eckybay:I usually go to Gilboa or Portage with Whitestar on occasion. All three are less than an hour from me, so that's a huge plus. I got certified in the spring, so I'm still working on exploring all of them, so every dive brings something new. Borrowed a camera on a couple of dives, that was fun to play around with. Read somewhere recently that there are freshwater sponge at the bus in Gilboa, so that'll give me something to look for next time I'm there. Been looking at pictures online so i know what it is when I see itI also got a hooded vest to go with the wetsuits, so my first trip to the tubes seems a lot more likely since I have some better exposure protection for the temps there. After a couple of Sunday trips, I'm fast learning the value of diving Friday nights or Saturday mornings to get the better vis. Hopefully I'm not stirring stuff up too bad for the next guy. I recently checked out a small quarry near Lima. Not as nice as some of the other ones in the area, but the admission is the same as at the local swimming pool, and my house lacks central air, so it's tempting to go for a dive on these hot evenings just to get cooled off.
There might be sponge at the buss but I don't remember any there. Most of it is on trees. Where I usually take people to show them sponge is along the wall above the tubes. From the instructors dock, if you go down over the nose of the plane and vere left...make that left turn around the corner and all those trees are loaded with it. your only at like 30 - 40 ft at most and the light is good and you can see it real well. You can still see even more detail and the true color by using a light...it will look less grey. Also the view along and up that wall can really be unbelievable depending on where the sun is. You are above the tubes and actually more toward the fake wreck or whatever it is and up on that wall. I hope that's clear. There's spong on lots of the trees but this is a nice dive and there's tons of sponge there.
If you follow that wall back around to the right and head for the docks (but along that wall) it takes you through some trees and it's a nice dive.
That area that I just tried to describe is often clean and clear even when there are lots of divers messing everything up. Even when there are divers by the tubes making a mess you are usually above it when you're up on that wall...not all the way at the top but, as I said at 30 ft or so. I've seen that whole huge pile of tubes completely engulfed in a giant silt cloud and while up on that wall, I was above all the mess. I don't know what they were doing. The whole thing was just a big rolling cloud. It looked like some one was tearing the bottom up with some bizzare kind of machinery or something. Anyway, this is a nice dive that you can do without freezing half to death AND, I rarely have to share it with ANYONE!
The normal routs following the lines around are ok but that all gets blown out if there are very many people diving.
Other areas that sometimes stay nice are along the bank between the instructors dock and the other docks. Stay above that ledge (20 ft or so) and just follow it up. you're kind of in the trees but there are tons of fish and, like I say, sometimes it isn't as stirred up as out around the lines. Bass will spawn along the wall that's right behind the docks.
Another area that can stay nice is that flat weedy area (east?) of the buss. It's only 20 or 25 ft so it's warm and, again, there are usually lots of fish. There used to be quit a few nice sized perch that hung out there (along with all the other fish of course).
Notice that, the areas that I'm suggesting may stay nice during high diving traffic are kind of in a big circle AROUND where most people dive. Most people just go follow the lines or, at least, dive in that area, and trash it. Except for the cars and the rest of that junk there isn't that much to see there anyway. It's funny sometimes. That whole area where the buss, airboat, van and all that stuff is can be a broiling mess and divers just follow the lines right into it and then come out crying about the vis. I even tell people...don't go that way, go this way. They look at you like you have two heads and they're like....but...but...there's no line there. You won't miss anything spectacular by not following the lines and you can't really get lost because it's just a tiny little lake. The worst that could happen is that you come up at the wrong dock. If you do, just tell your friends that you planned it that way.
Also notice that the silt seems to hang within the temperature layers to some extent. Staying above that can spare you the worst of it.
We've had really nice vis in some of these areas even when the rest of the place is trashed and not hardly worth diving.
The students were amazed that the fish came in looking for food and completely surrounded me. I told them that when they take a bag of food into that mess of fish they could end up with two black eyes, a bloody nose and the fish may knock the reg out of their mouth so they had fair warning 
