anclote river yacht club

• What Rocks:
• Hall Pass Cash
• The Rocker Rides
• City of Kalamazoo Construction Info
• Seize The Deal
• Workplace of the Week
• SWMI Golf Card
• win first beer w/ presidential brewing

Behold The Anclote Boat Club

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter

A few years back, My wife and I went to Florida to visit the in-laws in Palm Harbor just north of Clearwater.  My father-in-law took us to one of the dumpiest dive bars I've ever seen, The Anclote River Boat Club.  It is south of Tarpon Springs off of US-19.  This place is memorable the moment you see it.  There's a boat stuck in a tree, there are cats and raccoon's running around and the place looks like it is about ready to fall into the river.  Once inside, there is a jukebox (with plenty of Country and Southern Rock on it). an actual bar, bra's hanging around and writing everywhere (you can sign anywhere you please).  They only had like a couple of beers on tap and I believe wine which is all served in solo cups.  My father-in-law told me they actually do a Sunday Buffet.  So if you are brave and around Tarpon Springs, Florida search for this gem.

More From 107.7 WRKR-FM

• Tarpon Springs, Florida /

Anclote River Boat Club

Here you can drink good beer . The intimate atmosphere of this bar allows visitors to relax after a hard working day. Anclote River Boat Club is ranked 4.6 within the Google grading system.

Restaurant menu

Similar restaurants nearby

Tasty dishes in tarpon springs.

Restaurant features in Tarpon Springs

• Advertising
• Coverage Area
• Privacy Policy and Terms

Anclote River Boat Club

Upcoming Events

Venue Sign in | Artist Sign in | Contact GoTonight | Advertise on our site | GoBooking with Sheree Talent Agency

© 2024 - GoTonight - Helping You Find Local Live Music. All Rights Reserved. GoTonight SM & WhereWillWeGoTonight SM are service marks of GoTonight, LLC Database name: GoTonight2020

• North America

The Boat Club – Tarpon Springs, FL

After hearing from various readers about The Boat Club in Tarpon Springs, Florida, we decided to do some research on the place, which proved to be quite a challenge. There is no website, and in true dive bar fashion, no one there bothers to answer the phone very often.

However, as is often the case in pursuing life’s hidden treasures, our persistence paid off. This place truly seems like an iconic dive bar gem.

Located on the Anclote River, finding the bar is the first challenge. Though it sounds easy enough (“it’s behind the animal hospital”), many patrons say it doesn’t seem to have an address that can be easily found by GPS, as it is tucked away on a dark, lonely path in the woods—which may be why many customers prefer to arrive by boat.

Calling this establishment a dive bar may be over-glamorizing the place. By all accounts, The Boat Club could more accurately be described as a “shanty” bar. The building is a crudely built shack that has been there for over 90 years (allegedly). It leans at a 20-degree angle, the roof looks as if it might cave in at any moment, and the deck over the river is partially engineered with duct tape and bungee cords, according to some patrons.

If you’re a germaphobe, this is not the spot for you. Many customers mention how dirty it is, and we encountered many warnings to avoid visiting the bathrooms at all costs. In spite of all that, The Boat Club has a ramshackle kind of charm, which the rickety, old furniture only enhances.

For entertainment, there is a jukebox and a pool table. The place is also known for its open jam sessions on Mondays in the late afternoon. Musicians are encouraged to come by with their instruments to have some fun.

The Boat Club comes through where it really counts; there are friendly customers and welcoming bartenders who offer plenty of cold beer and wine served in plastic cups. They take a simple approach to their drink menu: no hard alcohol is served.

Though we were unable to reach anyone by phone to ask about drink specials, we did see posters advertising a free pulled pork sandwich, Bud and Bud Light bottles for $2.50, and Bud Light on draft for $1.75 during one of the jam sessions. There is often live music on Sunday afternoons, as well, and they sometimes offer BBQ chicken, grilled in the gravel lot next to the bar.

The Boat Club, in all of its decrepit, wacky splendor, could be a setting in a Carl Hiassen novel about old Florida. Untouched by modern conveniences, it has colorful characters, a mysterious location, and offers a rollicking good time. In case you need it spelled out for you, be sure to bring cash. They don’t take credit cards, and we’re told there is no ATM.

Location: Tarpon Springs, FL

Be sure to try: a nice cold bottle of beer (You have no choice but to stick to the classics here.)

Also Read 20 BEST DIVE BARS IN CALIFORNIA 

Share this post

Submit a comment cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Want us to feature your favorite dive?

Tell us about it here!

