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Fishing maps/Florida Bay

Florida Keys and Everglades fishing maps

Florida Bay fishing maps and surveyed sections

East Central Florida Bay is ready with quality-assured NOAA and USGS survey contours, exact-polygon FWC fish and forage records, confidence-tagged fishing spots and verified public access. Six other official assessment units remain documented without being prematurely published.

1 live section6 recommendation-ready species1 attached public access site

Built for bay scale

Why Florida Bay is split into sections

One page would mix hundreds of thousands of acres of shallow basins, mudbanks, channels, keys and back-bay habitat. Seven official FDEP units keep each map under the 25-mile page limit and let every survey footprint, fish clip and access connection pass or fail on its own evidence.

Quality-assured and searchable

Open the live Florida Bay fishing-map section

NOAA + USGS survey contours100% assessed · 86% measured

East Central Florida Bay

75,142-acre East Central Florida Bay section with quality-assured NOAA BlueTopo and 411,222 direct USGS Florida Bay soundings, exact-polygon FWC fish and forage evidence, mapped seagrass, charted structure and verified public access.

Recorded max
10 ft
Species
Red Drum (Redfish), Spotted Seatrout, Sheepshead, Snook, Gray Snapper (Mangrove Snapper), Permit
Public access
1 attached site
Open depth map and fishing spots →

Source-backed, not crowd-guessed

What is included on the live page

  • Depth: all 72 current NOAA BlueTopo tiles plus direct 1995-1999 USGS Florida Bay soundings, with measured, assessed-interpolated and unsupported cells kept distinct.
  • Boundary: official FDEP WBID 8077E converted to water-only geometry with NOAA ENC land and checked against both NOAA CUSP packages at the shoreline seam.
  • Fish: 4,932 exact-polygon FWC records across 745 sampling events, independently supported by NPS Florida Bay recreational-fish context.
  • Spots: NOAA charted wrecks and FWC seagrass evidence; only features with directly measured bathymetry become recommendations.
  • Seasonality: exact-section forage observations and saltwater seasonal profiles shown as search patterns rather than catch guarantees.
  • Access: the open FWC Boat Ramp Inventory matched by official outline or a verified Florida Bay connection.

NOAA BlueTopo·USGS Florida Bay survey·FDEP assessment units·FWC sampling records·NPS Florida Bay fish

Not published prematurely

Six sections remain on survey-quality hold

Their boundaries, shoreline QA, direct soundings, exact fish and forage clips, structures and access results remain in the research pipeline. They stay out of search, the public manifest and sitemap until every fixed depth gate passes.

  • Western Florida Bay: Measured coverage is 13.87%, assessed coverage is 26.57%, unsupported coverage is 73.43%, and retained-surface P95 uncertainty is 2.12 m.
  • Central Florida Bay: Measured coverage is 37.74%, assessed coverage is 73.37%, unsupported coverage is 26.63%, and retained-surface P95 uncertainty is 2.06 m.
  • Southern Florida Bay: Measured coverage is 43.57%, assessed coverage is 76.88%, unsupported coverage is 23.12%, and retained-surface P95 uncertainty is 2.11 m.
  • Eastern Back Bay: Measured coverage is 13.37%, assessed coverage is 74.28%, unsupported coverage is 25.72%, and retained-surface P95 uncertainty is 2.12 m.
  • Western Bay Side: Assessed, unsupported and uncertainty gates pass, but measured coverage is 20.53%, below the fixed 60% release threshold.
  • Southern Bay Side: Assessed, unsupported and uncertainty gates pass, but measured coverage is 27.14%, below the fixed 60% release threshold.

Florida Bay map questions

Frequently asked questions

Why is Florida Bay divided into seven fishing-map sections?

DepthScout follows seven non-overlapping Florida Department of Environmental Protection assessment units. These official units keep the broad bay, back-bay and Florida Keys-side systems at useful scale while shoreline, measured depth, fish records, forage, fishing structure and access are tested independently.

Which Florida Bay fishing-map section is live now?

East Central Florida Bay is live. Its official 75,142-acre water polygon is 86.10% directly measured, 99.81% assessed and 0.19% unsupported, with 1.05 m P95 vertical uncertainty. Those results pass the fixed 60% measured, 95% assessed, 5% unsupported and 1.5 m uncertainty gates.

Why are the other six Florida Bay sections not searchable as maps?

Western, Central, Southern and Eastern Back Bay fail multiple depth gates. Western and Southern Bay Side pass assessed, unsupported and uncertainty checks but have only 20.53% and 27.14% directly measured coverage. Their official boundaries and evidence remain documented, but interpolation is not promoted to measured data and no gate is waived.

Which fish are documented for East Central Florida Bay?

Exact-polygon FWC Fisheries-Independent Monitoring records support gray snapper, common snook, spotted seatrout, permit, red drum and sheepshead for public recommendations. FWC also recorded one black drum, but it is not promoted because the authoritative section inventory has no measured black-drum-compatible feature for an honest fishing spot. NPS independently identifies Florida Bay as important water for gray snapper, snook, red drum and spotted seatrout, as well as bonefish and tarpon.

What depth, fishing-spot and forage data is used?

Depth combines 72 current NOAA BlueTopo tiles with exact clips from the USGS 1995-1999 Florida Bay survey. Fishing candidates use NOAA charted wrecks and FWC mapped seagrass; public recommendations require directly measured bathymetry. The exact FWC clip documents anchovy, sardine, mullet, silverside, shrimp, blue crab, pinfish and Atlantic thread herring as forage evidence, not a bite guarantee.