Apalachicola River

The Apalachicola River runs about 106 miles through the Florida Panhandle, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). It starts at Lake Seminole on the Florida-Georgia line at Chattahoochee and ends at the Gulf at the town of Apalachicola. By the volume of water it discharges, it is Florida's largest river. The Flint and Chattahoochee rivers join to form it inside Lake Seminole, the reservoir behind Jim Woodruff Dam. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began building the dam in 1947 and finished it in 1957. Below the dam the river flows south past Bristol and picks up the Chipola River in northern Gulf County. It empties into Apalachicola Bay. Its watershed, the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) basin, drains about 19,500 square miles. Extensive swamps line the lower 30 miles.

On the upper river, FWC lists boat landings at Chattahoochee, Sneads, Aspalaga and Ocheesee. Lower-river public access includes the Apalachicola City Dock and Gardner Landing on the East River. FWC's Apalachicola River Wildlife and Environmental Area has a paddling trail system of nearly 100 miles. From the early 1960s the Corps dredged a navigation channel for barges. Florida denied its permit in 2005, and the Corps has since considered resuming the work.

FWC lists Florida bass, catfish, striped bass and bream as the river's fish. The agency names the upper river below the dam and the lower river near the bay as the best fishing areas.