Snook Fishing at Casey Key and Nokomis: The North Jetty, the Beach Trough, and Blackburn Bay

Casey Key's snook fishery centers on the North Jetty at Venice Inlet, the crown structure spot of this stretch of coast. The peak window is May through September, and the tide matters more than the date: a rising tide pushing green Gulf water along the rocks at first light is the highest-percentage session you can fish here.

Free-line a live sardine or big shrimp into the current seam, or swim a white bucktail jig along the rocks after dark. North Jetty Park at the end of Casey Key Road has free parking, restrooms, and fish-cleaning stations, and the North Jetty Fish Camp sells bait within casting distance of the rocks — the Venice jetty guide covers it.

In early summer, snook also patrol the trough off Nokomis Beach in a foot or two of water, and a quiet walker at dawn can sight-cast them the same way the Siesta crowd does.

Inside, Blackburn Bay and Dryman Bay hold resident fish on the mangrove edges and dock lines, with the Blackburn Point swing bridge, a one-lane relic from 1925, and the Albee Road bridge providing classic shadow-line structure for night fishing. Launch at the Nokomis Beach public ramp at 901 Casey Key Road for a direct shot to the inlet (see the boat-ramp directory).

Rules for 2026 in this region: 28–33-inch slot, one fish per person per day, snook stamp required — and note the FWC regional boundary sits near Venice, so verify which region's dates apply in the snook-season guide and at MyFWC before harvest. Leader discipline is the difference: 30–40 lb fluorocarbon minimum around the rocks, checked after every fish.