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Fishing maps/Sarasota Bay

Florida coastal fishing maps

Sarasota Bay fishing maps and surveyed sections

Longboat Pass, Big Sarasota Pass, North and Southwest Sarasota Bay, Roberts Bay, Little Sarasota Bay and Blackburn Bay are live with quality-assured NOAA depth contours, 2023 FWC fish-survey rosters, confidence-tagged fishing spots, seasonal forage guidance and verified public access. Palma Sola and the remaining upper-bay footprint stay off the public map until their depth evidence clears the same release gates.

7 live section9 surveyed target species31 attached public access sites

Built for bay scale

Why Sarasota Bay is split into sections

A single bay-wide page would mix different passes, channels, grass-flat systems and fish-sampling zones. The nine reviewed footprints follow exact NOAA named-water passes, official SWFWMD segments, Sarasota County monitoring subsegments and FDEP assessment units, then release independently only after shoreline and NOAA bathymetry QA.

Quality-assured and searchable

Choose a Sarasota Bay fishing-map section

NOAA survey contours100% assessed · 70% measured

North Sarasota Bay

11,709-acre North Sarasota Bay section with quality-assured NOAA and USACE survey contours, Longboat Pass and GIWW structure, charted wrecks, and mapped seagrass and oyster habitat.

Recorded max
23 ft
Species
Red Drum (Redfish), Spotted Seatrout, Sheepshead, Snook, Gulf Flounder
Public access
6 attached sites
Open depth map and fishing spots →
NOAA survey contours99% assessed · 80% measured

Southwest Sarasota Bay

2,223-acre Southwest Sarasota Bay section with quality-assured NOAA and USACE survey contours, Big Sarasota Pass and GIWW structure, charted wrecks, and mapped seagrass and oyster habitat.

Recorded max
25 ft
Species
Red Drum (Redfish), Spotted Seatrout, Sheepshead, Snook, Gulf Flounder
Public access
4 attached sites
Open depth map and fishing spots →
NOAA survey contours96% assessed · 70% measured

Roberts Bay

1,190-acre Roberts Bay section with quality-assured NOAA and USACE survey contours, GIWW channel structure, charted wrecks, and mapped 2024 seagrass and oyster habitat.

Recorded max
18 ft
Species
Red Drum (Redfish), Spotted Seatrout, Sheepshead, Snook, Black Drum
Public access
2 attached sites
Open depth map and fishing spots →
NOAA survey contours96% assessed · 67% measured

Little Sarasota Bay

1,892-acre Little Sarasota Bay section with quality-assured NOAA survey contours, GIWW channel structure, charted wrecks, and mapped 2024 seagrass and oyster habitat.

Recorded max
15 ft
Species
Red Drum (Redfish), Spotted Seatrout, Sheepshead, Snook, Gray Snapper (Mangrove Snapper)
Public access
8 attached sites
Open depth map and fishing spots →
NOAA survey contours100% assessed · 95% measured

Blackburn Bay

663-acre Blackburn Bay section with quality-assured NOAA survey contours, Venice Inlet and GIWW structure, charted wrecks, and mapped 2024 seagrass and oyster habitat.

Recorded max
16 ft
Species
Red Drum (Redfish), Spotted Seatrout, Sheepshead, Snook, Gray Snapper (Mangrove Snapper)
Public access
5 attached sites
Open depth map and fishing spots →
NOAA survey contours100% assessed · 99% measured

Big Sarasota Pass

575-acre Big Sarasota Pass fishing map with NOAA BlueTopo survey contours (99.22% measured, 99.69% assessed), source-traceable coastal structure, exact-polygon FWC fish occurrence, sourced forage timing and verified public access.

