Ft. Myers Diving

[Soda]

Is Vanderbilt Beach diveable?

 

[CBulla]

I will not dive near Boca Grande Pass. I have seen many many sharks there, and that in itself is not too bad. The ugly part is the fisherman. I fish there and don't want to be anywhere near some of those yahoo's.

Joe

You know I said that to, then I did the clean up dive in Boca Grande last year with Reefguy. Hands down the absolute BEST dive I have ever done! The second album here has some under water pictures: http://www.conchdivers.com/psd/boca/

This clean up dive is great because there is a sag wagon per-say that is brought out by Sanibel PD, there is lots of Police presence on the water, AND you get benefit of cleaning the environment while diving in a place not many other divers have ever been. I would HIGHLY suggest it to anyone who has advanced diving skills, but you have to be very comfortable with your gear and the water to do it.

Sharks are only a worry during Tarpon season. I didn't see a one while diving there. What was seen was black grouper, snapper, stone crabs, a school of 6' long tarpon and some jew fish. The bottom structure is absolutely incredible. The current can be very unnerving if you don't have a good buddy... fortunately I had a great buddy.

 

[JustJoe]

I don't mind the sharks, I do mind the boaters and fisherman. IF they are not around I think it would be great. Unfortunately, how often is that the case? Once a year.

I will gladly dive the area during a cleanup activity, if I can be assured the fisherman are kept back quite a distance.

Joe

edited to add: I have fished the area for tarpon and other fish (including bait, tarpon and many variety of sharks) and will continue to do so.

 

[CBulla]

Fisherman and boaters are kept well away.. last years clean up was 39 boats with divers, 10 law enforcement who were happily writing tickets to people who ignoring the flags and stay away warnings.

 

[Former FLL Now MSP Diver]

I was talking to someone here they mentioned there's blue holes off Sanibel that are diveable. Anyone been to them? I didn't see any mention of these sites on any of the charter boat websites.

Marc

 

[CBulla]

Bluehole

There is another off of Captive simply known as Captiva Blue Hole - you can find the coords for this on Google.

Basically they are freshwater springs whose outlet is in the Gulf of Mexico. I'm sure that there is fossiling around it for those interested since at one point FL was 240 miles wider to the west than it is now.

 

[Walter]

There's one 28 miles off Redfish pass, not far from the Pegasus called "The Crack."

 

[SharkBaite]

Hmmmmm 28 miles huh. Colin sounds like Road Trip LOL.

Me personallly for the time I have been diving I would say so far the Gulf is the best. but I am being Biased because I have only dove on the east coast a few times. The rest of them have been here.

You won't find alot of divers going out to these sites as I/We haven't run across any except once and that was at the Boat ramp as we were heading out.

 

[CBulla]

Maybe we can fix that this spring/summer when the water starts to warm up, Brian.

 

[ReefGuy]

I'll second Colin on the Boca Grande pass dive. Very cool dive. Wouldn't do it without cops, though. Joe, you're right about the boaters. We had four police boats, and they were busy stopping boaters who apparently couldn't see the lights flashing on their boats.

Another dive that's supposed to be great around here is the phosphate docks. I'm hoping to do this dive soon, before the tarpon come in.