Southwest Florida (Naples to Cape Coral area) reefs?

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taymag

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Location
South Florida
I am on the east coast (Delray Beach) and we have some nice longggg reefs you can drift, etc. I am heading over to the west for a mini vacation and was wondering if there are any reefs and larger areas than a single wreck anywhere between Naples to Cape Coral area give or take 30 minutes of that range similar to what I have here?
 
Nope. The gulf floor is a tad bit different than the Atlantic. First of all, it's shallow. In order to reach 60 ft, you have to go out 12 miles. Most of the natural structure that we have are ledges. There are artificial reefs but most are in one general area. I don't know of too much from Cape Coral south but there is a large artificial reef off of Boca Grande known as the Novak reef which kind of ties in with another artificial reef that I can't remember the name of right now. Maybe someone will jump in & refresh my memory. Anyway, it sits in about 35 ft of water & consists of the old 75 bridge from Punta Gorda. The thing you have to remember is viz can be iffy, especially this time if year. You need a good week of easterlies in order to have good viz. We consider 10 ft to be pretty good. The problem this time of year is that every time a front comes through, viz drops. The only other spot I can recommend is to go north, to Venice & dive for shark's teeth. Again, viz can be iffy but, when you're searching the bottom for teeth, you don't always need great viz.
 
Thats kind of what I thought. Oh well, I'm not going for a few weeks so maybe someone will check in with some hidden gems but I remember hearing viz is tough to come by there. Thanks!!
 
You're welcome. :)
 
The diving Holy Grail of Florida.
A worth a damn "shore dive" in the Keys and a nice reef on the west coast.

Chug
Never has doved the left coast.
 
I've read all the above posts. Here in Sarasota County we have an extensive system of artificial reefs and more limestone ledges than we can count and new ones are located every day. No drift diving here, but there are artifical reefs like M16 that you can dive on back to back and not see all of it. There is a ledge I know of in 50 fsw that we have never been able to swim completely. Also, have to mention the fossil diving off of Venice which is well worth doing if you have never tried it before. If you decide to come our way, give us a call and we would be happy to help you out.
 
A few years back the wife and I did a couple dives out of Ft Myers Beach. It was a trio of small wrecks called Big Carlos Triangle.

We did two shallow dives right around 30 feet. The largest barge (wreck) was home to a family of Goliath Grouper along with sponge, soft corals and several snappers.

The shop we went out with is no longer around, but I bet someone local can get you there.
 
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https://xf2.scubaboard.com/community/forums/cave-diving.45/

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