Venice Fishing Pier

Venice Fishing Pier is the classic Gulf pier of the Venice coast: a long, wide hardwood deck that reaches past the surf into clean water, with bait on the pier and food and restrooms at its foot. Its T-shaped end, badly damaged by Hurricanes Helene and Milton in 2024, was repaired in August and September 2025.

• Free to walk on, open 24 hours, and no fishing license is needed on the pier.
• Good for a mixed bag: mackerel, snapper, sheepshead, pompano, jacks and the odd tarpon or cobia.
• Families and beginners do well here; a bait shop sits midway down the pier.
• The beach beside it is famous for fossil shark teeth, so non-anglers stay busy.

The pier is at 1600 South Harbor Drive in Brohard Park, at the south end of Venice Island, a few minutes from downtown Venice.

• Parking: a free lot at Brohard Park beside the pier; it fills early on winter weekends and holidays.
• Beach renourishment: sand placement finished in August 2026, but the contractor expected tilling, outfall-pipe and rock clean-up work to run until late September or early October 2026, and part of the lot and the beach paths beside the pier were closed for staging during the work, so expect some restrictions until it ends.
• The walk: flat and short from the lot to the pier entrance, then along a wide deck.
• Hours: the city lists the pier as open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• Fee: no charge to fish or walk the pier.
• The nearby South Jetty at Humphris Park remains closed after hurricane damage, so this and the North Jetty are the local hard structures to fish.

The pier reaches far enough to see both surf species and true Gulf fish, and the mix changes with water temperature.

• Spring (Mar–May): Spanish mackerel, blue runners and crevalle jacks on the bait schools; pompano on the bar; the first snook along the beach.
• Summer (Jun–Aug): tarpon rolling past at dawn, snook near the pilings closer in, mangrove snapper, ladyfish and the odd king mackerel on a live bait at the end.
• Fall (Sep–Nov): the best mackerel run of the year, jacks, redfish along the beach side, and cobia following rays.
• Winter (Dec–Feb): sheepshead on the pilings, pompano and Gulf whiting (Gulf kingfish) in the trough, and slower days when the water drops below about 60°F.

Bring two rods: a light spinning outfit for bait fishing the pilings and a medium rod for casting lures to passing fish.

• Mackerel: 1/2–3/4 oz silver spoons or Gotcha-style plugs on 20–30 lb fluorocarbon leader, cranked fast; a small bit of wire helps when they are thick.
• Sheepshead and snapper: fiddler crabs or live shrimp on a 1/0 hook with a split shot, dropped straight down beside the pilings.
• Pompano and whiting: pompano jigs or a double-drop rig with sand fleas or Fishbites cast toward the bar.
• Tarpon and kings: live threadfin or pinfish under a float off the end, 40–50 lb leader, and a pier net to land anything big.
• A long-handled pier net is close to essential from this height.

Tides here are mixed: two uneven highs and lows on most days and a single one on some, with a daily range of only about 2 feet at NOAA's Venice station, so current matters more than the height of the water.

• Best: the two hours around the bigger tide change, when bait moves along the beach and past the end.
• Clean, green water on light east winds is ideal; a strong west or southwest wind brings a dirty swell that kills the lure bite.
• Dawn and the last hour of light are best in summer; midday can fish fine in winter.
• After a cold front, give it a day or two for the water to settle and warm.
• Red tide blooms can shut the fishing down for weeks some years; check the FWC red tide status before a trip.

The deck is wide, railed and flat, reached by a short, level walk from the lot, so it is one of the easier fishing spots in the county to get around.

• Lightning: summer afternoon storms build fast over the Gulf, and an exposed pier is the wrong place to be; leave at the first thunder.
• Heat and sun: there is little shade on the deck, so bring water, a hat and sun protection.
• Hooks and crowds: cast overhead with care on busy days, and watch for pelicans diving on baits.
• City code bans jumping or diving from the pier and swimming or surfing close to it, and keeps boats well away.
• The Gulf around the pilings has strong wave action in rough weather; take care landing fish.

Brohard Park is well set up for a full day at the pier.

• Bait and tackle: Papa's Bait Shop, midway down the pier, is open daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., weather permitting.
• Food: Sharky's restaurant is at the foot of the pier.
• Public restrooms near the pier.
• Fish-cleaning stations on the pier, added in its 2019 renovation.
• Six picnic shelters and a pavilion in the park next door.
• Lighting is low, turtle-friendly lights under the handrails, so bring a headlamp for night sessions.

A few things regulars on this pier know:

• Arrive before sunrise in spring and fall, when mackerel and jacks push bait along the end of the pier at first light.
• Watch for diving birds out past the end; a fast spoon thrown into the edge of the bait school often gets bit before the fish sink out.
• Sheepshead are thickest from January to March; scrape a few barnacles from the pilings with a long pole to start them feeding.
• Live bait beats frozen for the pilings, so pick some up on the way or at the pier's bait shop when it has it.
• Walk the beach at low tide after your session to hunt fossil shark teeth, which is what Venice is famous for.
• On a crowded day, fish the middle of the pier for snapper rather than fighting for the end.

The pier is owned and run by the City of Venice.

• Shark fishing is banned on the pier, and city code counts heavy shark gear (long wire leaders, fighting belts or harnesses and oversized hooks) as shark fishing whatever you are after.
• The city limits the number of lines each angler may fish at once; follow the posted pier rules.
• Dogs, glass containers, tobacco products and tents are not allowed on the pier.
• No fishing license is needed on the pier; you do need one to fish the beach beside it unless you are exempt.
• Tarpon and goliath grouper have their own catch-and-release rules; check FWC before handling one.
• Check current FWC rules for size, bag and season limits before keeping anything.