Casterline Fish Company

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Casterline Fish Company down in Aransas County. Now, some businesses are born from a single good idea and a whole lot of cold, wet, early mornings. This is one of those.

Cecil Weber Casterline started it all back in the 1930s, with what he plainly called a fish house. No grand title, no fanfare. Just a fish house.

And from that fish house, he sourced fish, oysters, and shrimp from local fishermen, iced the catch down in barrels, and shipped it all by rail to San Antonio and other destinations. Picture that. Barrels of Gulf seafood rolling across Texas on iron rails, bound for tables far from the smell of saltwater.

Cecil was movin' the harvest of the bay before most folks had a refrigerator to put it in. Then came 1944, and Cecil and his father Frank made a move that said they were in this for the long haul. They purchased the harbor property and acquired several fishing vessels from other fishermen.

The family had gone from handling other people's catch to owning the boats that brought it in. After World War II, Cecil's brother Leslie Eugene joined the business, and the family operation deepened its roots right there on the Fulton harbor. Through the 1950s, they focused mostly on shrimp and oysters, and they got good at it.

Early on, the family purchased their boats where they could find them. But somewhere along the way, they started building their own. Vessels running forty to eighty feet long, purpose-built, and here's the detail that'll stick with you: most of those boats were named for family members.

Think about that. Your name on a hull, out there in the Gulf, working the water day and night. That's not just a business.

That's a family putting itself into the bay. The Casterline Fish Company carried on for decades, shaping Fulton's seafood industry in ways the marker says plainly still remain. In 2015, the company was sold to Prestige Oysters.

A chapter closed. But the legacy, the influence on how Fulton does what Fulton does with the sea, that didn't sail off with the sale. Some things get iced in barrels and shipped away.

Other things just stay.

What the marker says

Founded by Cecil Weber Casterline in the 1930s, his "fish house" initially sourced fish, oysters and shrimp from local fisherman, iced the catch in barrels and shipped them by rail to San Antonio and other destinations. In 1944, Cecil and his father, Frank, purchased the harbor property and acquired several fishing vessels from other fishermen. Cecil's brother, Leslie Eugene, joined the business after WWII. During the 1950s, the family mostly processed shrimp and oysters. Early boats were purchased, but the family later built their own boats around 40 to 80 feet long and most were named for family members. In 2015, Casterline Fish Company was sold to Prestige Oysters. However, Casterline Fish Company's legacy and influence on Fulton's seafood industry remains.