winter park chain kayak fishing

Happy Sunday Spacefish,

Hello and Happy Easter! I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend! My wife and I had the day off from school on Friday, our kids stayed with their grandparents so we decided to get up early and go fish and paddle somewhere that has been on our list to go check out for some time, the Winter Park Chain of Lakes. From our house it was roughly an hour drive, but for those living on the north end of Brevard County/Space Coast it is probably closer to 45ish minutes.

The reason this has been on our list is I read an article about kayaking this chain on Paddle Florida, and showed my wife, it’s a place that runs a lot of guided sightseeing kayaking tours, as well as scenic boat tours, which have been a Florida Tourist attraction since the 1930’s and was originally called the “Venice of America Tour.” The reason it is called that is due to the canals that were dug out in the 1800’s by logging men to be able to float lumber down the lakes. These canals are absolutely gorgeous and lined with tropical foliage and ferns and flora and all that good stuff. In the middle of one of America’s fastest growing urban areas it was really cool to be able to spend some time on the water and experience a beautiful aesthetic, with healthy populations of birds and fish that call this chain of lakes home. Florida is growing everyday, I have heard 1,000 people a day are moving here, so what does this mean for our fisheries? Well, if we can look at this chain of lakes, it is something that gives me hope. I really appreciate the people, and the city of Winter Park for taking care of this fishery, and by the amount of people we saw out on guided tours, it is proof that healthy waters are also an economic boost to the communities that have them. With that being said, on to the fishing report!

Where to Launch:
We launched from Dinky Dock Park located on

Lake Virginia:
We didn’t cover as much ground here, I guess because it is where we started and where we ended. I did want to work through the canal and go over to Lake Mizell but we decided to save that for last, and ended up spending a lot of time on Osceola, and we never made it over. We fished a couple hundred yards west of the launch spot, and from Dinky Dock to the canal that connects to Osceola. I caught 4 in the lake, all around the docks, and my wife caught 1. I started the day throwing a Booyah Pond Magic White spinner bait with a Pearl White DOA CAL Shad paddle tail, and a Rapala Skitter Walk SW-08 in Holographic Silver. I ended up catching 1 on the Skitter Walk, 2 on the Pond Magic, and another one on a Junebug Red Zoom Ultra Vibe. This will be a consistent theme, but my wife caught all of hers on a Zoom Ultra Vibe in Watermelon Red, Texas Rigged with a pegged ⅛ oz tungsten weight. She also had a Culprit Ribbontail Worm, but preferred the speed worm.

Lake Osceola:
We spent the most time at this lake. I really like fishing lily pads, there are a ton of lily pads here. My wife caught some around docks on her Watermelon Red Zoom Ultra Vibe, I fished a Black Terminator Walking Frog around the pads. I didn’t catch anything overly impressive but anytime the fish are hitting the frog it’s hard to turn away from. Once that bite finally died down I fished the speed worm, Junebug Red around the edges of pads and under docks, and Watermelon Red out in the sun baked open waters where the depth changed. I ended up catching 9 on our way through Osceola, and my wife caught 7.

lake osceola bass

There are a ton of Lily Pads on Lake Osceola, the Frog bite was really good when we were there this past weekend.

Lake Maitland:
We didn’t explore as much of this lake due to it being the 3rd one we got to, but it is a great lake for those that like Cypress trees. There are a couple of large ones out in the middle of the lake, but there are Cypress knees all over the southern shoreline. Neither of us caught anything beyond dinks out of this lake, but we also got to it later in the day, around 12:30ish, so it is likely that the good bite window was probably already over for the most part. My wife continued fishing the Watermelon Red Zoom Ultra Vibe, and I got my bites from the same bait in Junebug Red. I ended up catching 2, and my wife caught 4.

The Lake I Want to Go Back For:
Lake Nina, it is the most isolated and smallest of them all, looking at it from satellite maps, I have a feeling that this will be the best one to fish. But I do plan on going back and trying to fish them all at some point. We wanted to go to Lake Mizell, I have heard about good fishing there, but we ran out of time.

Great Place to Stop/Rest/Have Lunch:
The Kraft Azalea Garden on the southern shore of Lake Maitland. This picture-esque garden has paths you can walk to enjoy the scenery. They have great places to sit under the shade of large Cypress trees while you enjoy looking out over the lake. If you like to get out early and fish, and you pack a lunch, this is the ideal spot!

Confession Time:
I was so worried about my wife having a great time, I really wanted her to have a great experience Bass fishing from the kayak. By the time we poked through the canal linking Virginia to Osceola the gloves came off and I had to get to work because she was out fishing me! I had the lead going into Maitland and she fished the offshore depth contour, and I worked the Cypress trees and she almost caught me. After we had our stroll, snack, rest time at the Kraft Azalea Garden we started the trek back to the launch spot, we both kept trying to get as many casts in as we were trying to gain and regain the upper hand. That morning I was worried about her having a good time, as we paddled back in, I began to worry that I created a monster, because she may now be hooked more than any of the Bass we hooked that day.

Word of Caution:
The tour boats are actually pretty annoying once they are running a full 6 boat fleet. They rip across the lakes when they’re in transit creating pretty big wakes, they also will shut down the canals for a good 10 minutes to all get through, so make sure you actually read the signs on the entrance to the canals about expected times that the tours come through because these pontoons take up the entire canal once they’re rolling. Luckily for us the one time we were caught we were able to get under a bridge and let them pass, but there are other areas where this wouldn’t have been possible. Lake Maitland had a ton of jet skiers and water skiers. I find jet skiers to be pretty annoying all in all, It would not hurt my feelings to never see another jet skier or jet ski in Florida ever again (sorry if you are a jet ski enthusiast) but they are loud, and they seem to bring out the worst levels of idiot behavior in human beings.

Conclusion:
If you’re looking to enjoy something different, see some cool stuff, and just fish a different fishery, I highly encourage you to check this place out, I think you will really enjoy your time out on the water here. As far as the drive goes, it really wasn’t that much worse than driving to Fox Lake, or down to Stick Marsh for me, an extra 15 minutes or so each way. But if you’re reading this site because you’re flying down into Orlando, and you may not have time to get over to the actual space coast, this is a cool place to check out if you are confined to Orlando.

Until next time!