Whitey's Fish Camp sits on Swimming Pen Creek, down from Doctors Lake in Fleming Island. | Whitey's Fish Camp
Published on March 17, 2026 at 2:37 pm
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Whitey’s Fish Camp — “the place to be since 1963” — has been sold for almost $4 million to the company that owns Harry’s Seafood Bar and Grill.
After some renovations and a few menu changes, Harry’s co-owner Jesse Jabot says the iconic Clay County fish camp founded by the Ham family 63 years ago will feel the same to longtime patrons.
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Many of those changes will mean a short shutdown for minor work from March 30 to April 7.
Changes could include adding some Harry’s-inspired jambalaya and craft cocktails to the fish camp’s traditional menu, Jabot said.
Menu changes will be minimal, keeping about 85% of Whitey’s “heavy hitters and staples” while adding some chef-driven grilled and sauteed dishes, and a bit less fried food, he said.
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The Ham family began plans to sell the business, at 2032 County Road 220 in Fleming Island, just over two years ago. The sale was completed last week.
“I’ve always loved the building, loved the concept,” Jabot said. “We are very close to the family, and we just want to keep it — try to make it bigger, better and busier, just improve on what they have done. They have done an unbelievable job.”
Whitey’s is a combination waterfront restaurant, boat marina and RV campground. Back in 1963, Whitey Ham and his wife, Ann, started a tackle shop there that sold some food, beer and sodas, according to the restaurant’s Facebook page.
Six years later, the couple reworked the site with a bigger kitchen, dining room, bar and outside deck, followed by a 16-site mobile home site in 1970. In 1980, the campground became an RV park.
Whitey Ham died in 1997, followed by his wife 10 years later. Then a fire in March 2002 destroyed the kitchen and seriously damaged the restaurant, which reopened in 2003 after the family rebuilt it.
“It’s not been an easy road. We’ve had our ups and downs,” co-owner Billy Ham told Jacksonville Today in February 2024.
Ham said then that it was time to sell the oldest restaurant in Clay County because he, sister Elaine Cassala and brother Luke Lawley just want to retire.
“We all have health issues,” Ham said in 2024. “The market is great. Our business is better than it has ever been, and we think that now would be a great time to capitalize and look for an exit strategy and retire. … Life is short. We need to live and enjoy what we have left, you know?”
Whitey’s employs about 125 people. A busy weekend brings 1,000 customers for food, drinks live music on the deck.
Harry’s of America LLC is led by Jabot, Louis Saig and Justin Griffin and operates Harry’s Seafood and Grille, which opened in 1987 at the now-gone Jacksonville Landing, then moved to St. Augustine. the group also operates restaurants in Gainesville, Lakeland, Ocala and Tallahassee.
Billy Ham will remain as Whitey’s manager for a few more years until he retires, Jabot said.
Life at Whitey’s
Like the Hams, Jabot said the iconic fish camp on Swimming Pen Creek, down from Doctors Lake, was part of his younger life when he and twin brother Jeff grew up in Middleburg, then seriously began looking at buying it in the past four or five years.
“We used to go to Whitey’s as a kid with our best friend, who lived right there on Swimming Pen Creek,” Jabot said. “I learned how to water ski on that lake, so we would go on the lake, then stop in at Whitey’s on the way back to his house. It has always been a place, just growing up there for years, that we always went to.”
Jabot said he and his brother have built up a rapport with the Hams in recent years. The Hams reached out to them after initial attempts to sell the business faltered.
“We resumed our talks with them and were able to make a deal with them,” Jabot said. Initial fears from residents and businesses that condominiums would replace Whitey’s was never their plan.
“We never, never thought about purchasing it and doing anything else but keeping it the same,” he said. “I think it’s the oldest fish camp in the state of Florida.”
The site includes the 9,476-square-foot restaurant with another 7,760 square feet of outdoor seating and a 21-slip docking facility with boat ramp and bait shop. The RV campground has 40 spaces, along with several ancillary buildings including restrooms, showers and other amenities.
During the shutdown in early April, Jabot said, his team will work with staff at Whitey’s to “tweak it slowly but surely.”
“We have a little painting inside and will light up the parking lot and put some neon back on the building. We are looking at replacing the sign,” Jabot said. “There’s a lot of things behind the scenes, more operational things in the kitchen. We are switching some equipment out, which will make us a little more efficient and help us lower the ticket times.”
