Boca Grande Pass

Boca Grande Pass is the scene of world-famous tarpon tournaments. Apparently, the trick is not only keeping the tarpon hooked long enough to get him in the boat, but also to get him in the boat before the sharks catch him.Up to the early 1900's, Boca Grande, Florida, on Gasparilla Island was a busy and important place for the fresh seafood trade. It was a place of colorful characters that earned a hard living from the Gulf and Bay. Now it is mostly an island of leisure; an island of vacation homes with perfect tropical charm; an island of sporting Tarpon fishing tournaments. Some good things have been lost, some good things have been gained. There is still a touch of yesterday here if you make some effort to look for it. On the road of life, sometimes it's good to look over your shoulder to see where you came from and remember the people that made it all happen. Boca Grande is the perfect place to find quiet sophistication and luxury blended with the charm of old Florida, the influence of old money and new, without compromising on a beautiful natural environment with brilliant beaches, clear blue and green water, and lots of tropical vegetation everywhere.With a typical 80-day season (Boca Grande) producing an average 5,000 tarpon landed, it's no secret that the world's best tarpon fishing hole yields more tarpon than any one location in the world. Where is this unsurpassed tarpon domain? Boca Grande Pass is the only conceivable answer. Located on the Florida Suncoast at the mouth of Charlotte Harbor, Boca Grande and its surrounding saltwater reaches boast some of the best fishing and charter fishing in Florida, not to mention the continental United States. Charlotte Harbor itself has the distinction of being one of the nation's largest undeveloped estuaries. Its nonchalant atmosphere is surrounded by an unspoiled serenity and world renowned fishing, particularly tarpon. Tarpon congregate and spawn out of passes along most of the entire rim of the Gulf of Mexico. The massive attraction to Boca Grande Pass is unknown and subject to many theories. I prefer to refer to it as a natural phenomenon or the Bermuda Triangle of Tarpon. In the spring, it appears that many of the fish's habits all along the coast are in orientation to Boca Grande Pass.With depths reaching near 80 feet, it is the deepest natural pass in the state. It is the only major outlet of Charlotte Harbor which is feed by two major rivers, the Peace and the Myakka. As the bottleneck of the harbor, the currents are strong and serve as the Autobahn to many species of fish and bait.

Fish world famous Boca Grande Pass on medium jig and livebait tackle. This is the place for monster giant tarpon. In 1997, the first 200lb tournament tarpon was landed in Boca Grande Pass. Since 2005, the tournament record stands at 216lbs. In 2002 we unofficially snapped the United Sates all tackle record with 243lbs and again in 2003 with 250lbs (see "In The News"). A dozen hookups a day are not uncommon here.