Dives off Clearwater FL, at Rube Allyn Artificial Reef, a 60-65 ft ledge, and on the Sheridan 5-16-2015

Tim Metcalf and I had three excellent dives off Clearwater yesterday.  We headed out from Hurricane Pass in Dunedin and headed for the coordinates of the Sheridan, 24 miles offshore.  The easterly wind was stronger than we hoped so we soon slowed down and started looking for a ledge.  We realized we weren't far from the Rube Allyn artificial reef so we went over to it for a dive.  The part of the reef we hit was not very extensive and we didn't want to swim and wander with fishing boats near by so we ended this dive with about 1/2 tank of air.  Water temperature was 80 degrees and visibility was 50 ft vertically but only 20 ft horizontally at the bottom due to an extensive bloom of algae (thanks to warming waters and runoff from fertilizer on lawns and golf courses etc).  I saw a Bermuda Chub on this dive, I've seen them in the past in the Bahamas but have never seen them off the west central coast of Florida before.  Our second dive was on a large ledge we found running from 65 ft to 60ft - we kept working our way offshore as the wind dropped and the seas flattened.  On this 1/2 tank dive we saw lots of Amberjack, a Nurse shark, three lionfish, etc.  A beautiful ledge that Tim kept the coordinates for.  Our final dive was on the Sheridan, a large tug boat sunk as part of an artificial reef in 75 ft of water.  Two highlights on this dive were five Goliath Grouper and a large group of large, four and five feet long, Great Barracuda.  The wreck itself is of course great to dive on.  We also found and recovered a like new large Danford anchor and a great anchor chain.

For more from these dives, please go to:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6149938131310213345?authkey=CPWzg8nyhqjsMw

 A large school of Spadefish on Rube Allyn Artificial Reef.

 Sheepshead

 A Bermuda Chub, yet another fish I never saw off the Gulf Coast of Florida growing up.  The fish knows the Gulf is warmer than it used to be.

 Juvenile Hogfish

 A Gray Angelfish with an invasive Lionfish on the 65 ft ledge.  Tim dispatched one of them on the dive.  In the Gulf and the Caribbean the only good Lionfish is a dead one.

 Juvenile Amberjack on the 65 ft ledge.

 A six foot Nurse shark, too bad there was so much algae bloom in the bottom 15 ft.  Thank you fertilized lawns and golf courses.

 Another Lionfish about to meet his end.

 Tim with the good kind of Gulf Lionfish.

 Tim on the Sheridan.

 Small fish and large Great Barracuda.

 Goliath Grouper under the Sheridan's fantail.

 Juvenile Gag grouper.

 Tim with a plethora of grunts.

 These Great Barracuda ranged four to five feet in length.  I saw more large Barracuda on the Sheridan than I saw in all my diving in the Gulf in the 60s and 70s.  They like the warmer water, too.

 We found a beautiful like-new large Danford anchor and chain, Tim had the smarts to tie it to our anchor instead of us separately lugging it to the surface and trying to lift it into the boat.

 Back to the boat, limited bottom time at 75 ft.