Almighty: search for threads started by Skeptic14...... he's posted quite a few dive reports and pictures from his panhandle dives. Water in the gulf tends to be more green that blue colored, but the dive sites can still be enjoyable. While I've done about 700 dives, only a bit more than a dozen are in the gulf.... but I've enjoyed the following sites:
PCB:
Blackbart: Wreck: Has several resident goliath grouper and pretty good fish life. I've dove it twice: once had 60+ feet of vis and another time about 30. I understand that 50+ vis is pretty unusual for the area.
Red Sea: Also a wreck: it has several goliath grouper and decent fish life.
Hovercraft: this is a small site, but if you're into macro photography its great. In the sand on the north side of the wreck, you'll find half a dozen to a dozen mantis shrimp lairs. It also has a couple of resident goliath grouper.
Bridge Spans: I've dove a number of these. They are interesting enough but not very big sites. I've found that if you can be one of the last divers up to the dive boat, the goliath group will come back in closely. I was diving solo and had four move back from the sand, after the other divers who chased them away surfaced, and had two come within a few feet of me as they slowly swam around watching me. It was a pretty cool experience, not unlike what I've experienced in Jupiter and WPB. There are also a ton of blennies on the spans so this is a good place for macro photography.
Gulf Shores:
LuLu: this is a newer wreck but has already had goliaths make residence. I slowly and calmly climbed into the wheelhouse with one and stayed with him for quite a bit of time until other less-calm divers showed up and chased him away. Another really cool experience not unlike Jupiter or WPB. The site also had two bull sharks wandering around hull. Vis was OK, but not great.... maybe 35 feet.
Navy Tug: Small site, not all that interesting if you're in a big group. But this would be pretty cool with just 2-4 divers. Prolific fish life but they'll scatter with a big crowd of divers. This is also good for macro photography in that there are a ton of blennies. Vis was OK but not great at 30 feet.
Barges: There are several barges off of Gulf Shores: I found them all to be pretty boring, but I've heard that bulls sometimes hang around them... I didn't see any. Vis was terrible.
Springs:
I've only dove Vortex and Morrison. Vortex is OK, but felt very 'commercial' to me. I'll use it again for new gear set up practice dives. I like Morrison better: its not far from Vortex (you can rent tanks at Vortex if you don't have your own) but its a very natural setting..... almost spooky with big moss filled trees surrounding the spring. I'd only dive this with a group, since I'd be a little concerned with 'gators in the area (I have no proof that there are any, but it feels like there could be). The cavern is filled with fresh water eels which are pretty creepy but interesting to watch.
That's the bulk of my experience..... haven't dove the jetties, though I plan to, and I haven't dove the natural reef off of Destin, which I also plan to do. Skeptic14's photos of the natural reef line in Destin remind me of some of the reefs in SE Florida.
Here's a few pictures: these are all screenshots from GoPro videos so aren't great quality. As you probably know, the fisheye lense on a GoPro makes things look much farther away than they really are. In the first shot, I was 24 inches from the Goliath
in the wheelhouse with the GG
on the LuLu exterior
on a bridge span