Swamps & Lakes?

[Dnaber]

Surprisingly I have never encountered a snapping turtle while diving the springs. I hope I haven't just jinx myself.....

 

[Belzelbub]

Looks like this topic sort of made the local news today.
Taylor Lake is at a park down the road from me. The park has a disk golf course on the property, so it sounds like the victim in this case was searching for disks to resell, though this is just speculation.

I've been to this park many times in my life, and would not even consider diving or swimming in it. It's a rare visit where multiple gators aren't seen.

Largo Police detectives believe man killed by alligator while searching for frisbees in Taylor Lake - IONTB

The Largo Police Department is investigating the death of an adult male at Taylor Lake in the park. Crews from Largo Fire Rescue along with officers from the Largo Police Department responded to reports of a body located by a park visitor. The call for service was at approximately 8 a.m. on...

iontb.com

 

[sourdough]

The park has a disk golf course on the property, so it sounds like the victim in this case was searching for disks to resell, though this is just speculation.

yikes, it's pretty common to collect discs in small bodies of water but I always left mine, is the lake a large one?

"Hostnick said he didn’t know the man who died but is aware of people who try to gather lost discs.

”These are people that are down on their luck,” he said. “Sometimes they dive in the lakes, they’ll pull out 40 discs. You may sell them for five bucks a piece, and you may sell them for 10 bucks a piece, depending on the quality.”

Another man retrieving discs was bitten in the face by an alligator at Taylor Lake in 2020. At that time, a state wildlife spokesperson said there had no been other reported alligator attacks in the park for at least 10 years."

Man found dead in Largo lake in possible alligator incident

Authorities believe the man was retrieving flying discs from the water.

www.tampabay.com

 

[Belzelbub]

yikes, it's pretty common to collect discs in small bodies of water but I always left mine, is the lake a large one?

I wouldn’t say it’s a particularly large lake. There are several in the county much larger. It’s about 1/2 mile long and around 1/4 mile at it’s widest point. It’s too small for anything but very small boats. You’ll see Jon boats and Kayaks, but nothing larger. It’s connected to another nearby lake that’s a good deal larger, so between the two of them definitely big enough for a healthy alligator population.

 

[soduh]

I like diving fresh water spots but it is all about what you want to be looking at while you're down there. There's generally not as many critters but the structures can be cool. Cherokee Sink near Tallahassee is kind of hazy with a lot of sunken trees making it really eerie. At Troy Spring we found some cool little nursery habitats between the cracks in the rock surrounding the entrance to the opening to the spring cavern. Both of those are state run.

As far as the privately owned spots, Devil's Den was definitely the more fun dive compared to Blue Grotto. I would reserve going to the Grotto for testing out new equipment before you get into situations where you might be dealing with currents or low viz.

Alligators typically don't want anything to do with full grown humans. Check that list of state parks that allow diving or look up a local dive shop to call and I am sure they can point you in the right direction of the good spots.

 

[SlugLife]

That makes a ton of sense. Other than shoving your face into al the nearby bodies of water how do you go about finding a worthy dive site that's nearby? So far the closest I've found is about an hour drive, and I'm tempted to start jumping into water that's closer just to get more experience underwater without the travel time.

This site has a few reviews, although there will likely be plenty on dive-spots not on the map::

Scuba Earth by DiveBuddy.com | DiveBuddy.com

The Original Scuba Earth by DiveBuddy.com is an interactive scuba diving map of dive sites, dive centers, charter boats, scuba divers, events and dive clubs from all around the world.

www.divebuddy.com

That aside, talking to other divers and dive-shops is the way to go. As much as I hate Facebook, that may be one of the best bets for finding local dive-groups.

You're of course in the Florida section of SB, so here's a good place too!