Labor Day is both a major US holiday and the unofficial end of the fishing season in many parts of the country. Many anglers take to the water for the last time of the year in this period, with coastal locations being especially in demand.
In order to find out what the most popular fishing destinations are for the Labor Day weekend, we analyzed our booking data for this and last year, identifying which spots are trending, which are stayers, and which are lagging behind.
Key Trends
- Galveston keeps the first position, while Destin jumps 8 spots to second place and Panama City Beach gains 3 spots to claim third place.
- The places with the biggest rise in popularity are St. Augustine (up 97 spots), Freeport (up 56 spots), and Duluth (up 23 spots).
- There is just one newcomer in the top 10 (Orange Beach), but seven newcomers in the top 20 (Wanchese, Freeport, Duluth, St. Augustine, Gloucester, St. Petersburg, Calabash).
- When dividing the top 20 by states, Florida is the top contributor with 6 destinations, followed by Texas with 3 spots and North Carolina and South Carolina with 2 each. Virginia, Alabama, Maryland, California, Mississippi, Minnesota, and Massachusetts all have one town in the top 20.
These are the current trends for 2024, (data accurate as of four days before the start of the Labor Day weekend):
| Position (2024)* | Destination | Position (2023) | Change from 2023* |
| 1 | Galveston, TX | 1 | = |
| 2 | Destin, FL | 10 | +8 |
| 3 | Panama City Beach, FL | 6 | +3 |
| =3 | Virginia Beach, VA | 4 | +1 |
| 5 | Port Aransas, TX | 3 | -2 |
| 6 | Orange Beach, AL | 12 | +6 |
| =6 | Key West, FL | 6 | = |
| 8 | Ocean City, MD | 5 | -3 |
| =8 | Murrells Inlet, SC | 10 | +2 |
| 10 | Hilton Head Island, SC | 2 | -8 |
| 11 | Fort Lauderdale, FL | 9 | -2 |
| 12 | Wanchese, NC | 28 | +16 |
| 13 | San Diego, CA | 15 | -1 |
| 14 | Freeport, TX | 70 | +56 |
| =14 | Biloxi, MS | 17 | +3 |
| 16 | Duluth, MN | 39 | +23 |
| 17 | St. Augustine, FL | 114 | +97 |
| =17 | Gloucester, MA | 35 | +18 |
| 19 | St. Petersburg, FL | 28 | +9 |
| =19 | Calabash, NC | 24 | +5 |
* Will be updated with the final numbers after the Labor Day weekend.
In 2023, these were the top 20 most popular fishing destinations for the Labor Day weekend:
| Position | Destination |
| 1 | Galveston, TX |
| 2 | Hilton Head Island, SC |
| 3 | Port Aransas, TX |
| 4 | Virginia Beach, VA |
| 5 | Ocean City, MD |
| 6 | Key West, FL |
| =6 | Panama City Beach, FL |
| 8 | South Padre Island, TX |
| 9 | Fort Lauderdale, FL |
| 10 | Destin, FL |
| 11 | Murrells Inlet, SC |
| 12 | Honolulu, HI |
| =12 | Orange Beach, AL |
| =12 | Corpus Christi, TX |
| =12 | San Diego, CA |
| =12 | Carolina Beach, NC |
| 17 | Biloxi, MS |
| =17 | Lakeside Marblehead, OH |
| =17 | Mount Pleasant, SC |
| =17 | Lorain, OH |
Methodology
We compared the number of confirmed bookings for the Labor Day weekend of 2024 (August 31st – September 2nd) to the actual number of fishing trips that happened through FishingBooker during the Labor Day weekend of 2023 (September 2nd-4th).
Then, we identified some top trends: the situation in the top 3; the destination with the biggest rise in popularity; the newcomers in the top 10 and the top 20; and the states with the most entries in the top 20.
The post Most Popular Fishing Spots for Labor Day 2024 appeared first on FishingBooker Blog.
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