Tarpon Fishing in Sarasota: Beach Migration, Big Pass, and the Bay Fish

Sarasota's tarpon season runs May through July, when strings of 60- to 150-pound migratory fish push north along the beaches from Siesta Key to Longboat Key in 10–25 feet of water.

The program is sight fishing: set up along the beach at first light, glass for rolling fish or the dark torpedo shapes of a daisy chain, and lead the string with live crabs or threadfin herring. Never run the school — a pod that gets buzzed by an outboard goes down and stays down. Staging fish also stack off the Big Pass bar and outside New Pass, and the outgoing tides around the new and full moons turn them on.

There is a resident bay fishery most anglers miss: tarpon hold in the deep holes of Sarasota Bay and roll at dawn on slick summer mornings, and juvenile fish of 5–30 pounds live year-round up Phillippi Creek, Hudson Bayou, and Whitaker Bayou.

Tackle is simple but heavy enough to end the fight fast: 5000–8000 spinning, 40–50 lb braid, 60–80 lb fluorocarbon, and 5/0–7/0 circle hooks. Tarpon are catch-and-release only in Florida and any fish over 40 inches stays in the water, so plan photos boatside. Verify current rules at MyFWC.

Launch at Centennial Park off US 41 or Ken Thompson Park on City Island — both are 10 minutes from the passes (see the boat-ramp directory). A quality release matters more than the jump count: fight them hard, revive them fully, and watch for the hammerheads that shadow the beach schools in June.