This is the Braden River, impounded: the John Ward Dam, a low weir built in 1936 about six miles above the river's mouth, holds the pool. Downstream is closed — “NO PORTAGE OVER DAM,” per the county, and the rocks below it are not safe to approach. Upstream, the backwater runs about six miles before the Braden narrows to its free-flowing channel. Six miles up and a hard wall down is the whole navigable picture.
No agency publishes a stage or a depth for this reservoir. The weir crest sits 3.82–4.10 ft above sea level, and the 1985–86 expansion dredged the channel to about 10 ft below sea level for a mile above the dam — roughly fourteen feet of water in that dredged reach at normal pool, though that figure is arithmetic from two elevations rather than a survey, and it does not describe the whole 359 acres. The one USGS gauge on the Braden measured the tidal reach below the dam and has been dark since 2009. Southwest Florida has been under an extreme water shortage order through October 1, 2026, and this is a municipal supply pool, so call Jiggs Landing at (941) 748-4501 before towing — no agency has said the reservoir is drawn down, but nobody is publishing a number either.
Plain English Summary
| The dam | No portage over the dam. Manatee County's Paddle Manatee guide states "NO PORTAGE OVER DAM" and warns "The low dam is guarded by rocks and is not safe to approach or climb." A vessel launched at Jiggs Landing cannot pass downstream to the Braden River estuary, the Manatee River or the Gulf. |
| Fishing licence | The licence type changes at the weir. Paddle Manatee reads: "a saltwater fishing license is needed north of the dam because the river is tidally-dominated, while a Florida freshwater fishing license is required (ages 16 and older) south (upstream) of the dam." Jiggs Landing is upstream, so you need a FRESHWATER licence. FWC's ramp inventory also codes both access points WaterType Freshwater. |
| Boat ramp gate | The ramp gate is open sunrise to sunset. Manatee County's 311 knowledgebase article 561 reads: "Boat ramps are open 24 hours except Jiggs Landing which is gated and open sunrise to sunset." Article 561 establishes that the card exists; it does not price it. For the price, Manatee County's ramp detail page gives $30 at the G.T. Bray Recreation Center as a one-time purchase with $5 replacements, while Your Observer (20 November 2025) calls it "a $30 annual G.T. Bray Park card." We publish the county's reading because it is the managing agency's own page, but the two disagree on whether the $30 recurs. |
| Preserve hours | Manatee County's Jiggs Landing Preserve page states "Preserve open daily 365 days a year from sunrise to sunset" (read 31 July 2026). Visitors without a gate card need to be off the property by sunset. |
| Motors | We found no horsepower or engine-size limit for Evers Reservoir in the Manatee County Boater's Guide, the Paddle Manatee guide, either Manatee County Jiggs Landing page, the county's 311 ramp article, or the City of Bradenton's Bill Evers Reservoir page. The 20-horsepower cap people quote belongs to a different water: the Boater's Guide reads "Only boats equipped with an engine of 20 h.p. or less may operate on Lake Manatee." Two sources that could carry a zone rule we could not open — FWC's Manatee County manatee protection zone map (blocked by robots.txt) and Manatee County Code Chapter 2-32, Waterways (HTTP 403). |
| Speed zones | The Manatee County Boater's Guide shows a "Regulated Channel - 25 mph" designation on the Braden River and places Jiggs Landing inside a slow-speed / minimum-wake zone per its legend. We could not establish that guide's publication date, and it is demonstrably stale in at least one respect, so treat the mapped zones as unverified vintage and obey posted signage on the water. |
| Fish consumption | The Florida Department of Health mercury advisory is a health guideline, not a possession limit. Normal FWC freshwater bag and size limits apply on top of it. |
| Full legal text | Official boating regulations → |
Is Evers Reservoir the same thing as Ward Lake?
Can I run from Jiggs Landing down to the Manatee River or the Gulf?
Is there a horsepower limit on Evers Reservoir?
Freshwater or saltwater licence?
Is it really free to launch?
Can you swim in Evers Reservoir?
Evers Reservoir does not look or fish like a lake because it is not one — it is the middle six miles of the Braden River backed up behind a low weir east of Bradenton, about 359 acres of narrow, tannic water lined with oaks and cypress. It has worn three names: Ward Lake until the 1985 expansion, Bill Evers Reservoir since, Evers Reservoir on the county's signs. It is also the City of Bradenton's drinking-water supply. The trip is up-and-back rather than out-and-around — the water dead-ends at a dam with no portage, and about six miles of oxbowed backwater run upstream before the river narrows.
The one public way on is Jiggs Landing Preserve, a 1944 fish camp Manatee County bought in 2007 and rebuilt rather than bulldozed — cracker cabins on the bank, a bait shop, a pier, a single concrete lane and five trailer spaces. Launching is free in daylight; after-hours access takes a $30 gate card from the G.T. Bray Recreation Center. You need a freshwater license above the dam, saltwater below it. Three species are agency-confirmed — largemouth bass, bluegill and redear — and the mercury advisory runs counterintuitively: bluegill, not bass, carries the one-meal-a-month limit for women of childbearing age and young children. Call the landing at (941) 748-4501 for conditions.