SuPrBuGmAn
Contributor
I met up with aLittletank in Gulf Shores Tuesday afternoon and we hit the Paddlewheeler. Surf was running shin high, but after the break, seas seemed calm enough. There was a ton of seaweed at the surfline and the water didn't look all that wonderful, but we came to dive. Made the swim out to site on the surface and found the wreck without any problems. Visibilityw as 5-10' on the east side and through the interior of the wreck for the most part. There was a very noticable cloud of silt, ash, algae on the west side which dropped visibility to inches. We kept to the main bulk of the wreck and around the eastern border of it. There were a ton of fish onsite, schooling spades and mangroves, as well as lookdowns, little jacks, croaker, ect. Flounder and electric skates could be found in the sand. I spotted a little octopus hiding amongst some of the wreckage on the southside. Blue and stone crab filled lots of the nooks and crannies. I spotted the black grouper inside the boiler area, still not sure if its legal - but big for this site regardless. Sheepshead here and there and tropicals. We had a fun dive lasting a bit over 45 minutes reaching a max depth of 16'. Water tempertures in the low 80sF. We started our dive with daylight and exitted at night and it was chilly coming out of the water.
All in all, had fun!
All in all, had fun!
