Boating, Fishing, and Travel Information for Withlacoochee River entrance, FL

The Withlacoochee River begins near Polk City in Florda’s Green Swamp. It flows into the Gulf of Mexico near Yankee Town. The Withlacoochee State Trail, the longest paved rail trail in Florida, travels along its winding route. Along the river’s route are also the Cypress Lake Preserve and Nobleton Wayside Park. Chambers Island and Bungalow Pass are near the mouth of the river where it meets the Gulf of Mexico.

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Boating in Withlacoochee River entrance, FL Map View

A marina, in the town boat basin on the N side of the river, has limited berthage, gasoline, diesel fuel, water, ice, launching ramp, and limited marine supplies. Yankeetown Coast Guard Station is at Yankeetown.

Navigation: The Withlacoochee River rises in the central part of the Florida Peninsula and empties into the Gulf about 17 miles SE of Cedar Keys. Withlacoochee River Entrance Light 1 (28°58’06″N., 82°49’42″W.), 16 feet above the water and shown from a pile with a green square daymark, marks the approach.

A dredged channel leads from the Gulf to a turning basin at Inglis, about 7 miles above the mouth. Navigation is possible above the turning basin in an unmarked channel to a spillway about 11 miles above the mouth. In 2006, the controlling depth was 3.2 feet (4.5 feet at midchannel) to Daybeacon 46; thence in 1988-1999, the centerline controlling depth was 9.5 feet to the turning basin at Inglis with 10 feet on centerline in the turning basin; thence in 1975, 4 feet to a point about 1 mile below the spillway; thence in 1993, 2 feet was reported to the spillway where navigation ends. The dredged channel is marked by lights, and daybeacons to a point about 1 mile above the mouth.

Yankeetown, the principal town on the river, is a small winter resort and fishing village about 3 miles above the mouth.