Lake Jackson

Lake Jackson is a shallow prairie lake in northern Leon County, Florida, a few miles north of Tallahassee in the Red Hills region. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) describes it as a 4,000-acre lake with an average depth of about 7 feet and a maximum of 30 feet; it is roughly 7.5 miles long, and Interstate 10 crosses its southern tip. No stream drains the lake. Water leaves through Porter Sink and Lime Sink into the Floridan Aquifer, and the lake has drained many times, including 1999, 2007, 2012 and 2021. With Carr Lake and Mallard Pond it forms the 5,130-acre Lake Jackson Aquatic Preserve, established in 1973.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) lists eight public ramps: Jackson View Landing at US 27, Sunset, Miller, Rhoden Cove, Meginnis Arm, Fuller Drive, Crowder and Faulk landings. Other entities manage these access points, and FWC enforces boating and fishing regulations. During the current low-water period, DEP lists Crowder as the only Lake Jackson landing open to motorized vessels. Paddlecraft may launch at Sunset, Miller and Jackson View, while Faulk, Rhoden Cove, Meginnis Arm and Fuller are limited to wildlife viewing. Driving on the exposed lake bottom is prohibited.

The lake is nationally known for its largemouth bass fishery. In the 1980s, stormwater runoff from I-10, commercial corridors and housing degraded its water quality. The Northwest Florida Water Management District built a treatment project in the Meginniss Arm basin that reduced discharge of most pollutants by 95 percent.