Kayakers prepare to set out from Spears ramp in Spring Creek.
November 14, 2024
By Bill Greer
Hidden Gems : Roads less traveled & waters less fished in Florida. Florida Sportsman magazine’s 'Hidden Gems’ project in the August-September 2024 issue featured 14 hotspots for Florida's hunters and anglers, from the Keys to the Panhandle. This installment highlights the one-of-a-kind fishing experience in the Spring Creek area.A Magical Mix of Salt and Fresh Salt and fresh water meet to support an extensive natural system that has few rivals. Spring Creek, fed by numerous natural springs, offers something for anglers, paddlers and oyster lovers.
More Hidden Gems Florida Sportsman's 'Hidden Gems.' Reaching the end of Spring Creek Highway in the Florida Panhandle may disappoint the traveler expecting a large development with sandy beaches and tourist attractions. But while the end of Highway 365 at Spring Creek may seem like the end of the road, it is in many other ways really the beginning. Spring Creek with a population of only 150, is a small fishing village and it has always been so. But it is located on one of the largest freshwater spring systems in the world. Fourteen separate springs pump over a billion gallons of water a day into the Gulf of Mexico by way of Oyster Bay. This massive water flow creates a magical mix of salt and fresh water that supports an extensive natural system that has few rivals.
Spring Creek is an unincorporated community between Shell Point and Panacea, two larger and more developed coastal towns. The community of Spring Creek is on a peninsula bordered by the actual creek and Stuart Cove. Both the creek and the Cove are fed by numerous springs, some of which are almost 100 feet deep and often create large boils on the surface. The best time to witness these boils is at low tide when the flow is strongest, creating a current that can be as much as six inches above the surface. Other times there is nothing visible.
Pure fresh water boils out of this cove and others in the area. Oyster Bay begins at Spring Creek and extends over two miles into the Gulf of Mexico. The Bay is aptly named for the extensive matrix of oyster bars that benefit from a perfect combination of nutrients and a mix of salt and freshwater. Oyster Bay and the adjacent Skipper Bay, known for their high quality oysters, comprise over 4,000 acres of marine habitat. Unfortunately, largely due to droughts and overharvesting before the BP oil spill in 2010, the natural oyster population in these two bays was devastated.
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As the result of an oyster restoration project conducted by Tallahassee State College, the native oysters are beginning to come back to life. Oyster domes built out of high strength concrete serve as structure for the native oysters to attach to and grow. There are currently 500 of these 400-pound hollow domes placed in these two bays and they seem to be working well.
There is also a thriving commercial oyster aquaculture operating in the bay. There are approximately 50 oyster leases that grow oysters in bags suspended from the surface. These leases enable oysters to be taken from these waters while the wild oysters recover. Both types of oysters help keep the water clean.
Recovery of wild oyster habitat bodes well for redfish, Like modern man, early inhabitants hunted and fished this area. Archeologists have found evidence of human activity here dating to 10,000 years ago. More recent studies have shown Swift Creek Native American burial mounds and villages dating to 800 A.D. Spanish explorers Ponce de Leon and Panfilo de Narvaez are thought to have visited these springs in the 1500s.
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Oyster Bay and adjacent Skipper Bay and Dickerson Bay provide the perfect layout for kayaks and small boats.
The Spears boat ramp accommodates many boat sizes and allows direct access to the springs and bay. It is located on the left of where Highway 365 ends at the water. The extensive oyster bars that lace these shallow bays reduce the wave action and wind while Piney Island further shields them with its two-mile long shell and salt marsh shoreline. A special five-mile boating trail called the “Inland Passage” starts at the Bottoms Road boat ramp and ends at Spring Creek. This stretch of water, part of the Apalachee Maritime Heritage Paddling Trail, offers boaters a remarkable view of natural N.W. Florida. Oystercatchers and a variety of other shorebirds are commonly seen along with fishing ospreys and bald eagles. This is not surprising since the St. Marks Wildlife Refuge surrounds this entire area. Also in the Refuge, Marsh Point Campsite is only a short distance from Spring Creek and is part of over 1,400 miles of hiking trails included in Florida’s National Scenic Trail system.
The Mercers, of TAB Oysters, farm-raise delicious market oysters on leased bottom. Around the oyster bars, grassflats and saltmarsh islands, anglers can catch redfish, flounder, sheepshead and speckled trout. Cobia and Spanish mackerel frequent the outer edges of Oyster Bay and Piney Island. This area has long been famous for the schools of mullet that frequent the bays and creeks. Early photos depict seine nets that were originally used for catching mullet but this evolved into gill nets and today only cast nets and small seines are used. These striped, or “black mullet” as they are also called, have a devoted following for them whether smoked, fried or for their rich orange roe.
