UTERFlorida's artificial reef locations are public: FWC publishes every permitted reef deployment as an interactive map, a spreadsheet and GIS files, and many coastal counties publish their own reef lists with GPS numbers. FWC counts more than 4,548 planned public artificial reefs in Florida's state and federal waters since the 1940s, from reef balls in 20 feet of water off the beach to sunken ships in 100 feet and more.
Artificial reefs are some of the best public fishing spots in the state. You don't need a secret GPS number from a captain. You need the public list, a depth finder and a bit of etiquette. This guide shows where the data comes from, how to find reefs on a map, what lives on them and how to fish them.
How Florida's artificial reef program works
FWC's Artificial Reef Program gives grants and technical help to coastal counties, cities, nonprofits and state universities to build and monitor reefs. According to FWC, only state or local coastal governments can build reefs, and only in authorized, permitted areas. FWC doesn't issue the permits itself: the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection do. Private individuals can deploy reefs only in Escambia, Bay and Okaloosa counties, inside existing county permit areas.
After each deployment, the permit holder files a Material Placement Report with the verified location, and FWC adds it to the statewide database. That's why the public list is so complete: every legal public reef should be in it.
Where to get the reef locations
1. FWC's statewide list
FWC's Locate an Artificial Reef page offers the same data in four forms:
- An interactive map viewer, good for browsing a county from your couch.
- A PDF list of deployments.
- An Excel spreadsheet of reef locations.
- Shapefile and KML downloads through FWC's open-data site, for GIS tools and Google Earth.
FWC's GIS layer gives each deployment the reef name, the latitude and longitude, the depth, the county and what was sunk: reef balls, concrete culverts, bridge rubble, a barge, a tug.
2. County reef programs
The counties build the reefs, and many publish their own lists, sometimes with newer deployments or more detail than the state file. Strong county programs include Escambia, Okaloosa and Bay in the Panhandle, Pinellas and Hillsborough around Tampa Bay, Lee, Charlotte and Collier in Southwest Florida, and Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, Volusia and St. Johns on the Atlantic. Search "[county name] artificial reef program" to find the county's page.
3. NOAA nautical charts
NOAA's charts mark wrecks, obstructions and rocks, some of which are old shipwrecks and some of which are reef material. They're a good cross-check, and they cover hard structure the reef program didn't put there.
A warning about accuracy
FWC itself warns that reef materials can move, degrade or become buried over time, and that some entries rest on historical data with locations that haven't been verified since deployment. Hurricanes move light material. Treat any published number as "the reef is near here" and confirm it on your sonar.
Find artificial reefs in Fish Scouter
Downloading a spreadsheet and typing numbers into a plotter works, but it's slow. Fish Scouter does that part for you. We imported FWC's statewide artificial reef layer, the county reef lists, and NOAA's charted wrecks, obstructions and rocks, and put them all on one map alongside tens of thousands of other spots.
- Open the Map tab. The default Structure filter shows reefs, wrecks, ledges, hard bottom and jetties within 30 miles of you or the place you searched.
- Switch to satellite or the NOAA chart if you want to see the depth contours around a reef.
- Tap a reef. The spot card shows its name, kind, depth, county and source, with the position in decimal degrees and in degrees-minutes for the plotter.
- Save it, copy the numbers or open it in Google Maps. On the Captain plan and up you can export your saved spots as GPX to Navionics, Garmin and other plotters.
- Check the forecast for that spot. The species ranking, the tide and the wind tell you whether today is a reef day.
We did the merge carefully: where a county list repeats a reef FWC already lists, we kept one pin instead of two. A reef site that FWC records as ten deployments a few meters apart shows as one spot. If you know a public reef that's missing, you can add it yourself by typing its coordinates, and share it with us to publish.
What lives on Florida's artificial reefs
| Reef type | Typical depth | What you'll catch |
|---|---|---|
| Nearshore reefs (reef balls, culverts, rubble) | 15–40 ft | Sheepshead (winter), mangrove snapper, black sea bass, spadefish, gag in winter, kingfish and cobia passing through |
| Mid-depth Gulf reefs and wrecks | 40–90 ft | Gag, red grouper, mangrove snapper, triggerfish, goliath grouper on the big wrecks |
| Deep Panhandle reefs and ships | 80–130 ft and more | Red snapper, amberjack, triggerfish, vermilion snapper |
| Atlantic reefs and wrecks | 50–120 ft | Mutton and mangrove snapper, amberjack, cobia, kingfish; sailfish on the reef edge in winter |
Red snapper, grouper, amberjack and triggerfish all have their own seasons, sizes and bag limits that differ between the Gulf and Atlantic and between state and federal waters. Check FWC's saltwater rules before every reef trip. Goliath grouper rules are their own story; check before you touch one.
How to fish an artificial reef
- Find it on sonar first. Idle past the numbers and watch for the structure and the fish marks. The fish often hold on the up-current side.
- Anchor up-current. Drop your anchor well up-current and let the boat fall back so your baits sink onto the reef, not into it. Never anchor directly on the structure; it damages the reef and costs you anchors.
- Chum. A frozen chum block brings snapper and bait up off the bottom.
- Match the rig to the target. A knocker rig or a fish-finder rig with a live pinfish or cigar minnow for grouper and red snapper; a light leader and a small hook free-lined in the chum for mangrove snapper; a fiddler crab tight to the structure for sheepshead.
- Use a descending device. Fish pulled up from deep water often suffer barotrauma. A descending device gets released fish back down fast. Federal and state rules about carrying one have changed over the years; check FWC and NOAA Fisheries for what applies now.
Reef etiquette
Public reefs are shared, and a few manners keep them fishable for everyone.
- First boat there gets the spot. If a boat is anchored on a small reef, find another. There are thousands of them.
- Give room. Don't anchor so close that your line or anchor rode crosses another boat's. On bigger reef sites, fish a different piece of the site.
- Watch for divers. Many reefs are popular dive sites. Stay well away from a dive flag and never drift or troll through one.
- Don't run over another boat's chum slick. It's their fish.
- Keep the reef clean. Take your line, hooks and trash home. Lost line tangles the reef and the fish.
- Don't build your own. Dropping material outside a permitted area isn't a private reef; FWC calls it a permit violation that may be illegal ocean dumping.
Best times to fish the reefs
Nearshore reefs fish well from late fall through spring: sheepshead stack on them in late winter, and kingfish and cobia move over them in spring and fall. Summer is prime for snapper at night and for deeper grouper trips on calm mornings. A moderate tide and a light wind make anchoring easy. See Florida fishing in December and the Florida fishing calendar for the seasons.
Every public reef, on one map
We think Fish Scouter is the best app for finding Florida's public reefs: FWC's reefs, the county lists and NOAA's charted wrecks are already on the map, with depth and coordinates in both formats, and the forecast for each one. Try Fish Scouter free and find your next reef.