Whiskey Wreck and West Beach Paddlewheeler 6-25-6 Dive Reports

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

SuPrBuGmAn

Contributor
Messages
12,436
Reaction score
297
Location
Tallahassee, FL
# of dives
500 - 999
I met up with jwhitlock and TwoBitTxn across from Bahama Bob's this afternoon to dive the Whiskey Wreck. The water looked great and it was very warm(mid-80sF I'd guess) so I dove sans suit, just some shorts. TBT wanted to shoot some fish, so I leant him my polespear. Visibility averaged 10-15' and often was as good as 20', maybe slightly better. There was no thermocline. More of the wreck seems to be uncovered and we found more hull West of the stern section. There was quite a few schooling fish and lots of life on the wreck. TBT tagged 3 flounder. I hit a max depth of 17' and the dive lasted for 84 minutes. Everyone seemed to have alot of fun with the dive.

TBT and I headed back into the water(whitlock only brought one tank), this time we were further west and diving for the West Beach Paddlewheeler. We found the wreckage without any problems and immediately came upon some flounder. The wreck is simply swarmed by baitfish and larger schooling fish feeding on them. Often, visibility was limited by the amount of fish between you and any given distance. There were lots of flounder on the bottom. TBT ended up with 5-6 flounder and a couple sheepshead. There is also a ~20# Jewfish and we saw some Speckled Trout around the wreck. The wreck itself is pretty neat, the stern rises 8-10' off the bottom and the paddlewheels are mostly intact, midship, with a large axel stretching between them. The majority of the bow is either broken or buried(or both). Visibility was 10-15' and dropped to 5-10' by the end of the dive. I hit a max depth of 14' and the dive lasted for 68 min. We had alot of fun and TBT came back with quite a few fish to clean.

Looking forward to doing some more diving tomorrow :)
 
Dang!! And just think I sat home bored all day. Sounds like fun was had by you three
 
Keep checking the Trips subforum and come meet us out there :)
 
SuPrBuGmAn:
visibility was limited by ... fish
I just hate it when that happens... :D
Rick
 
Yeah, it was horrible :wink:

Lots of different fish too, lookdowns, bluefish, and scad along with the typical pinfish, spades, and sheepshead schooling about. They were going crazy over smaller fry being forced into baitballs.

I've only seen a lookdown on one other occasion(after being caught on rod-n-reel). Strange looking fish :D
 
SuPrBuGmAn:
Yeah, it was horrible :wink:

Lots of different fish too, lookdowns, bluefish,

You know that’s just terrible to be blinded like that by a bunch of gang banging Blues. I believe I would have been tempted to put a few of them in the ice box sawedoff style.:eyebrow:

I don’t believe I have even heard of a lookdown, That is one I’ll have to do a Google on

I take it you guys mostly two tank dive when you hit the beach huh?
 
Depends on how much time we have, during the day on the weekend, definately atleast 2 tanks. Weeknight dives, usually just one and we go home to get some sleep for work the next day.

6748629.jpg


Lookdown^^ not my picture, by the way - just a google provision.

They are very flat, I saw a large 12"er once that was caught on reel, it was maybe 1/2" thick. The ones we saw yesterday were only 4-5" long and probably no more than 3/16" thick.
 
Thanks for the report. I need to pick up some beach dives with you soon too.
 
Comon out, I'm always up for a dive.
 
I just got back today. I indeed had a great time. I'll post a pick of my first spear kills when I get it off disk and properly sized.

A big thanks to bugman for his hospitality.

TwoBit
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

Back
Top Bottom