Moon Lake is not part of a chain. A roughly 95-acre cypress wetland east of the lake feeds it, and ditches and culverts off the south shore drain it through wetland ponds toward the Pithlachascotee River — none of it navigable. A boat launched at Moon Lake Park stays on Moon Lake. West Moon Lake, immediately west, is a separate waterbody with no mapped or described connection.
SWFWMD reads this lake monthly, and it is low: the June 2026 Hydrologic Conditions Report puts Moon Lake at 36.24 ft NGVD 29 — down 0.42 ft on the month, 1.82 ft on the year, and just under the adopted Low Guidance Level of 36.3 ft (the adopted Minimum Lake Level is 38.2 ft). The recorded swing here is a little over eight feet, from about 32.9 ft in the 2009 drought to above 41 ft in 1998 and 2004. The regional backdrop is dry too: SWFWMD's Modified Phase III “Extreme” water shortage restrictions cover all of Pasco County through October 1, 2026, though those govern water use, not launching. One caution if you open the monthly report yourself — its drought-year and normal-year columns are an older, different instrument from the 2015 adopted levels quoted here; compare the reading to the adopted levels.
Plain English Summary
| Park and ramp hours | Moon Lake Park is open 7 days a week from dawn to dusk, and "The boat ramp will close a half hour before the park closes." That is what FWC's cryptic "Dawn to 1/2 before Dusk" means. (Pasco County Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources) |
| What you may launch | Pasco County publishes a qualitative limit and no number: "There is a small boat ramp that can be used to launch canoes/kayaks and small powered engine boats," and "You can launch a small powered engine boat at the boat ramp and your canoe/kayak to the right of the beach area." No horsepower cap, length limit or electric-only rule appears in the sources we searched. |
| Swimming | Swimming is permitted at the designated beach with no lifeguards: "There is a beach area designated for swimming, however, there are no lifeguards on duty and you must swim at your own risk!" (Pasco County Parks) |
| Shore fishing | "Fishing access is allowed at the lake where posted" — the county signs where you may fish rather than opening the whole shoreline. Statewide Florida freshwater licence and bag rules apply. |
| Fees | No launch or parking fee here. Pasco County's $10-a-day boat parking (seven-day maximum, 24-hour period, debit/credit only — "No cash will be accepted") and its $75 resident / $100 non-resident annual passes apply only at Anclote River Park and Robert J. Strickland Memorial Park. |
| Dogs | County park rules bar dogs from playgrounds and play areas, athletic fields, basketball courts, shelters and pavilions, piers, swim areas and beaches — which at this park covers the multi-purpose court, the playground, the two shelters and the swimming beach. |
| Fish Management Area status | Moon Lake is not an FWC Fish Management Area, so no FMA bag, size or idle-speed rule attaches and statewide freshwater regulations govern. Pasco's only FMA on FWC's list is Middle Lake (200 acres), whose "Watercraft shall be operated at idle speed only" rule does not reach Moon Lake. |
| Boating restricted areas | No Pasco County rule appears in the chapter index of F.A.C. Chapter 68D-24 (Boating Restricted Areas), which lists 32 rules covering Sarasota, Broward, Pinellas, Dade, Manatee, Duval, Palm Beach and others. That is the chapter table of contents, not a full-text search of every rule. |
| Minimum levels (regulatory, not visitor-facing) | SWFWMD has adopted minimum and guidance levels for Moon Lake under Rule 40D-8.624, F.A.C., revised by rulemaking noticed December 21, 2016 (F.A.R. Vol. 42/246). These bind District permitting rather than a boater, but they are why this lake's stage is a regulatory matter. |
| Full legal text | Official boating regulations → |
How big is Moon Lake, and why do the numbers disagree?
How big a boat can I launch at Moon Lake Park?
Is there a fee to launch at Moon Lake Park?
Are there restrooms at Moon Lake Park?
What fish are in Moon Lake?
Can I get from Moon Lake to another lake or to the Gulf by boat?
Moon Lake is a clear-water lake in a sand-hill solution basin near New Port Richey — the karst pocket-lake country of west Pasco County, with circumneutral, low-nutrient water by SWFWMD's own description. The mapped shoreline works out to about 108 acres (a 144-acre figure belongs to a flood stage the lake has never recorded), houses ring it, and one 6.65-acre county park on the northeast shore does all the public work: a single-lane concrete ramp, ten paved trailer spaces, a separate canoe and kayak launch, an unguarded swim beach and a playground. Once you are afloat there is nowhere else to go.
Launching is free — unusual in a county that meters both of its other trailered ramps — and hours run dawn to dusk, with the ramp closing a half hour before the park. The county describes the ramp as for canoes, kayaks and “small powered engine boats” and never puts a number on small; if your boat is a boundary case, call (727) 457-2819. Watch your wake around the swim beach next door. The lake is low: SWFWMD's June 2026 reading of 36.24 ft NGVD 29 sits just under the bottom of its adopted range after a year of falling, and a shallow launch gets shallower on the way down. No agency publishes a depth or a species list for this water.