And what about the west coast of FL - (last post on the topic of my vacation)

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dlwalke

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OK. Well, I think this will be the last post of my pre-planning for my departure to FL on Thursday. I've been asking about some east coast options, but have wondered too whether or not there is any good reason to head over to the left coast of FL to do some diving. Mostly all I hear about is the east coast. I think I need to replace my destroyed copy of Ned DeLoach's (if I remember his name right) book on FL diving. Anyhow, thanks for any additional tips or suggestions.

As always,
Many thanks.
Dave
 
Not a whole lot of pretty sites to see over here compared to the East coast. We do have some nice springs but most that I know of are a pretty good drive from WPB. You can do sharks tooth diving off Venice Beach, viz is usually pretty terrible and there isn't much to see sealife-wise but the thrill of finding a tooth from a 20-50 foot long shark that lived millions of years ago definitely keeps me coming back. Even when you don't find a Megalodon tooth there are still plenty of smaller teeth to find. Its not too bad a drive from the WPB area either. Other than that there are a few wrecks along the coast but most are a pretty good ways offshore and probably not quite as spectacular as what you'd find off WPB, Boca, Pompano, the Keys...etc
 
There's lots of sealife in the Gulf. You'll find many more Jewfish than on the east coast. Even diving Venice Beach you'll see things rarely encountered on the other side. Searobins are plentiful. What you don't find is lots of hard corals.
 
The west coats has been suffering a nasty red tide this year. I don't know exactly what areas are effected, but it has come all the way up & over to Panama City. I suggest you find out if any spot you're thinking about going to has been dealing with this.
 
Walter:
There's lots of sealife in the Gulf. You'll find many more Jewfish than on the east coast. Even diving Venice Beach you'll see things rarely encountered on the other side. Searobins are plentiful. What you don't find is lots of hard corals.

However at the moment the area from Clearwater to about 30m+ north and south is dead up to 20m out, RED TIDE
 
dlwalke:
OK. Well, I think this will be the last post of my pre-planning for my departure to FL on Thursday. I've been asking about some east coast options, but have wondered too whether or not there is any good reason to head over to the left coast of FL to do some diving. Mostly all I hear about is the east coast. I think I need to replace my destroyed copy of Ned DeLoach's (if I remember his name right) book on FL diving. Anyhow, thanks for any additional tips or suggestions.

As always,
Many thanks.
Dave
This weekend I received first hand reports of nasty red tide in the Anna Maria Island area near Sarasota. Folks don't even take walks outside because of the smell and coughing. Forget going to the beach. Sorry to be a bearer of bad news.

As for the Atlantic, in the Hollywood area, heavy surf and rips have limited my shore dives.

Jack
 
Walter:
There's lots of sealife in the Gulf. You'll find many more Jewfish than on the east coast. Even diving Venice Beach you'll see things rarely encountered on the other side. Searobins are plentiful. What you don't find is lots of hard corals.

Did a dive last year on a artifical reef/wreck that had only been down eight weeks and I counted 23 jewfish on it :D
 
Red tide has not been too bad at Venice the past few times I've been but after the beach "renourishment" the most I've seen alive is a few blue crabs and some shrimp, granted its been a few weeks since I've been back down there. Jewfish are plentiful over here but as someone said above pretty much anything N or S of the Tampa area for about 30-40 miles and 20-25 miles out is going to be affected by the red tide.
 
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