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A place in the wilderness

Filled with the beauty and wonders of nature, Edward Medard Reservoir is an oasis where visitors can step away from their busy lives.

By BEN MONTGOMERY
Published September 22, 2006

Out on Edward Medard Reservoir, caught between sky and the dark bottoms and the suburbs, it's easy to forget where you are, and isn't that what we're really looking for?

This is where the surface fish do the dance of death with hungry birds, where the gators slide into the cool water without sound, where those without wings or gills or fur or scales come to feel like intruders.

And this is where those intruders, on a recent morning, sat at a pavilion near the boat launch, their lunch in a cooler, their poles in their pickups.

"I'm coming here four years straight," said Nathaniel Leynn, 65, who drops his wife at work on the way out. "Every day. Sometimes I fish, sometimes I just sit."

The men meet here - Nate, Abraham, Joe, John and the others - to drop lines in the water and spit stories onto the picnic table.

This reservoir, formerly known as Pleasant Grove, is a 770-acre reclaimed phosphate mine with an irregular shoreline and bottom contour. The American Cyanamid Co. gave the majority of the property to the Southwest Florida Water Management District in 1969 after the company mined phosphate in the previous decades.

The mine was dug across a 2-mile length of the Little Alafia River. In the early 1970s, a dike was built and Hillsborough County parks developed the site. It was renamed a few years later in honor of a water district board member.

As the suburbs have crept east, Medard Reservoir, about 6 miles southeast of Brandon off Turkey Creek Road, has become a refuge from them: a place to see a gopher tortoise chug across green grass, to watch waterbugs tango, to pay close attention to an in-flight osprey with lunch in its grip.

With 440,000 visitors a year, it's the second most popular of Hillsborough County's 10 regional parks. Only Lettuce Lake Park on Fletcher Avenue in Tampa is busier.

The fertile impoundment is about 30 feet at its deepest, and the fishing has always been good.

"People ask, 'Where's the best place to go fishing?' " said John Brill, spokesman for the parks department. "Well, Medard's the answer."

Ask John Hood, who has run these woods for 50 years now.

His take? Nile perch, brim, tilapia, specks, bass, shell crackers. Into his frame fly turkey buzzards, osprey, pelicans, cranes and herons.

He fishes Burnt Stump when the temperature is right and gives what he gets to his friends. Then he squats with them in a pavilion, cursing the buzzards and netters, because something always sours what's perfect.

"Other than that, we love this place," he said. "It's something to get away to."

Ben Montgomery can be reached at bmontgomery@sptimes.com or 813-661-2443.

Edward Medard Reservoir

To get there: Take State Road 60 east of Brandon. Turn south on Turkey Creek Road. Park entrance is on Turkey Creek Road, 1 mile south of SR 60.

Cost: Free entry, but donations are accepted

Hours: 6 a.m. to sunset

Pets: Must be leashed

Camping: 40 full-service sites; no reservations; fee

Facilities: Showers, restrooms, fishing pier, playground equipment, horseshoe pits, shelters, grills, picnic areas

[Last modified September 21, 2006, 07:09:35]