Milton Pass is Filling In and Impacting
Local Boating, Proving That
Barrier Islands Can Change Quickly
Having been to Milton Pass numerous times since the beginning of the year, I’m impressed with how quickly things are changing there.
Milton Pass was formed after the storm surge and battering of Hurricane Milton in October 2024 cut off the then-southern end of Manasota Key and created a new inlet in the midst of Stump Pass State Park and westward of mangrove-covered Peterson Island. Immediately after the storm, and through much of 2025, there was a deep and swift channel that powerboats were using to enter the Gulf of Mexico. This was especially fortuitous for southbound boaters last year, making it a shorter journey than if they were to head further south to long-established Stump Pass to access the Gulf.
A boat navigates choppy Milton Pass in March 2025. Photo by Sandy Schultz
Paddlers at Manasota Key in March 2025. Photo by Sandy Schultz
In 2025 I visited Milton Pass many times, several of them in a kayak while paddling with fellow LBC members as part of the group tours that we do. In a kayak it was possible, on an incoming tide, to power-stroke westerly along the northern edge of Milton Pass, then quickly turn the kayak bow south and east to ride the swift and moderately choppy incoming current, much like being on a swift, low-rapids stretch of freshwater river. At times it was pretty rough in the channel, with large, close-pattern waves. A March 2025 video IMG_3304 illustrates the then-formidable nature of the pass.
There was much conjecture about whether Milton Pass was good or bad for the barrier island of Manasota Key and the ecology of Lemon Bay. Some folks speculated that there’d be an effort to close the new inlet. Exactly who was going to do that, and how, and with what funding, was never clear.
That’s going to be a moot point. Recent visits to Milton Pass indicate that it’s filling in on its own. And fairly quickly.
Milton Pass in late February 2026. Shoaling has occurred where the inlet meets the Gulf of Mexico. Photo by Ken Schultz
Milton Pass in late February 2026, looking east toward Peterson Island. Photo by Ken Schultz
Presently, at low tide you can walk-wade across the westerly portion of the “pass.” There’s now a shoal or sandbar along the western passage to the Gulf preventing powerboat ingress and egress. As recently as early January 2026, boats were coming in and out; not now. Sand is filling in the channel on the eastern end along Peterson Island, too, producing a narrow and stumpy shallow path for powerboats heading to Stump Pass along the area referred to by some as “Ski Alley.” If that closes up – as it appears it will since a significant amount of sand has been pushed in on flood tides – there won’t be a boating shortcut along the state park to Stump Pass.
Sunset at Milton Pass in late February 2026. Photo by Ken Schultz
The change happening here is worth keeping an eye on. Nature is dynamic. Barrier islands move and change. Some day the sand will fully fill in and rejoin the separated parts of Manasota Key. Will that take years? What will another storm do? In time there won’t be Milton “Pass” in a real sense. Like Blind Pass to the north, the name may remain even if an inlet doesn’t.