Venice Inlet and jetties

Pass in Sarasota inshore waters

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InshoreUpdated October 11, 2026

Depth
1-20 ft
Access
By boat or from shore
Best months
January to November
Species
Snook, Sheepshead, Redfish (red drum), Mangrove (gray) snapper, Black drum, Spanish mackerel, Florida pompano

Venice Inlet, between Casey Key and Venice, links the Gulf with the Intracoastal Waterway and with Roberts, Dona and Lyons bays. The Coast Pilot describes a dredged channel running east for about half a mile between parallel jetties, marked by daybeacons, with Venice Inlet Light 1 on a pile 20 feet above the water. Sarasota County lists fishing and a bait shop at North Jetty Park on the Casey Key side, and the South Jetty is at the City of Venice's Humphris Park. Higel Marine Park's four-lane ramp is about 0.4 nautical mile inside, and Venice Reef is under a mile offshore to the southwest.

How to fish it

The jetty rocks hold sheepshead and black drum in late winter and spring, mangrove snapper in summer and snook most of the year. Fish live shrimp, sand fleas or fiddler crabs close to the rocks, drift live bait along them for snook on moving water (preferably the outgoing tide), and fish the tide change from shore where the jetty parks allow it. Cast spoons for Spanish mackerel when bait is pushing out of the inlet, and fish the beaches on either side for pompano in spring and fall.

Watch out for: Slick, uneven rocks and a fast current in a narrow channel that every Venice boat uses. Surf breaks at the jetty tips in onshore wind, and the mouth gets steep and choppy when the wind opposes the tide. Venice Inlet is a year-round slow-speed manatee zone. FWC advises against dragging tarpon over rocks, so don't target them from the jetties.
Rules here: The inlet is north of FWC's 27°04.727' N line, so the Sarasota Bay rules apply to snook, redfish and trout. FWC's shore-based shark rules apply on the jetties. The rules to check in Sarasota inshore waters

Wind and waves

Now and the next 48 hours at Venice Inlet and jetties

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On the map

Venice Inlet and jetties and the places around it

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Position

  • N27° 06.757' W082° 28.108'27.112618, -82.468471

Not for navigation: check it against a current chart before you rely on it.

Places nearby

The closest named places, as the crow flies

Check the rules before you keep a fish. Size limits, bag limits and seasons change, sometimes at short notice. Our "Can you keep it today?" lists give them as of the day we last checked; these are the official pages.