Gulf Front Park, Treasure Island Fishing

Gulf Front Park, Treasure Island is the city's main mid-island beach access, where the sand is so wide that the Gulf feels a long way from Gulf Boulevard. For anglers it is a comfortable base with real facilities, and the flat surf in front of it is classic whiting and pompano water.

• Restrooms, outdoor showers and a beach mobility mat, all listed by the city
• Gulf kingfish and pompano in the troughs and along the bars
• Summer snook close to the sand at first and last light
• Mackerel, ladyfish and jacks when bait schools run the beach

The park is at 10400 Gulf Boulevard, at 104th Avenue, in the middle of Treasure Island's three miles of beach.

• Getting there: follow Gulf Boulevard (SR 699) to 104th Avenue; City Hall is nearby at 10451 Gulf Boulevard
• Parking: the city's 77-space Gulf Front Park Lot at 104th Avenue and Gulf Boulevard, with more city spaces at City Hall; parking is enforced around the clock
• Rates listed by the city: $5.00 an hour on weekdays and $5.50 on weekends and holidays, by app or text
• The walk: the mid-island beach is very wide, so expect a long trek across soft sand; the mobility mat covers roughly the first 500 feet
• Hours: the city closes its beaches from 1 to 5 a.m.

The fishing here is open-beach surf fishing, so the calendar follows the bait and water temperature.

• Spring (Mar-May): pompano and whiting working the troughs; Spanish mackerel and ladyfish arrive as the water warms
• Summer (Jun-Aug): snook patrolling the swash at dawn, jacks crashing bait, and stingrays and hardhead catfish on bottom baits
• Fall (Sep-Nov): a second pompano run, redfish traveling the beach and plenty of mackerel on calm days
• Winter (Dec-Feb): whiting and the occasional flounder when the water is clear; fronts can shut the bite off for a day or two

Keep it light and mobile: a 7- to 8-foot spinning outfit with 10-15 lb braid and a 20-30 lb fluorocarbon leader.

• Whiting and pompano: a double-dropper rig with size 1 or 2 circle hooks and a 2-3 oz pyramid sinker, baited with shrimp pieces, sand fleas or scented synthetic strips
• Pompano when they are moving: a small jig with a teaser, hopped slowly back through the trough
• Snook: a white bucktail, a paddle-tail soft plastic or a live whitebait swum parallel to the beach
• Mackerel and ladyfish: a small silver spoon or a jig cast to diving birds
• One piece of cut bait on your own hook is allowed; chumming and shark rigs are not

Tides are mixed: most days bring two uneven highs and lows, and some only one. NOAA predicts a daily range of roughly 1.3 to 2.8 feet at its John's Pass station, about a mile and a half north.

• Fish moving water, especially the last two hours of a rising tide
• Early morning is best in summer, before the busiest access on the island fills with swimmers
• Light easterly winds lay the surf down and clear the water for lures
• A hard westerly builds rolling, stirred-up surf that suits bait more than lures
• Watch for bait showers and diving terns and move along the beach to them

The main hazards are people in the water, stingrays and the weather.

• Swimmers: this is Treasure Island's busiest access, and the city buoys off swim zones closed to boats along most of its Gulf beach, so fish well away from bathers or come early and late
• Stingrays live in the warm shallows from April through October, the city warns; shuffle your feet
• Rip currents: the city publishes rip current advice; never swim or wade out after snagged tackle
• Lightning and heat on summer afternoons, with no shade on the open sand
• Accessibility: the removable mobility mat runs about 500 feet toward the Gulf, and the city rents out beach wheelchairs from City Hall on weekdays (reserve ahead); beyond the mat it is soft sand

The city's beach page lists two beachside spots with public restrooms and outdoor showers, and Gulf Front Park is one of them.

• Restrooms and outdoor showers at the park
• A 6-foot-wide mobility mat onto the beach
• Beach wheelchairs to rent at City Hall, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., returned the same day
• Paid city parking in the Gulf Front Park Lot beside the park
• Restaurants and shops line Gulf Boulevard nearby; no bait or tackle is listed at the park itself, so bring what you need

• Walk south or north away from the mat and the crowd to find an open stretch of trough to fish
• Smoking and vaping are banned on the beach, but the city allows them in its parking lots
• Never leave a rod spike or chair on the sand after 9 p.m.: the city bans unattended items on the beach from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m.
• A shark hooked by accident has to be cut loose, so carry long-nose pliers and a knife
• The Beach Trail runs through the dunes from 104th to 119th Avenues, handy for scouting the surf on foot
• Pull into a space nose first: the city's lots are enforced with license-plate readers and backing in is not allowed

The park and beach are run by the City of Treasure Island.

• City code (Ord. 2025-26) bans shark fishing, shark lures and rigs, and baiting or chumming along the city's beaches; a single piece of cut bait on a line used for general fishing is allowed, and any shark caught by accident must be cut loose
• Beaches are closed from 1 to 5 a.m.; no glass, no fires without city consent and no dogs on the beach
• Unattended personal property is banned on the beach from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m. and in beach accesses at any time
• A Florida saltwater fishing license is required unless you are exempt; snook and tarpon have their own FWC rules
• Check current FWC rules for size, bag and season limits before keeping anything