Located less than 5 miles from the Florida Panhandle mainland, Dog Island is one of America's most unspoiled and beautiful havens. Known for its pristine beaches, fantastic surf fishing, and beach combing this scarcely populated island is a refuge for loggerhead and leatherback turtles. More than half of the 1850 acres of Dog Island is in trust by the Nature Conservancy and is undeveloped.
Located just 55 miles from Tallahassee, the island sits in the sheltered St. George Sound and Apalachicola Bay and is accessible via water taxi or island ferry from Carrabelle, Florida. You can also fly via small aircraft, kayak, or take your own small boat out to the island. The only accommodations available on the island (even camping is prohibited due to the fragile ecosystem), the Pelican Inn sits directly on a white sand beach on the Gulf of Mexico and has an average year round temperature of 77 degrees.
Dog Island has evidence of human occupation going back as far as 8,000 years. According to one legend the Island derives its name from the Native American belief that the island resembles a crouching dog. Another idea is that the island is named after "Seadogs" another name for common sailors, who were put supposedly put ashore here to keep them from jumping ship while the ships were in port. The island has a rich maritme history that includes shipwrecks, smuggling, and piracy! Today Dog Island is a safe haven of white sand beaches, marshes rich with wildlife, and forests for you to explore.
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Do you like to kayak? You can rent kayaks in Carrabelle and take them over to Dog Island!
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Want to FLY to Dog Island? For complete aeronautical information about Dog Island Airport (Carrabelle, FL, USA), including location, runways, taxiways, navaids, radio frequencies and more go to http://www.airnav.com/airport/FA43 .
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Birds are everywhere on Dog Island. The island is home to more than 200 avian species thought the year. Many are permanent residents - heron, egrets, terns and a variety of shore birds like the snowy plover and black-bellied plover, ruddy turnstone, marbled godwit and the willet. Among the wintering birds are six kinds of sparrows and four kinds of wrens. The Carolina wren is a year-round resident. For the spring migration, birders visit Dog Island from the end of February through early April; the fall migration is from September through November.
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Fishing
The Gulf offers a large variety of fish for the avid fisherman/woman. Here are a few of the species to catch! You can find redfish, grouper, amberjack, cobia, wahoo, dolphin, red snapper, triggerfish black seabass, king and Spanish mackerel, pompano, sharks, kingfish and near shore fish such as trout, bluefish, and tarpon. In addition the bays are full of bait such as shrimp, finger mullet, greenies and small pogies.
For the most up to date information check out the FISHING REPORT for the area: http://www.floridasportsman.com/4cast/nw/
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