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The one thing you have to consider is that, it's not like going to a small country pond where there will be no crowds or challenges ... it doesn't mean you can't find good fishing easily ... but you have to be strategic ... even when I started fishing there in the late 1980s and lived there in the early and late 1990s to the early 2000s, the crowds exploded and the fishing changed.
It's still great today ... but night hours in the inlets leading out to the Gulf will be a good time, low light hours on any shallow water area still holds true.
Going to Boca Grande Pass is like heading to the Canal on Memorial Day multiplied by 1000 ... it's a circus ... you can fish it from shore, but it's really a boat fishery and there are several ways to fish it ...
.... drifting and dropping down deep for tarpon along with the masses, this is where you will find the bigger sportfishing vessels along with center consoles and skiffs all drifting along ...
... or working the edges for strings of tarpon either going in or out of the pass ...
... either along Johnson Shoals on the south side of the pass off the north tip of Cayo Costa (if you can get a ferry out there, that is a beautiful place, but you will probably have to work down through Sanibel to get there - but a good spot) ...
... or you can fish the northern side of the pass along the beaches of Gasparilla Island (the island that the town of Boca Grande is on and border Boca Grande Pass) ...
... flats skiffs for fly fishing ... we nailed a lot of fish over the years in both locations ... and now guys have rigged towers on their center consoles to spot strings of tarpon moving up the beaches and they throw live mullet and other bait to catch them typically on spinning gear.
Pine Island Sound and Charlotte Harbor have a number of spots inside that tarpon can be found, they are much more secret and typically accessible by boat ... with the exception of passes, but you are better off fishing the passes at night with darters like the Tactical Angler darters
Or hire a guide ... Mike Rehr off Sanibel is a great one ... if you want to go a little north, Rick Grasset is Sarasota is awesome or you can book a kayak trip with Steve Gibson up in the Sarasota area as well. If Capt. Mike is booked, he can lead you to a qualified guide ... be careful down there as there are a lot of hacks ... we once flew down a day too early and needed to find a guide, he was no where nearly qualified and I would have been better of fishing in the pool at my hotel ... the next days with Capt. Mike were a world of difference because he knows. his stuff ... and we caught fish, lots of them.
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