Has any one dove the artificial reefs off coast of Sanibel or Captiva Island?

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I have tried to get to a few of these shallow reefs once..... My GPS must not have been working because I never found them. The vis was only about 5 feet. You really have to go out to the deeper reefs to get any vis. In general I think the reefs are fished a lot so not great spear fishing. From what hear, deep ledges are your best bet for spear fishing off the west coast of Florida. Ledges provide a shelter for fish in a flat barren bottom such as the we have on this coast.
 
Thanks for the reply, guess we will go and check them out too, just to see what's up. I grew up fishing much of this area in and around Pine island and am curious if any of these spots are worth hitting. will let you know what we find.
 
Let us know how it goes. I'm from the Ft. Myers area and have actually never dove on the west coast. If there are some things worth going to I might have to check out, I'm going to be down there until the 1st of December. I also found some videos on youtube from these reefs. I just typed in Lee County Artificial Reefs and it brought up some videos up from 1999.
 
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We will be down in Englewood from Xmas to NY and pretty much figured it was just sand and ****ty vis. But I will be diving anyway! There is ALWAYS something to see or dig for.
 
We dive all the time from our ski's, have been doing Lobster season in the key's for years and do really well from them. We have been to most of the sites around Marathon. Here is a picture of the Lobster slaying sled. The Lobster slaying sled.jpg going to set out some stone crab traps around Matlacha, and Pine Island while were there and see how we do with that.
 
schredder:
Take a look at this reef map, we are headed to Matlacha on Pine Island and just curious
if any one has dove on any of the sites, Sanibel, Doc Kline, Causeway, Belton Johnson?
http://www.lee-county.com/gov/dept/NaturalResources/Marine/Documents/ReefMap_Diving_March2011.pdf

Maybe some good spear fishing in these areas?
Click to expand...


Yes, lots of good spearfishing off the Sanibel and Ft. Myers Beach coasts.
ARC reef site (about 15 miles offshore) has steel towers, a sailboat, and other items. 60' depth.
BOXCAR reef (closer to 18 miles off, and further north) has, imagine this, several railroad boxcars that attract alot of fish. 60' depth.
Visibility at these sites, in my experience, is usually 10-30 feet, depending on time of year.

I just dived G-H reef yesterday, which is closer to shore in 30' of water, only about 5 miles offshore. There are several barges down there that attract alot of sheepshead, snook, grouper... Saw a massive goliath grouper yesterday. Viz was poorer due to its proximity to land, maybe 6-8'.

Later this spring, I understand that Lee County will be sinking an old USCG cutter, the Mohawk, at the ARC site. Will be pretty exciting, as it'll be the largest artificial reef we have over here. Some details I found:
Coast Guard cutter Mohawk set to be sunk off Lee County, Fla | Divetalking
 
schredder:
We dive all the time from our ski's, have been doing Lobster season in the key's for years and do really well from them. We have been to most of the sites around Marathon. Here is a picture of the Lobster slaying sled. going to set out some stone crab traps around Matlacha, and Pine Island while were there and see how we do with that.
Click to expand...

Schredder, Maybe a dumb question. Are you tethered to your ski when you dive? Do you go single or tandem? I could just see surfacing and being a half mile from my ski.
 
Most of the time we are anchored, either to a dive buoy, or our own anchors. If the current permits, otherwise we would have a tether line. I always dive with my partner, (Wife), even if its only 15 or 20 foot dive, Never! alone.


BigJoeBob:
Schredder, Maybe a dumb question. Are you tethered to your ski when you dive? Do you go single or tandem? I could just see surfacing and being a half mile from my ski.
Click to expand...
 
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