Pompano Beach Fisher Family Pier

A walk over the Atlantic, rod optional

⏱ 1-3 hours👤 All agesFree

Pompano Beach spent years upgrading its oceanfront, and the pier is the visible result. The original 1963 pier was battered by a hurricane, work on its replacement began in 2017, and the new structure, roughly 900 feet long, was dedicated in April 2022 with a drone show over the ocean. It is named for the family of former mayor Lamar Fisher, whose grandfather was mayor in 1943 and whose great-grandfather signed the city's articles of incorporation in 1908. The design rewards a slow walk: an arched gateway plaza at the entrance, wide promenades, two overhanging balconies for sitting, thirty backlit art panels of local fish and marine mammals, and a fish-head shape at the far end with a fish-eye viewing spot over the water. It gives a quieter alternative to Fort Lauderdale's busier strip and anchors a beach district with a laid-back, local feel.

First-time anglers should rent the rod package, ask the bait shop what is biting, and fish the middle of the pier where the crowds are thinner. Non-anglers come for the walk, the pelicans that patrol the railings and, in season, glimpses of rays and schools of baitfish below. The far end, where the structure widens into its fish-head shape, is the best spot to watch the sun rise straight out of the Atlantic, and a fine one to watch summer storms roll across the ocean at a sensible distance. On the walk out, the backlit fish panels make a painless identification primer before you try to name your catch. Winter mornings can be surprisingly breezy at the end, so bring a light layer, and give anglers casting along the rails plenty of room.

Pair it with the monthly Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse tour, which leaves from a dock nearby, or with Lauderdale-by-the-Sea's shore reefs ten minutes south. Pompano's beach hotels and rentals make it a calmer base than central Fort Lauderdale for families who want the beach to themselves. The Pompano Fishing Village at the pier's foot gathers beachfront restaurants, an ice-cream counter and beachwear shops, with a newer hotel alongside, so non-anglers in the group have somewhere pleasant to wait.