Fishing in Biscayne National Park

Biscayne National Park sits just south of Miami, protecting a stretch of water that runs from the mainland shore out through Biscayne Bay, past a chain of keys, and down to the third-longest coral reef system in the world.

About 95 percent of the park is water — a broad, lagoon-like bay up to eight miles wide — with the mainland edge fringed in mangrove and the offshore boundary defined by living reef.

That range of habitat, from skinny flats to open bay to coral structure, shapes everything about how fishing works here. The shallow flats are where most sight-fishing happens.

Featherbed Bank, in the southern part of the bay, is the most referenced zone for bonefish and permit.

These are seagrass and sand shoals in extremely thin water — the kind of place where tide stage and wind direction determine whether you're fishing or just poling around in murk. Tarpon move through seasonally, and fish in this system can run large.

Access is by boat; there's no wading in from shore. Elliott Key and Boca Chita Key anchor the island chain running down the middle of the park. Both have harbors, but fishing is closed within the harbor mouths and the marked buoy areas around them.

The reef tract along the eastern edge of the keys holds snapper, grouper, and grunt — the species that have historically made up the bulk of the park's recreational harvest.

Fishing here runs under Florida state license requirements, with children under 16 exempt.

No separate NPS permit is required, but the park carries its own regulations on top of state rules, managed jointly with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Since July 2020, the park has enforced stricter minimum size limits for a range of reef species — snapper, grouper, grunt, triggerfish — and a 10-fish aggregate bag limit per person for a defined list of commonly targeted fish.

Coral Reef Protection Areas prohibit traps and lobstering year-round in designated zones. Check current FWC rules before you go; the specifics matter here more than in most places.

This is a park where the regulations exist because the fishing was good enough to overwork. That history is worth keeping in mind on the water.