A unique website dedicated to fishing information from Florida's Northern Big Bend. This includes the area from the Econfina River west to the Apalachicola River
MudDucker wrote:I suspect the engineer on this project has never launched a boat before.
I believe their thinking is, this is a park that happens to have a boat ramp. Not a boat ramp that happens to have a park.
The fishing pier appears to get you out in 1-2 ft of water when the lake is up. It needed to be 20-30 ft longer. More of a bird watching pier.
The 3 boat trailer spaces appear to be angled in such a way that you may have to drive around the roundabout to park correctly. Hopefully the look from the highway is deceiving.
But it beats the eyesore that was there to begin with.
MudDucker wrote:I suspect the engineer on this project has never launched a boat before.
I believe their thinking is, this is a park that happens to have a boat ramp. Not a boat ramp that happens to have a park.
The fishing pier appears to get you out in 1-2 ft of water when the lake is up. It needed to be 20-30 ft longer. More of a bird watching pier.
The 3 boat trailer spaces appear to be angled in such a way that you may have to drive around the roundabout to park correctly. Hopefully the look from the highway is deceiving.
But it beats the eyesore that was there to begin with.
You know its funny how we sportsman who pay a HUGE part of the freight are often the least considered. I agree though, when I rode by last time, it sure looks much better.
They really missed the mark on this one!! It looks really nice, but the people designing this ramp must not expect people to use this ramp! First there is no slope to this ramp so the end of the ramp right now is sitting in ~6 inches of water, I understand the water is a little low but even at full pool the ramp will be hard to launch most boats. Which will be no different from what we had before! Second the trailer parking looks to be limited, but that's fine since you can't put your boat in anyways! Lastly the fishing pier is a joke, they could have easily extended the dock out to deeper water allowing more shoreline angling opportunity which is very limited on Lake Jackson. To my understanding Lake Jackson is an aquatic preserve so dredging or digging out a boat ramp is out of the question (unless the lake drains). I just don't understand why they (I am guessing the city of Tally?) would spend money on a ramp with such limited applications.
Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Department of Transportation were the limiting factors.
It was DEP that would not let them extend or dredge the ramp.
There is also a 5-6 inch drop off at the end right now. Without some gravel someone is going to mess up their trailer.
DEP also limited the length of the fishing pier.
We are going to see folks fishing off the floating dock because it is at least in the water.
DOT would not let them extend the parking into the Highway right of way... that's why there are so few parking places.
There are areas of grass below and above the parking lot that I can almost promise will become unofficial additional parking.
Barry Bevis, Realtor and Owner of BigBendFishing.net
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bman wrote:Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Department of Transportation were the limiting factors.
It was DEP that would not let them extend or dredge the ramp.
There is also a 5-6 inch drop off at the end right now. Without some gravel someone is going to mess up their trailer.
DEP also limited the length of the fishing pier.
We are going to see folks fishing off the floating dock because it is at least in the water.
DOT would not let them extend the parking into the Highway right of way... that's why there are so few parking places.
There are areas of grass below and above the parking lot that I can almost promise will become unofficial additional parking.
Another nonsensical government agency fubar! And folks wonder why I am anti-government.
So we have a turtle tunnel that turtles don't use and now a boat ramp that boaters can't use along with a fishing dock from which it is impossible to fish? Seems par for the course to me.
lonesouth wrote:So we have a turtle tunnel that turtles don't use and now a boat ramp that boaters can't use along with a fishing dock from which it is impossible to fish? Seems par for the course to me.
The Oyster shack is probably happy with the ramp. Their ramp was hopping the 2 times I was there last week.
Grand opening was yesterday. They have a picture of a vehicle and boat trailer on the ramp with a boat tied up to the dock. Does anyone know if this pic is legit or did the boat launch from somewhere else.
There were no boats trailer at the ramp this morning at 8am.
I stopped by there Sunday morning and a couple was changing there trailer tire. The end of the ramp ruined/bent the rim and popped the tire. Said he was going to make sure the County heard from him. There is nothing marking the end of the ramp, plus the end of the ramp is only in about 22"-24" inches of water. It's a joke....
How hard is it to put a piece of rebar and pvc at the end of a ramp. Spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to make it look better and skimp on $15 to protect those using it.
Lastly the fishing pier is a joke, they could have easily extended the dock out to deeper water allowing more shoreline angling opportunity which is very limited on Lake Jackson. To my understanding Lake Jackson is an aquatic preserve so dredging or digging out a boat ramp is out of the question (unless the lake drains). I just don't understand why they (I am guessing the city of Tally?) would spend money on a ramp with such limited applications. 
