Fishing and Exploring

Whether you are a sailor or enjoy fishing or larger power-boats, you’ll enjoy the waters of Englewood. We have large, full service marinas that have fuel, ships store, boat storage, wet slips and more.

Kayaks and canoes are also popular with miles of water-ways meandering through Lemon Bay and the Charlotte Harbor Estuary System. You can expect to see mangrove forests, salt marshes, and seagrass beds as you glide along the clear, warm topical shallows and keep an eye out for manatees and dolphins! And kayaks are a great fishing vessel for up close fishing experiences!

One of the main advantages of fishing out of a kayak is that the shallow-running craft allow anglers to get into places where traditional flats boats dare not run.

You can launch at public boat ramps at Indian Mounds Park in Englewood, Amicola Street in South Gulf Cove, Placida Ramp at the Boca Grande Causeway, Ainger Boat Ramp 2025 Placida Road, Middle Beach on Manasota Key, and Manasota Beach on North Manasota Key.

Fishing – Did You Know?

• Anglers outnumber golfers nearly two to one.
• Florida ranks number one in terms of numbers of adult anglers.
• Top ten boat sale states also are the top 10 fishing states: FL, MI, TX, MN, CA, WI, LA, NC, NY and SC.

Source: US Fish and Wildlife Service

Enjoy a simple day of fishing in paradise! You will find offshore species such as blackfin tuna, shark, cobia, and grouper. Closer to shore hidden in the warmer waters of the bay close to mangrove keys and beds of sea grass you will find redfish, sheepshead, snook, mangrove snapper, red snapper, jack crevale! Close by rivers and lakes offer some of the best bass fishing. And let’s not forget tarpon, the king of sports fishing!

Our community has some of the finest fishing captains so be sure to take advantage of their experience. If you are a serious angler you’ll find navigation charts, tide charts and sporting goods at local marinas. And you can always fish from the local pier located on Beach Road overlooking Redfish Cove just before the Tom Adams drawbridge leading to Manasota Key. Surf casting is popular at the beach as well, just be sure to have the proper license.

Why Is Florida the ‘Fishing Capital of the World’?

Florida is the “Fishing Capital of the World” because of its great resources and responsible management. The diversity of sport fishes, habitats, great weather, year-round fishing and superb tourism and fishing industry-related infrastructure are unsurpassed. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and our partners encourage you to enjoy a relaxing day in the great outdoors with your family and friends. This website provides basic tips about how to have a fun, safe experience while helping us conserve our aquatic resources for tomorrow. It highlights quality fisheries throughout Florida that comprise more than 7,700 lakes, 10,550 miles of rivers and 2,276 miles of tidal shoreline. With all those areas teeming with fish, we can’t list them all, but you are always within reach of a place to “wet a line.”

If the tide is incoming, a good time is early evening about an hour before sunset and right until around midnight. Early morning before dawn until about an hour before daybreak is even better. Deep Sea Fishing Charters and Boat Rentals are all available near by.

Bluefish

Bluefish are the only members of the family, Pomatomidae, and are closely related to jacks, pompanos, and roosterfish. Bluefish are greenish blue with a sturdy compressed body, a large head, and sharp, triangular teeth. They are found throughout the world and are a migratory species that range from Nova Scotia to Florida off the Atlantic coast and can be found in the Gulf of Mexico from Florida to Texas. Along the east coast, bluefish migrate northward in the spring and summer and southward in the fall and winter. During the summer, bluefish are concentrated from Maine to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina and during the winter, most tend to be offshore and south between Cape Hatteras and Florida.

Website: BlueFish

Cobia

The Cobia is a sleek and extremely strong fish. They range in size up to about 135 pounds. The largest Cobia ever caught in Florida USA weighed about 104 lbs. An average size fish will weigh 20 to 40 pounds. Cobia are found around the world in tropic and warm temperate waters. They migrate so their numbers will very with the seasons. They inhabit the warm tropical waters in the winter and move to more temperate waters in the spring, summer and fall. They prefer water temperatures between 68 deg. F and 86 deg. F.

Website: Cobia

Spanish Mackerel

Spanish Mackerel, or just spanish, Southern Flounder are commonly caught in North Carolina waters. They can be found everywhere off or nearshore and often within inshore waters. Inshore they are easiest to find over grass beds and reefs. Spanish like clear water and I often give up on them in turbid waters. Because of this they fish best in the first light of day and also dusk.

Website: Spanish Mackerel

Mangrove Snapper

Gray snappers reside in coastal as well as offshore waters from very shallow areas to depths of 180m (585 feet). Large aggregations of this snapper are frequently observed amongst coral reefs, rocky areas, estuaries, and mangrove habitats. Adults of the species tend to remain in the same area for long periods once established and tagging studies have shown little movement for periods of time as great as 4 years. However, within such a range the species exhibits daily activity patterns associated with nocturnal feeding and diurnal schooling.

Website: Mangrove Snapper