Welaka has one public boat ramp and one kayak launch. The Welaka Boat Ramp on Elm Street has two lanes of poured concrete and a dock, and it is where you launch a boat in this town. Bryant's Wharf Kayak Launch is for kayaks and paddle craft, with a floating dock and a viewing area.
If the ramp is stacked up, Shell Harbour Boat Ramp is a few minutes up the road at 141 Shell Harbour Rd in Satsuma. The rest of this page is what to do with the day around it.
Welaka Boat Ramp
On Elm Street, two lanes of poured concrete with a dock. This is the town's public ramp and the one everybody means when they say "the ramp." FWC lists it as a public access point for the St. Johns striped bass fishery.
Two lanes matters on a Saturday in February. One boat launching does not hold up the whole line, which is worth something when it is the only ramp in town.
Shell Harbour Boat Ramp, Satsuma
141 Shell Harbour Rd, Satsuma, FL 32189. Not in Welaka, just up the road.
Worth knowing for one reason: it is the alternative when the Welaka ramp is backed up on a Saturday morning in February. Same river, different launch point, short drive.
You cannot get there in a golf cart. It is outside town limits and the roads between are posted above 35, so it is a truck trip with the boat behind you anyway.
Bryant's Wharf Kayak Launch
The kayak ramp. Paddle craft, not boats. Floating dock, a scenic viewing area, and people fishing and shrimping right off it. In September and October the shrimping crowd is the reason the lights are on out there after dark. See Shrimping in Welaka.
The floating dock is the part that matters if you have ever tried to get into a kayak off a fixed seawall. Restrooms on site is not nothing either.
When should you go?
Early. The first two hours after sunrise is the best window on this stretch of the St. Johns, and it is also when the ramp is busiest.
Weekends from mid-February through April are the peak of bass spawning season and the ramp shows it. October and November are strong too and quieter. If your schedule is flexible, a Tuesday morning in November is a very different experience from a Saturday in March.
Ramp etiquette, briefly
Locals will not say this to your face, so here it is:
- Prep in the lot, not on the ramp. Plugs in, straps off, gear loaded before you back down.
- Back down, unload, move the truck. Somebody is waiting.
- Leave room for the next truck to swing a trailer around. Parking here is informal, so it only works if everybody thinks about the person behind them.
- Same in reverse at the end of the day, when everybody is tired and less patient.
None of this is complicated. All of it gets noticed.
Where does the golf cart come in?
You cannot tow a boat with a cart, and nobody is suggesting you try. What the cart does is everything around the launch.
The gear run. Rods, cooler, tackle bag from wherever you are staying to the ramp, without loading and unloading a car twice.
The ice and bait run. You will forget something. You always forget something. A cart makes that a five-minute errand instead of a decision about whether it is worth moving the truck. Welaka Fish, Crab and Bait at 676 3rd Ave has bait, fresh fish and the blue crabs it is known for. Betcha Bass Bait Shack carries live wild shiners, minnows and worms.
The pickup. Somebody drives the boat back, somebody else brings the cart down. Nobody walks.
The rest of the day. When you get off the water at two in the afternoon, the cart is what gets everybody to lunch without changing clothes or finding parking.
Where do you park the cart while you are on the water?
Out of the way of trailers, which is the only real rule. Ramp lots are laid out for trucks pulling twenty feet of boat, and a cart parked in the turning path will annoy every single person who arrives after you.
Our carts are street-legal LSVs, insured and registered like any vehicle, and they sit fine at a ramp for the day. Take the key.
What are you fishing for?
Largemouth bass first, which is what earned Welaka the Bass Capital of the World name. FWC also lists striped bass, sunshine bass, bluegill, redear sunfish and brown bullhead for this stretch. Plus shrimp, in the fall run.
Peak spawning runs mid-February through April. October and November are the other strong stretch.
Fishing Welaka: What to Know Before You Come goes deeper on seasons, where to stay and licenses.
No boat?
Welaka Boat Rentals rents 20-foot Bennington pontoons, the Fisher and the Lounge, each holding up to eight people. Full day $375, half day $275, plus tax and fuel. Multi-day rentals by phone. They operate out of Port Cove RV Resort and Marina at 107 Prt Cv Lndg Rd in Georgetown, and book online or at (386) 916-1900.
One thing to sort before you go. Florida requires anyone born on or after January 1, 1988 to pass an approved boater safety course before operating a vessel with 10 horsepower or more. There is an exemption if somebody 18 or older with a boater education ID card is aboard and responsible. Handle that before you show up, not at the dock.
Rent the boat, rent the cart, and the only thing left to figure out is where the fish are.
On guides and charters: ask at Welaka Fish, Crab and Bait at 676 3rd Ave or Betcha Bass Bait Shack. They will tell you who is running trips.
Getting a cart for your boating weekend
$80 a day for a 4-seater, $95 for a 6-seater, two-day minimum. Delivered charged to where you are staying, free inside Welaka city limits, with a cable so you can plug in overnight. Every driver 21 or older with a license and proof of their own auto insurance.
Book online. Staying outside Welaka? Call (386) 603-0295 first to confirm we can deliver to you.
Read next: Golf Cart Rentals in Welaka, FL, Fishing Welaka and Things to Do in Welaka by Golf Cart