Beer Can Island

Beer can island is awesome! It’s one of the primary reasons why we moved to Apollo Beach. The island is 1.5 miles off of my boat dock and our kids love going there and hunting starfish and shells.
It’s more fun on the weekends but also more crowd. Dozens and dozens of boats will beach and anchor there put up tents and umbrellas and barbecue and just basically hang out. Rumor is beer can Island is privately owned and the person who owns it doesn’t care if you party there. We have actually camped out there with campfire several times overnight.
Labor Day, Fourth of July, Father’s Day, and other weekends holidays are very popular. If you want to get a spot for your boat on one of these holidays I suggest showing up very early like eight or 9 AM.
On the south east side of the island is a small cove with Deepwater where we pull up on our 32 foot express. We can basically beach the boat in that spot and still have plenty of water for the engines.
When you’re waiting around on the sandbar be sure to do the «stingray shuffle». Scoot your feet as you walk it’s cooler to stingray to get out of your way so he won’t step on them.

This tiny little island open to the public only by way of boat is a great place to pull right up into the sand hop out with your chairs, tents, large shade umbrellas, or whatever else you brought with you and hang out for a while and have a good time. There are usually maybe three to six other people on the island at the time. It is nice to walk around on the sandy beach area. You can also set up your tent and camp out for the night. It’s just a great place to hang out and enjoy the view, and good friends, and just have a good time. It’s also a fun little island to race jet skis around, just watch out for the sand bar.

Beer Can Island (aka Pine Key) is located between South Tampa and Apollo Beach. The island is nicknamed «Beer Can Island» because this is a popular spot for boaters to throw down their anchors and drink beer on the island.
The island comes and goes depending on the weather so it may exist one summer, but not the next. Besides a few trees and seashells you won’t find much on this sandy spot. Expect to see a bunch of boaters relaxing, picnicking, sun tanning and partying!

Beer Can Island is the Nickname for Pine Key island which is conveniently located close to Circles Apollo Beach Marina, and Hula Bay Tampa Marina off Gandy. Because of this island’s proximity to Tampa and surrounding areas, a ton of boaters come here to party. This isn’t the best island, but it is the closest and draws pretty big crowds. I would recommend bringing aqua-​shoes as there are lots of rocks and oyster shells in the water and on the beach that can cut up your feet. Another alternative would be just anchoring really close to the beach and you won’t have to wade too far in the water before you get to land. The water clearness and visibility varies but typically you can only see to the bottom when you are ankle deep or so. There isn’t a problem with jelly fish here like some other islands that dont get enough traffic and I have seen manatees and dolphins out here before. You can walk around the entire island within about 10 – 20 minutes. In the middle of the island there are a bunch of pine trees. I’ve never camped here but I have had friends that have camped here before. I prefer boating to Shell key, Egmont Key, or Passage key on the St Pete side because the shells won’t cut u up there but those are all way farther away. This is a good stop for boaters leaving out of Tampa looking for something close by with a nice crowd.