any good dive sites around venice, fla?

[inkabodpain]

does anyone on the boards know any really great dive sites around venice, florida?i'll be out there mid october and would like to dive where i could observe manatee,dolfins and some reefs.i'm also interested in any other cool dive sites....i'm from the upper east coast where the water is cold & the viz is around 6 to 10 feet on a good day.what else is of interest there?thanx...peace

 

[Wildbill]

About all you'll find in Venice is Shark Teeth.... Post a thread here when you get an actual date and you will find several boarders that would be willing to go with you and show you the best spots for teeth.

Go to this site www.floridawestscuba.com they are in Venice and do charters to various artificial reefs like Train Box Cars, Army Tanks and more.

Make sure to give a posting and ask if Walter is available he is the Shark Tooth Guru......

Wildbill:cop:

 

[scubajen]

It isn't in Venice, but off of Siesta Key (about a 20 min. drive North of Venice), my husband and I dove with Scuba Quest.
They took us out where we saw about 8 really large jew fish!
I am talking larger than you and I. We also saw barracuda, a nurse shark, and a sea turtle.
We had a great time!

 

[ibediving]

Take Wild Bill's advice. Florida West is also my favorite diveshop in the area. I dove there last month and picked up around 80 sharks teeth including two teeth measuring 2.5 inches across the top and 3.5 from top to bottom

 

[munkispank]

Hey scubajen and wildbill, can either of you tell me how long the boat rides are?- Up here in Tampa, the sites are 1-2 hours away- not good for me uke:
If the rides are shorter, I would rather spend the time driving down there.

Also- has anyone had any success finding Sugar Barge?- I dove it once but the vis was terrible and I couldn't find anything but sand!


thanks

 

[CBulla]

Rides out from the Sarasota area to shark tooth hunting or general diving on the various reefs is approximately 30 -40 minutes, depending on which marina the boat is at. I went out with Scuba Quest on their Conch Quest boat and it was about 30-35 minutes to the M-1 reef.

There are also shore diving that virtually runs the length of the county if your up to shallow diving and shark tooth hunting. I dove Manasota Key a few weeks ago with another Scuba Boarder from RI and we had some great dives, even if the tooth count was a little low.. it may have had something to do with unfamiliarity with the area though. Here's my write up on that:

http://www.scubaboard.com/t35800/s.html

Another dive is about 2 miles south of Manasota Key and is called Rocky Point. There are lots of bigger rocks in the water and around the rocks and bottom is supposed to be flounder flounder flounder. If you've not seen them swim along under water then disappear into the sand, its very intersting to watch.

If I could get a rough location for sugar barge, I'll be happy to poke around looking for it

 

[scubajen]

I believe our boat rides were usually about an hour.
My husband gets sea sick easily, but if he takes Bonine
an hour before we get on the boat, he is fine.

 

[Walter]

The Sugar Barge is really easy to find. You probably swam out on the surface then descended to look for it as you continued out. You were probably past it before you descended. It's surprisingly close to shore. I believe it's 270° from the flag pole. Ask at the dive shop in the strip mall across the street.

 

[munkispank]

thanks for the info- the less than an hour boat ride sounds good-i'll search out the operators.

As for Sugar barge- I might give it a go again next weekend-have to get my car fixed first. Last time I swam out in what i thought was a straight line from the shore- but I guess I must have deviated some. Then again- my compass skills were a little lacking then- thankfully I have improved somewhat now.