibit, noting that more than 80 families and individuals contributed items to the exhibit.
“This is all about telling the story of where we came from that I think will have broad interest and appeal,” Ellingsworth said.
At the exhibit, visitors will find more than 1,000 fishing-related photos and more than 200 objects — memorabilia that show how intertwined fishing and diving were, and still are, with daily life in this oceanfront city.
Visitors also get a glimpse into the happy years following World War II, when bathing beauties competed for the title of “fishing queen” and charter boats helped popularize fishing for sailfish, kingfish, dolphin, wahoo and other ocean fish along the coast of southern Palm Beach County.
Ellingsworth said his father told him of the days when Delray Beach merchants would close their doors and go fishing during bluefish runs.
“The bluefish run was so massive that it looked like an enormous dark mass moving through,” said Ellingsworth, whose late father was Ken Ellingsworth, a former vice mayor and longtime executive director of the city’s Chamber of Commerce. “Almost the entire town would shut down, and all would go down to the beach to catch bluefish.”
Clyde Smith, Norma (Miller) Brown, Henrietta (Wuepper) Frieberg, John “Dude” Miller Sr.
and Bob Miller on Delray Beach in the early 1930s.
Delray Beach Historical Society
John Miller, who co-chairs the exhibit with Ellingsworth, said his father, the late John “Dude” Miller, spent most of his boyhood fishing and especially liked to catch snook at the old Atlantic Avenue Bridge.
The elder Miller spent so much time fishing at the bridge, in fact, that the bridge tender would let him raise and lower the bridge when he wanted to take a break.
Miller’s grandfather, Albert Miller, was a former Delray Beach mayor and barbershop owner who did a lot of fishing (mostly along the beach in rowboats). He owned a tackle shop on Atlantic Avenue and called together a group of men in 1947 to start the Delray Beach Boating and Sportsmen’s Club.
Today, Miller owns two boats and enjoys fishing for snook and reef fish, often with his two sons in tow — an example of the families who have fished around Delray Beach for multiple generations.
Miller said the Fish Tales! exhibit should help raise awareness about Delray Beach’s history because so many people are interested in fishing.
“We’ll have people at the historical society who didn’t even know the historical society existed,” Miller said.
Winnie Edwards, the historical society’s executive director, said the fishing history exhibit should be “a binding experience” for the many families who enjoy fishing in and around Delray Beach.
“I think it will bring people together,” said Edwards, whose father, Roy Diggans, fished from the beach “almost every day of his life.”
Although the exhibit focuses on fishing around Delray Beach, it includes stories, photos, tackle and trophy fish from Fort Lauderdale to West Palm Beach.
A second phase of Fish Tales! will be announced at the historical society’s annual autumn harvest dinner, set for Oct. 20.
Fishing skills workshops, environmental education and fishing stories told by the anglers are expected to be part of the fall lineup.
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