St Pete or Clearwater Diving

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Zman96

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Location
Illinois
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200 - 499
I am planning a October trip to the area an wondered if the diving is any good in that area? I did a quick search and didn't see a ton on here about that area. It seems from other searching that it is mostly wrecks, are they decent? Thanks
 
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Good diving around that time. As the water cools the viz improves. You may see the fall migration of kingfish.

There's plenty of artificial reefs, wrecks and army tanks. If you like natural reefs and ledges I'd go a little north out of Tarpon Springs and New Port Richey. Much healthier due to less fishing.
 
Thanks CuzzA
Most of the dive places I have been finding are just LDS. Scuba Cat Charters is the only one in the area that looks like just a diving op, but their website is expired and most info on the web is more then a year old. My wife is a non diver and we are staying in Gulfport so driving an hour or 2 plus a 6-7 hour dive time isn't going to really work. Am I just mostly out of luck for diving in the more immediate vicinity of Gulfport/ St Pete beach?
 
Not at all, there's plenty of charters and good diving.

I see where it looks like you may not be getting a lot of hits for charters. When I search Google for scuba charters in St. Pete it produces mostly dive shops, which are a good option as many shops run charters or work with charter boats.

I would also search "fishing charters" and "spearfishing charters". Even though you may not spearfish, many have regular scuba trips.

You might have to just click around and make some phone calls and see who offers what. I wish I could give you a solid recommendation, but I've never chartered a boat before.... All private diving.
 
Thanks for the heads up. I did find two in Clearwater, Tanks A Lot and Dive Clearwater, so if I get desperate maybe I will go up there. I will give the spearfishing charters a try. I have only used my slings to hunt mostly lionfish and lobsters in the Caribbean, maybe something new. Are there many Lionfish in this area?
 
Unfortunately they have arrived here near shore in greater numbers this year. A few weeks ago we saw about 20 huge lionfish and killed 10. On my last dive I saw 4 in low viz. I'm diving again Sunday and expect to be eating lionfish tacos Sunday night.
 
Lionfish tacos are great, making ceviche out of them or coconut crusted are my two favorites. A couple of years after I started going to Cozumel they started showing up there. I would go with some friends out of the marine part and shoot dozens of them each tank. Thankfully we only lost our catch to a shark one time. Good luck hunting this weekend and thanks for your tips, I found another in Clearwater as well.
 
Hook n Spear and Rock Bottom and unleashedcharters.com are few more to take a look at. All great. Another fun thing to do is about an hr or so South in Venice. You can go sharktooth hunting w Aristikat and I think he also does some wreck charters and he is on this forum. All alot of fun. Shore dive in Venice too and wife can hang out on the beach.

Good luck whatever you decide to do. I love my coast!
 
Thanks for the recommendations.
 
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