Inshore Fishing Charters in Siesta Key, FL

Siesta Key is fishing better than it has in forty years, and there is a specific reason: Midnight Pass is open again. Closed since 1983 and blown back through by Helene and Milton in 2024, the pass now runs 11–17 feet of moving water at the south end of the island. A functioning inlet where there was a sandbar changes what an inshore trip here can do.

A new pass moves bait, and bait moves everything else. The south end of this island is a different fishery than it was three seasons ago.

Big Pass anchors the north end — deep, fast, and lined with structure that holds snook through the warm months and tarpon rolling on the outgoing in early summer. Point of Rocks is the only natural rock formation on this beach, and rock on a sand coast concentrates fish the way nothing else does. Between them, the inside grass and the bayous fish for seatrout and redfish on any workable tide.

The seasonal standout is pompano, January through April, in the trough and along the pass edges — a light-tackle jigging fishery that most visitors do not know exists here. Winter is not the off-season on Siesta Key; it is the pompano season.

Access, ramp costs and the Midnight Pass story are in the Siesta Key area guide. Shore anglers should read the surf and shore guide before walking the beach. Four-hour half days from $450 cover licenses, tackle and bait.