Longboat Pass

The pass between Coquina Beach on Anna Maria Island and the north tip of Longboat Key, and the Gulf entrance to the north end of Sarasota Bay. NOAA's Coast Pilot says the entrance changes continually: the dredged channel is marked by a light, buoys and daybeacons, but the buoys aren't charted, and shoals curve west and south from Anna Maria Island and run west from Longboat Key. Its average currents are the strongest the Coast Pilot lists for the Sarasota passes, about 1.8 knots on the flood (east) and 1.6 knots on the ebb (west). The SR 789 bascule bridge has 17 feet of clearance closed. Big seagrass meadows cover the shoals north of the pass, Jewfish Key and the Sister Keys sit just inside, and NOAA charts a row of groins along Coquina Beach just to the north.

How to fish it

Inside, work the channel edges and the drop-off from the shoals on moving water. Snook gather in the pass and along the beach beside it to spawn in summer, so drift baits back to them on the tide. Sheepshead and mangrove snapper hold on the bridge, flounder sit on the sandy edges, and pompano and Spanish mackerel come through on the spring and fall runs. Outside, fish the edges of the outer bar, sand fleas in the beach troughs for pompano, and watch for tarpon off Coquina and Longboat beaches in late spring and summer. Manatee County's Coquina Beach ramps are beside the pass, and Longboat Key's Linley Street launch is just inside on the other side.