Boca Grande Fishing Pier Park

Gasparilla Sound at Boca Grande Fishing Pier ParkBoca Grande, Florida: The Boca Grande Pier is located on an abandoned train trestle on the barrier island of Boca Grande in west Charlotte County. Its location on the northern end of the island has become a popular fishing spot for locals and tourists.

The train trestles leading to Boca Grande were once the lifeline of the island. Aboard these tracks, trains loaded with phosphate would make their way from the mines to the awaiting freighters in Port Boca Grande. But when the rail shipping of phosphate had ended, the tracks were no longer used. Several years later, government officials from Charlotte County parks and recreation turned a section of the train trestles on the island into a fishing pier park.

This section on Boca Grande provides excellent fishing along the Gasparilla Sound. In these waters live grouper, black drum, white grunt, sheepshead and more.

There is no charge to use the facilities, however the Gasparilla Island Bridge Authority charges a toll to cross the only bridge that access the island. If you are looking for the same great fishing without the toll, neighboring Placida Fishing Pier on the mainland which utilizes the same railroad trestle.


  • 11/14/2010: We spent the afternoon fishing with live shrimp. We were having pretty good luck with catching Gag Grouper on the the north side of the pier. While none of them were large enough to keep, they were a lot of fun to catch. We also caught small White Grunts. As for wildlife, we saw a manatee in the water as well as several of the typical shore birds.

  • 11/21/2010: The seas were not in our favor today. There was a strong off shore breeze and swift currents that made it difficult for fishing. We managed to catch a few white grunts and smaller bait fish. As we were leaving, a group came out and their first cast brough back a large black drum. In the water we got to watch a large Eagle Ray swimming around.

  • 3/13/2011: We headed out to the pier as high tide was rolling in armed with three dozen shrimp. We did not have a very good set-up as the Sheepshead near the pier pilings were stealing the bait and not getting hooked. We did manage to catch a few Ladyfish, a silver sea trout, a spanish makeral and a bunch of Sheepshead once we started using smaller hooks. In all, we ended up with six keeper Sheepshead.

Updated March 13, 2011

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