Any good fish/corals near Pensacola area?

[kpc01]

Hello, I am coming to FL this week for my wedding, however thought during our week honeymoon in Perdido Key that I could see if there was any good snorkeling to do around Pensacola area. A member of my local club just went to FL and said he saw quite a few pipefish and blennies. Unfortunately I can't dive yet, so only snorkeling....anyways anyone have any tips where I could go while I'm down. I would love to get to go see some of these things in person.

thanks
Kelly

[SueQ]

Two places come to mind:
1) Fort pickens.
2) Fort Barrancas (sp?)
Both are part of the Nat'l Seashore, NPS. Fort Barrancas was actually having 'guided' snorkelling trips earlier in the summer.
Also, if you're thinking about getting stuff for your tank, you'll need to get a saltwater fishing license.
You can also snorkel off teh beach in the Gulf and see lots of cool things. Just be smart and don't go out there around dawn or dusk unless you want to get up close and personal with the local bull sharks;)
Check out some earlier posts on this forum too. Someone else was coming to town and looking for info.

[kpc01]

great! thanks for the info...I will check it out. I doubt I would get anything for the tank unless we came across some cool pipefish for our seahorse tank. Other than that I just want to see it all in nature.

thanks again

[noobtank]

there are a lot of seahorses in the sea grass beds in pcola. i'll let you guys in on a secret as well. if you are nice to the local bait shops you can usually ask them to call you if they ever get seahorses in. whenever they go shrimping and stuff sometimes/usually there are some seahorses that get fished up as well. i think erectus and dwarf seahorses are the only ones though. i've only done it once though. you probably could buy them for cheap too. it sure beats shelling out 50+ for one

[kpc01]

no kidding....thanks for the tip. We will only be there for a week(honeymoon) so I will be leaving next Friday. But if I can find a decent place around perdido, or pensacola to snorkel I could even try to get some myself. Any chance you know of any bait shops in that area? I am trying to get all my research done before I get there.

thanks again

[SueQ]

There'a a small B/T shop very close to Perdido, but I can't htink of the name. Otherwise, there is Outcast bait & tackle on Barrancas Ave on P'Cola and Gulf Breeze B&T in Gulf Breeze.