Recent Posts

• Best Rooftop Bars in Phoenix: Enjoy a Drink with a View February 12, 2024
• 22 Best Rooftop Bars in Madrid: Top Spots for a Scenic Drink February 12, 2024
• Best Rooftop Bars in Florence: Enjoy a Drink with a View February 12, 2024
• 13 Best Rooftop Bars in New Orleans: Enjoy the City’s Skyline with a Drink February 12, 2024
• 15 Best Rooftop Bars in Rome: Enjoy a Drink with a View February 11, 2024

Error: No feed found.

Please go to the Instagram Feed settings page to create a feed.

• Pasco County website for Anclote River Park

River's history runs deep, from pirates to pariahs

• Craig Pittman Former Times Reporter

The early settlers of Elfers had their own name for the Anclote River. In the dry season the river was shallow, and in the wet season it was boggy. The settlers often had trouble getting their boats in and out, so they called it Trouble Creek.

The Anclote has seen its share of trouble and sorrow, death and disaster.

In 1968 a sinkhole opened under the U.S. 19 bridge. When the span collapsed, two cars plunged into the water, killing a Tarpon Springs woman.

Four years ago a convicted murderer escaped from a psychiatric hospital at the mouth of the Anclote by shucking his pajamas and diving into the river. Police caught him three months later in Indiana.

That same year, two fishermen tangled with a rifle-toting crabber when their boat motor snagged one of his trap lines near the mouth of the Anclote.

The crabber rammed them, shot one man in the leg and sank their boat. Then he and another man pursued them around an island all night, hollering, "We're going to kill you!"

But the men escaped to tell their story in court, and a judge sentenced the crabber to two years in prison.

The grisliest incident in the river's history dates back to the Civil War.

During the war, Confederate smugglers often hid from deep-hulled Union gunboats in the Anclote's shallow riverbed. Yankee troops landed at the river's mouth to launch a raid on Brooksville.

In 1864, a group of Confederate deserters, Union sympathizers and escaped slaves camped at the mouth of the Anclote, hoping to be picked up by a Union boat. They built a bonfire to attract attention.

They attracted attention, but not the kind they had hoped for. Rebel soldiers led by Capt. Samuel Hope surprised the fugitives and hanged them all.

Later settlers named the site Deserters Hill and turned it into a picnic spot.

Hope, one of the first surveyors to map the Anclote, also was the first big landowner along the river. After the war, he and his wife lived in the little riverfront village of Anclote. But they moved inland after their son drowned, said Hope researcher Barbara Vinson.

Smugglers hid out in the Anclote again during Prohibition, running contraband booze and illegal aliens for Tampa's underworld.

Tarpon Springs police think smugglers still use the river, said Harbormaster Bill Schaibly. Now, though, it's not bootleg whiskey they're bringing in, but cocaine and marijuana. And Schaibly figures the Anclote may get more smuggling traffic soon.

"As the economy continues to nosedive, I think we're going to see more of it," Schaibly said. "You go down the river, and you'll see a lot of boats for sale that 10 years ago would've been out fishing."

Schaibly has tried to cut down on some of the fishing that used to be popular on the Anclote: netting mullet.

It's against the law to net mullet in the river. But when the price of mullet roe gets up to $1.50 a pound, some people think it's worth the risk. Rumor has it that one boat netted 8,000 pounds in a single night, Schaibly said.

When the mullet are running, Schaibly patrols in his police boat from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m., plotting his course from his memory of the river.

"I had to learn it or die," he said. "When you run it at night with the lights off, it gets kind of hairy."

Another set of criminals frequent the Anclote _ thieves. Stolen goods ranging from shopping carts to communion plates have wound up in the river.

The biggest haul of all came up six years ago near the Perrine Ranch Road bridge. The Pasco sheriff's dive team jumped into the Anclote on a training exercise and stumbled onto a stolen car.

The Anclote might hold richer treasures. In 1828 U.S. Army officer George McCall, sailing up the Gulf coast, reported that pirates camped on Anclote Key.

McCall also wrote that he and his crew "feasted morning, noon and night" on turtles, oysters, venison and turkey they found upriver.

The river's natural bounty, though diminished, still draws those who would partake of it. Anglers vie for snook, redfish, flounder and sheepshead. On warm nights boaters go fire-fishing _ catching fish by following the streak of phosphorescence that trails them as they swim through the dark water.

That natural bounty also draws the curious. From the 1880s on, entrepreneurs have offered boat tours of the Anclote. During the 1920s, one operator put a Hawaiian band in the bow.

"Many a romance was started or kindled under the spell" of their songs, Ralph Bellwood wrote in his Tales of West Pasco.

