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Home › Waters › Florida › Lake Rosalie
Lake · Central Florida, Polk County, the upper Kissimmee chain of lakes southeast of Lake Wales · Florida

Lake Rosalie Fishing Guides

A quiet Polk County bass lake in the upper Kissimmee chain, ringed with bulrush and pads and far less pressured than the famous waters a few miles east of it.

A small boat pulled up on a calm reservoir bank at sunset
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Lake Rosalie

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About the Lake Rosalie

Lake Rosalie covers roughly forty-three hundred acres in eastern Polk County, southeast of Lake Wales, and sits within the upper Kissimmee chain without carrying the name recognition of its neighbours. It connects through Rosalie Creek toward Tiger Lake and the broader chain, which keeps water moving and gives fish a route in and out. The gauge reads lake elevation, which on a shallow Florida lake is the single most useful number an angler can check.

This is classic central Florida bass water. Depth runs shallow throughout, the bottom is sand and organic muck, and the shoreline carries a heavy fringe of bulrush, maidencane and scattered lily pads. Offshore, hydrilla and eelgrass form in patches depending on the year and on treatment history. The lake is rimmed by ranch land and pine flatwoods rather than development, so the setting stays quiet and the pressure stays comparatively light.

Largemouth bass are the reason anglers come. The fishery is built on shoreline vegetation, the outside edges of the bulrush and whatever offshore grass has established that season. Black crappie are a strong winter draw and are fished by drifting the open basin. Bluegill and redear sunfish are abundant through the warm months and redear in particular reach good size on the shell beds. Warmouth, channel catfish, bowfin, longnose gar and sunshine bass round out what an angler can expect.

Florida water levels swing with the wet and dry seasons rather than with snowmelt, and a low spring can leave ramps marginal while a wet summer floods the shoreline vegetation and scatters fish.

Access is limited but adequate, with a county ramp on the lake and a full service base in Lake Wales. Because the lake sees far less traffic than the marquee waters a short drive east, an angler willing to trade a famous name for elbow room is generally rewarded here.

This water needs a real photo

The photo at the top of this page is not Lake Rosalie.

It is a regional stand-in, honestly captioned but generic — we will not put a name to a river we cannot prove. Send us a photograph you took here and it replaces the stand-in, with your credit on it.

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Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Pool right now

53.59ft NGVD29
  • 24 hours-0.01 ft → steady
  • For the dateLow for the date

Reading taken 54 min ago at USGS 02268600, LAKE ROSALIE NEAR LAKE WALES, FL. Elevation is the surface of the lake above the survey datum, not depth. Source.

Fished this water? Add a photo

Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Lake Rosalie.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Lake level alert

Tell me when the pool at Lake Rosalie ft (NGVD29)

Now: 53.59 ft pool elevation, read 5:30 pm CDT, Sun Oct 18, 2026 (USGS 02268600, LAKE ROSALIE NEAR LAKE WALES, FL).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

Lake Wales - the nearest town of size, with lodging, fuel, tackle and guides.
Lake Rosalie Park - the Polk County public ramp and shoreline access on the lake.
Rosalie Creek - the connecting water toward Tiger Lake and the rest of the chain.
Tiger Lake - the neighbouring chain lake, reachable by boat in normal water.
Lake Kissimmee State Park - public land and access a short drive east.
Lake Weohyakapka - another quiet Polk County bass lake nearby.
River Ranch - the nearest services on the eastern side of the chain.

Seasons

Spring: the spawn brings the best bass fishing of the year along the bulrush and into the pads.
Summer: hot and stable, with early morning topwater and offshore grass edges through the day.
Fall: cooling water spreads bass out and the shoreline fishing picks back up.
Winter: black crappie take over as the main draw and bass fishing turns slower but larger.

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Questions

What species can you catch on the Lake Rosalie?

Anglers target Black Crappie, Bluegill, Bowfin, Channel Catfish, Largemouth Bass, Longnose Gar, Redear Sunfish, Sunshine Bass, Warmouth on the Lake Rosalie in Florida.

Where can you access the Lake Rosalie?

Lake Wales - the nearest town of size, with lodging, fuel, tackle and guides. Lake Rosalie Park - the Polk County public ramp and shoreline access on the lake. Rosalie Creek - the connecting water toward Tiger Lake and the rest of the chain. Tiger Lake - the neighbouring chain lake, reachable by boat in normal water. Lake Kissimmee State Park - public land and access a short drive east. Lake Weohyakapka - another quiet Polk County bass lake nearby. River Ranch - the nearest services on the eastern side of the chain.

When is the best time to fish the Lake Rosalie?

Spring: the spawn brings the best bass fishing of the year along the bulrush and into the pads. Summer: hot and stable, with early morning topwater and offshore grass edges through the day. Fall: cooling water spreads bass out and the shoreline fishing picks back up. Winter: black crappie take over as the main draw and bass fishing turns slower but larger.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Lake Rosalie?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Florida agency site: https://myfwc.com/fishing/freshwater/regulations/