Simple Tides / Guides / Sarasota Tides

Sarasota Tide Chart

Sarasota — Sarasota Bay’s mangrove shorelines on one side, Siesta Key’s Gulf beaches on the other — runs a small mixed tide of about two feet that quietly sets the inshore fishing schedule.

The pattern

A mixed tide with roughly two feet of range — modest, but the shallow bay and its grass flats magnify it: a few inches of rise open acres of snook and redfish habitat. Big Pass and the Gulf passes run slightly bigger water than the bay.

Bay and beach fishing

Snook, redfish, and spotted seatrout haunt the mangroves, docks, and grass flats on the moving tides; tarpon migrate past the passes in season (Boca Grande’s famous fishery is just north). Siesta Key’s surf gives up pompano and whiting in the troughs.

Boating the bay

Big Pass is the Gulf gateway; the Intracoastal threads the bay north-south. Mind the skinny flats outside the marks at low tide. For the wider Gulf, see our Gulf Coast tide guide.