Oscar Larsen fell in love with the Anclote in the 1940s. The Chicagoan moved to Tarpon Springs and began piloting a flat-bottomed boat called the Jungle Queen, showing off "the well-nigh impenetrable Anclote jungles."

Over the years thousands of tourists visited Larsen's Anclote River Boat Club to ride the Jungle Queen. But gradually the "jungle" dwindled as subdivisions replaced the forest. Larsen finally left the Jungle Queen mired in a marsh and sold the club.

The hull of the old boat remains, but Larsen died eight years ago, said one of the club's buyers, Mike Phillips.

"They had a big funeral for him at the boat club," Phillips said. "And we poured his ashes in the river."

Former Times Reporter

MORE FOR YOU

• Advertisement

ONLY AVAILABLE FOR SUBSCRIBERS

The Tampa Bay Times e-Newspaper is a digital replica of the printed paper seven days a week that is available to read on desktop, mobile, and our app for subscribers only. To enjoy the e-Newspaper every day, please subscribe.

This business has not been verified Learn More

Anclote River Boat Club

Harbor / marina.

1761 Beckett Way Tarpon Springs, FL ( Map )

Incorrect Information? Learn More

This Venue is Unverified ( ? This venue is not verified by the owner. Verify your venue today to start publishing menus on Untappd, view analytics, create events and connect with Untappd users. )

Thanks! We'll let you know.

Last Updated 04/10/24

Do you own this Venue?

Join Untappd For Business to verify your venue and get more app visibility, in-depth menu information, and more.

Venue Stats ( Unique = Number of Users All Time Monthly = Number for Checkins the last 4 weeks">? )

Loyal patrons ( ).

See More Photos

Recent Activity

Kevin Cargill is drinking a Guava Wheat by Unbranded Brewing Company at Anclote River Boat Club

Kevin Cargill is drinking a Michelob ULTRA by Anheuser-Busch at Anclote River Boat Club

Kevin Cargill is drinking a Miller Lite by Miller Brewing Company at Anclote River Boat Club

Bump Freundel is drinking a Miller Lite by Miller Brewing Company at Anclote River Boat Club

Robert Z is drinking a Bud Light by Anheuser-Busch at Anclote River Boat Club

Now this is a BAR, where the raccoon comes in to eat. Great dive bar.

kelly a : Yup! That is 💯 a good sign for a great dive bar 🙌🏻

Thu, 10 Nov 2022 22:00:19 +0000 Report

Todd Gay is drinking a Pabst Blue Ribbon by Pabst Brewing Company at Anclote River Boat Club

Jonathan Dyer is drinking a Michelob ULTRA by Anheuser-Busch at Anclote River Boat Club

S Adam is drinking a Pabst Blue Ribbon by Pabst Brewing Company at Anclote River Boat Club

There’s your angry chair

Chris Griggs is drinking a Traditional Lager by Yuengling Brewery at Anclote River Boat Club

Carol Schurman is drinking a Bud Light by Anheuser-Busch at Anclote River Boat Club

Purchased at Anclote River Boat Club

S Adam is drinking a Corona Extra by Grupo Modelo at Anclote River Boat Club

Very thirsty

Kenneth Houghtaling : 🤐

Sun, 18 Apr 2021 02:13:00 +0000 Report

troy kau is drinking a Coors Light by Coors Brewing Company at Anclote River Boat Club

Rita Kau is drinking a Coors Light by Coors Brewing Company at Anclote River Boat Club

Purchased at Big Storm Pasco

Robert Z is drinking an Up River by Central 28 Beer Company at Anclote River Boat Club

I’m definitely up river, this PA is growing on me. #drinklocal

Purchased at Luekens Liquors

Erik Z : It looks much warmer there than here. Lot's of white stuff on the ground and it’s not sand.

Mon, 08 Feb 2021 22:21:24 +0000 Report

Robert Z : And more coming we heard

Mon, 08 Feb 2021 22:22:13 +0000 Report

Kyleen Kelleher is drinking a Corona Extra by Grupo Modelo at Anclote River Boat Club

Kyleen Kelleher is drinking a Traditional Lager by Yuengling Brewery at Anclote River Boat Club

Where TF am I...

WV FlyGuy is drinking a Heineken by Heineken at Anclote River Boat Club

Jodi Z is drinking a Bud Light by Anheuser-Busch at Anclote River Boat Club

Thursday funday

Tom Kinsella is drinking a Pabst Blue Ribbon by Pabst Brewing Company at Anclote River Boat Club

Purchased at The Boat Club

Jodi Z is drinking a Corona Light by Grupo Modelo at Anclote River Boat Club

Best of times