Lake Okeechobee

Lake Okeechobee is the largest lake in Florida. It covers about 730 square miles of south-central Florida and is bordered by Palm Beach, Martin, Glades, Okeechobee and Hendry counties. The lake is shallow, averaging about 9 feet deep, with a maximum depth of about 12 feet. Its main tributaries are the Kissimmee River, Fisheating Creek and Taylor Creek. Water leaves the lake toward the Everglades, the Caloosahatchee River and the St. Lucie River. After the 1928 hurricane broke through an older dike, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built a larger levee system around the lake in the 1930s. It was expanded in the 1960s into the Herbert Hoover Dike, which has about 143 miles of levee, along with culverts, hurricane gates and other water control structures. The lake is managed for flood control and water supply as well as fisheries. Water levels are kept higher from October through March and lower from June through August.

Two channels were dredged across the lake as part of the Okeechobee Waterway, which was completed in 1937. The Corps' Jacksonville District lists 18 boat ramps into the lake. Most are free, all are open 24 hours, and counties, cities and private operators run them. They include Clewiston City Park, Harney Pond Canal Recreation Area, Okee-Tantie Recreation Area, Jaycee Park in Okeechobee, Pahokee Marina, Paul Rardin Park, South Bay Recreation Area, Torrey Island Recreation Area at Belle Glade and Canal Point Recreation Area. In 2024 the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) approved an Okeechobee County ordinance that created two slow-speed, minimum-wake zones in Taylor Creek and the Lake Okeechobee Rim Canal.

The FWC describes the lake as nationally recognized for its largemouth bass and black crappie fisheries. It also supports a commercial catfish fishery and a limited-entry haul seine fishery for bluegill and redear sunfish.