Recorded max
30 ft
Species
Sheepshead, Snook, Black Drum, Gray Snapper (Mangrove Snapper), Permit
Public access
3 attached sites
Open depth map and fishing spots →
NOAA survey contours100% assessed · 100% measured

Longboat Pass

64-acre Longboat Pass fishing map with NOAA BlueTopo survey contours (99.67% measured, 100% assessed), source-traceable coastal structure, exact-pass and connected North Sarasota Bay FWC fish occurrence, sourced forage timing and verified public access.

Recorded max
33 ft
Species
Red Drum (Redfish), Spotted Seatrout, Sheepshead, Snook, Gulf Flounder
Public access
3 attached sites
Open depth map and fishing spots →

Source-backed, not crowd-guessed

What is included on every live page

  • Depth: NOAA BlueTopo survey surfaces, plus measured 2010, 2015, 2017 and 2024 NOAA/USACE topobathymetric lidar where configured; measured and assessed-interpolated coverage stay distinct and unassessed NBS generalization is excluded.
  • Fish: recreational targets supported by Florida FWC's 2023 Sarasota Bay table or exact-polygon 1996-2023 FIM records, with counts treated as occurrence rather than catch rates.
  • Spots: species-and-season analysis anchored to NOAA reefs and wrecks and SWFWMD's mapped 2024 seagrass and oyster habitat; recommendations require directly measured bathymetry.
  • Seasonality: source-backed pilchard/thread-herring, pink-shrimp and mullet movement windows, presented as typical ranges rather than daily predictions.
  • Access: Florida FWC Boat Ramp Inventory records matched to each official water-only section outline.

NOAA BlueTopo·FWC 2023 FIM report·SWFWMD 2024 habitat·Sarasota County bay segments·FDEP/Manatee WBIDs·NOAA/USACE 2010 topobathy·NOAA/USACE 2015 topobathy·NOAA 2017 topobathy·NOAA/USACE 2024 topobathy

Not published prematurely

Sections still on survey-quality hold

These named sections have boundaries, FWC species rosters, access and generated review drafts, but they are not in search, the public lake manifest or the sitemap until their depth-quality issue is resolved.

  • Palma Sola Bay: The residual Palma Sola footprint reaches the coverage minimum, but its retained-surface P95 uncertainty remains 2.11 m; adjacent North Sarasota Bay passes independently.
  • Remaining Upper Sarasota Bay: The broad footprint is 46.09% directly measured, below the 60% standard gate; county subsegments 10-2 through 10-5 pass independently as Southwest Sarasota Bay.

Sarasota Bay map questions

Frequently asked questions

Why is Sarasota Bay divided into separate fishing-map pages?

Sarasota Bay is a chain of distinct estuarine waters rather than one uniform basin. DepthScout follows official SWFWMD segments and Sarasota County monitoring subsegments so each page can keep separate survey coverage, fish-sampling zones, habitat and access records.

Which Sarasota Bay fishing-map sections are available now?

Longboat Pass, Big Sarasota Pass, North Sarasota Bay, Southwest Sarasota Bay, Roberts Bay, Little Sarasota Bay and Blackburn Bay pass the same boundary, shoreline, survey-depth and evidence release gates. Palma Sola Bay and the remaining broad upper-bay footprint stay visible here as quality holds.

Which fish species are supported on the live Sarasota Bay pages?

Florida FWC's 2023 Sarasota Bay table supports the established bay-section rosters. Exact 1996-2023 FIM clips support Big Sarasota Pass and Gulf flounder inside Longboat Pass; Longboat's remaining roster is explicitly drawn from immediately connected North Sarasota Bay records. Counts establish occurrence rather than catch rate.

What data supports Sarasota Bay fishing spots?

Depth comes from NOAA BlueTopo plus measured bathymetric-bottom returns from NOAA and USACE topobathymetric lidar collected in 2010, 2015, 2017 and 2024 where each survey applies. Unassessed generalization is excluded, and recommended spots must land on directly measured bathymetry. Structure evidence comes from NOAA reefs and charted wrecks plus mapped seagrass and oyster habitat.