Charlie's Diving Blog

Sunday, May 17, 2015

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.

Monday, May 11, 2015

Two beautiful Mother's Day dives off Anclote Key, the Shrimpboat Wreck and Mainmast Ledge May 10, 2015

Donna and I had two really good dives with Rock Bottom Divers in the Gulf about 15 miles off Anclote Key. We had very calm seas and clear (for the Gulf water), we could see the bottom at 46 ft on the first dive and 55 ft on the second dive by simply looking over the side of the boat. The first dive was on an old shrimpboat wreck. There was a large school of sardines on the surface and an even larger school of small grunts blanketed the wreck. The highlight of this dive were the 13 Goliath Groupers on and about the wreck. I'd really hoped to get some good Goliath Grouper photos on this trip and managed to get some more yesterday with several including Goliath Grouper and Donna as well as a couple selfies....We also saw cobia, amberjack, yellowtail jacks, and Spadefish. Below are some pictures from this dive, to see more please go to: https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6147633651267234609?authkey=CIzL8Z_BisfZuAE

Donna cruises over the shrimpboat wreakage. We had exceptionally clear (for the Gulf), bright, conditions, you can just make out the Rock Bottom Divers dive boat on the surface, 45 ft above us, in the upper right of the photo.

The wreck has over a dozen Goliath Groupers, they ranged from about 100 lbs to about 300 lbs.

Donna in a face-off with a Goliath Grouper.

A school of Yellowtail Jacks made multiple passes through the school of sardines on the wreck.

Four large Goliath Grouper, the dark shadow in the background is the large school of small grunts that wrap across the wreck.

Donna decides to penetrate the dense school of grunts.

When I say dense, I mean dense, you can just barely make out Donna. Would you say there was a plethora of grunts?

Donna and a Goliath Grouper engage in a game of peek-a-boo.

This Goliath Grouper was patient as I crept closer and closer.

I simply had to take a selfie with him.

Donna cautiously came nearer from the other side. We didn't want to make him bolt - especially through one of us!

The wreck has a school of spadefish.

Time to make a safety stop before we surface. Look at the color and clarity and how calm the conditions were!

Our second dive was on Masthead Ledge a couple miles further offshore. The high profile parts of the ledge run from 48 to 55 ft of water. We saw a sea turtle, a cautious nurse shark, a Cow fish, and the usual assortment of Gulf reef fish. Below are some pictures from this dive, for more please go to:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6147633126176661057?authkey=CJHhn-2puMaveA

As Donna swims down the ledge a nice Hogfish and Mangrove Snapper hang out.

The Gulf doesn't have lots of pretty tropical fish, it isn't tropical, but one it has lots of is the Beau Gregory, about 3 inches long.

If you look at what Donna is looking at you can see a nice sized Cowfish.

Donna playing with Sea Stars again.

A Toadfish is his burrow.

A three inch dark Blenny in the right foreground.

Another pretty fish found on the Gulf's offshore ledges is the Butterfly fish.

Mangrove Snappers

Donna near some of the high profile part of Mainmast Ledge.

A school of baby grunts on the ledge.

A Blenny and a Belted Sandfish in incrusting sponges.

Monday, May 4, 2015

Great Dive on Clearwater's Artificial Reef May 3, 2015

Tim Metcalf and I headed offshore yesterday to go diving. As we went out Hurricane Pass we slowed to watch for tarpon crossing a sandbar that extends out into the Gulf. Instead of a Tarpon we saw a large manatee scraping across the shallows, really cool to see. Unfortunately the weather forecast had worsened during the night and, as predicted, a strong easterly wind had picked up. Tim slowed us down and turned us into the wind about three miles offshore so that we could accurately assess conditions - it is easy to be lulled into tranquility when running with an offshore wind with gradually building seas. We quickly decided to go no further offshore and proceeded to Clearwater's artificial reef. We quickly found the reef rising from 30 ft up to only 19 ft deep and we anchored - with a second anchor as well for safety with the strong wind blowing. Water temperature was 76 degrees and we had 25 ft of visibility. We saw lots of small fish, a few shy grouper, a sea turtle, a really cool pair of filefish (species TBD), and to top it all a very large - 200 lbs or so - Goliath Grouper. A really great dive.

Below are some pictures from the dive, for many more, please go to:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110159573286645489662/albums/6144962665207237697?authkey=CMzdganUj5Wb0wE

I found this small puffer fish on the way down the anchor line to the reef.

The culverts and broken concrete dropped about 3 miles out in the Gulf to create this reef off Clearwater Beach is all richly populated with marine life. Here you see a sea star, sea urchin, coral, and a Sheepshead.