The grass flats are the engine room of Sarasota Bay. Seagrass is where small fish and shrimp hide and feed, where young gag grouper grow up before they head offshore, and where trout and redfish do most of their hunting. When the grass does well, the fishing does well, and around Sarasota the grass has had some hard years and a hopeful recovery.
The numbers
The Southwest Florida Water Management District maps the bay's seagrass every two years. Its April 2026 plan for Sarasota Bay tells the story:
- 1988: 8,715 acres.
- 2016: a record 13,469 acres.
- 2022: down 26 percent, a loss of 3,506 acres since 2016. The plan puts that down to wastewater problems combined with the 2017-2019 red tide, the worst on record for Southwest Florida.
- 2024: back up 19 percent from 2022.
So the grass is recovering, but it isn't back to where it was. That's a good reason to treat it carefully.
Where the big meadows are
The water district's plan points to large meadows in Sarasota Bay proper:
- Around Long Bar Point, on both sides of the bay.
- Along the north shore between New College and Cortez.
- On the tidal shoals beside New Pass and north of Longboat Pass.
Sarasota Bay proper also has the clearest water in the system, thanks to its size and depth and the tide moving through Longboat, New and Big Sarasota passes. Clear water lets light reach the bottom, which is what seagrass needs. Farther south, Roberts Bay takes the runoff from Phillippi Creek, so what drains off the land affects it more.
Spotted seatrout
Trout live over sand and seagrass, and they're on the flats in some numbers all year. FWC says they spawn inshore from March through November, and they move into deeper, still water during the colder months, and during the hottest stretches of summer too. So:
- Spring and fall are usually the best times.
- In cold snaps, look for them in deeper holes and channels off the flats rather than up shallow.
- In midsummer, try the deeper edges of the grass and the early morning.
The sandy potholes in the middle of a grass flat are worth casting to in any season. Fish lie in them waiting for something to come off the grass.
Redfish
Redfish use the grass flats, oyster bars and mangrove edges throughout the bays: Sarasota Bay proper, Roberts Bay and Little Sarasota Bay. FWC's Tampa Bay angling guide notes they also use deeper channels during the warmest and coolest months, the same pattern as trout.
Young redfish stay inshore until they're about four years old, then move out to join the adult population in the nearshore Gulf. From about August into November the big adults gather in schools near the passes and just off the beaches to spawn. The fish you find on the flats are mostly the younger, inshore fish, and they're there all year.
Fishing the flats without wrecking them
FWC's advice for protecting seagrass is short and practical:
- Know your boat's draft and how much water it needs to run, and stay in marked channels when you're not sure.
- Anchor on bare sand, never on grass.
- If you run aground, stop. Pole or push the boat to deeper water instead of trying to power off, which cuts scars in the grass.
Sarasota Bay isn't one of the state's aquatic preserves, so the preserve seagrass penalties you may read about for Tampa Bay don't apply here by name. The Sarasota Bay estuary is an Outstanding Florida Water, though, and a prop scar hurts the fishing wherever it is.
A push pole, a trolling motor or a kayak lets you fish the shallowest grass without tearing it up.
Red tide and water quality
Red tide hit Sarasota hard in 2017-2019, and blooms can come back. Conditions change week to week, so this guide can't tell you what the water is like now. Before a trip, check:
- FWC's red tide status page, with a status report every Friday afternoon and a daily map of sampling results.
- Mote's Beach Conditions Reporting System, where trained volunteers report dead fish, water color and respiratory irritation at monitored Gulf beaches.
Rules
Trout and redfish rules are set by region, and Sarasota Bay is its own region, from State Road 64 in Manatee County south to a line near the Venice Municipal Airport. Check FWC's spotted seatrout and red drum pages for the current size and bag limits before you keep any.
Before you go
Check the tides and wind on our Sarasota page. On a shallow flat, the tide decides where the fish are and whether you can get there at all. The bay shares its forecast with the Gulf (zone GMZ853), so read the "bay and inland waters" line in it, and see our guide to fishing the passes if you're running out through one.