Necanicum or Siletz?

[Beefcake]

Has anyone here dove in either Necanicum (Seaside) or Siletz (Lincoln City) bays? I'm trying to think of somewhere closer than the sound that might have decent vis in the winter. I know Netarts can be okay, but there seems to be a lot of boat traffic when the other bays are flushed of crabs. I don't expect to see much in either of these bays, but they are both smaller rivers that clear quickly after storms. Any thoughts, experience, or advice? Thanks, Scott

[nwbobber]

There is no bay on the Necanicum, the river just flows across the beach. I have never dove the Siletz, but Tillamook bay has some diving, and is closer than Lincoln city. We dove the three graces which is on the south of the jetty there are some rocks sticking up. There is a small parking area next to hwy 101 and a short trail along the RR tracks to a place where you can scramble down the rocks. They had a rope tied there when we were there to help with the scrambling. It was a nice dive, I don't think over 40', lots of juvenile lings, greenling, rockfish, and perch. There are a lot of cockles, which we collected and made awesome clam chowder. The current can pick up pretty good here so you need to dive this on slack. There is also good diving along the jetty, you have to be fairly agile getting in and out, and watch for fishermen. I think there are some descriptions of these in the dive sites section.

[ORDiver]

Tillamook Bay can be great. I have dove the north jetty, Three Graces and the old coast guard dock. Definitely needs to be a low tidal exchange day around the slack. Also, check the ocean swell in the winter. You can have a decent tidal exchange but if you've got 13ft. swell the dive is gonna suck. The north coast is hard to dive in the winter. Mild tidal exchanges and low swell are hard to come by.
The Fingers in Newport are supposed to be doable in the winter. The "fingers" (small jetties) stick out perpendicular from the main jetties and guard against swell/current. I haven't actually dove there but that's what I've heard. The only problem is that it's about the same amount of drive time as Hood Canal or Tacoma from PDX.

[Beefcake]

Thanks. I've dove both Tillamook and Newport (Barview Jetty and Three Graces at Tilly, The Fingers and Wacoma Dock at Newport). I had trouble with the entry / exit at Barview, and the slack tide didn't last long. Once the current caused us to run from the jetty, we went straight to Three Graces which was pretty cool except the current was ripping if you went too far toward the channel and there was really only one deep area that was protected from the current, and the exit was horrible (all of the small rocks that we swam over on the way out were 2' out of the water and slimy on the way in). I was just concerned that the visibility in Tillamook would be horrible in the winter (there are 5 rivers that discharge their water into that bay, so any rain seems to blow it out for a while).

Wacoma is a fun and easy dive (been there twice), but the surge at the fingers nearly killed me. I'm definitely up for trying the fingers again, but only when I see a prediction for a light tide combined with a small swell.

I was mainly curious if it is deep enough behind Seaside High School to be worth trying (I've thrown crab pots there, but I can't remember if it's 6' deep or 30'). Or, i was wondering if it is deep enough and safe enough to try the mouth of siletz bay at the end of an incoming tide (most of the bay is shallow, but I think it is deeper right at the mouth; possible access from behind Mo's with a chowder and beer reward when I exit?). Anyway, thanks for the thoughts on Tilly and Newport; I'm just trying to find new places worth diving within a couple of hours drive.

[bmcsteve]

I like to dive in Waldport. Its only about 20 min south of Newport and at low slack it gets to about 50' in the bowl. Lots of crabs, fish, and a herd of sealions that sun themselves on the north beach. The only real draw back to this site is humping all the gear down to the beach and back up after.

Here is a link to the site description on shore diving . com :

http://www.shorediving.com/Earth/USA_We ... /index.htm

[Beefcake]

I like to dive in Waldport. Its only about 20 min south of Newport and at low slack it gets to about 50' in the bowl. Lots of crabs, fish, and a herd of sealions that sun themselves on the north beach. The only real draw back to this site is humping all the gear down to the beach and back up after.

Here is a link to the site description on shore diving . com :

http://www.shorediving.com/Earth/USA_We ... /index.htm

I plan to dive Waldport / crab hole one of these days, but the current there scares me a little. It seems like it goes from slack to a ripping ebb tide in a matter of minutes.

[bmcsteve]

I like to dive in Waldport. Its only about 20 min south of Newport and at low slack it gets to about 50' in the bowl. Lots of crabs, fish, and a herd of sealions that sun themselves on the north beach. The only real draw back to this site is humping all the gear down to the beach and back up after.

Here is a link to the site description on shore diving . com :

http://www.shorediving.com/Earth/USA_We ... /index.htm

I plan to dive Waldport / crab hole one of these days, but the current there scares me a little. It seems like it goes from slack to a ripping ebb tide in a matter of minutes.

The trick is catching it on a low tidal exchange day and dive at low slack. I usually try to get in the water at the east end of the bowl about 30 min before slack tide. There is still a little bit of outbound current but it makes for a nice drift dive and about the time to turn the dive, there is almost no current so going back to the entry point is fairly easy. Of course you can always exit anywhere along the wall and schlepp back to your staging area too. We usually can get 2 dives in with a very short SI before the incoming current gets too bad. I have had one time though where I misjudged the timing and shortly into the second dive the current was ripping. If this happens, you can either make it back into to bowl, which is somewhat protected from the main current, or worst case scenario you get pushed inshore a ways and have a long schlepp along the beach back to your staging area. Hit me up some time and we can go together if you want. I am always looking for new dive buddies.

Steve

[bmcsteve]

Sorry about the thread hi-jack.... Waldport has nothing to do with the OP.

[Beefcake]

Sorry about the thread hi-jack.... Waldport has nothing to do with the OP.

That's okay. I was the OP, and I'm just looking for options around here. Waldport is nearly as far as Hood Canal, but I do spend a fair amount of time on the Oregon Coast, so I'll probably end up there one of these days.

[bmcsteve]

[/quote]
That's okay. I was the OP, and I'm just looking for options around here. Waldport is nearly as far as Hood Canal, but I do spend a fair amount of time on the Oregon Coast, so I'll probably end up there one of these days.[/quote]

Just give me a shout and if I can make it, I would be happy to "show you around."

[bugleman]

The Fingers in Newport are supposed to be doable in the winter. The "fingers" (small jetties) stick out perpendicular from the main jetties and guard against swell/current. I haven't actually dove there but that's what I've heard. The only problem is that it's about the same amount of drive time as Hood Canal or Tacoma from PDX.

That is what I was thinking.

[bmcsteve]

I dove the Newport fingers only once.... and then it was the wrong one. We dove on the closest finger and it was way shallow... only about 4 ft deep until you got about 100 yds off shore then it dropped. One buddy pair wasn't paying attention and ended up in the middle of the channel.

We didn't try the outermost finger, which btw is supposed to be the best, because favorite dive buddy couldn't navigate the slippery rocks with 80 lbs of scuba gear on her back. ;-) So I haven't had the chance to go back and try it again. Most of our shore diving on the coast has been limited by what she can access without major injury.

Now that I am branching out and hoping to find new buddies to dive with, I'd love to dive the fingers again, and Barview too for that matter.

[selkie]

Dive the fingers on high slack. There are a lot less rocks to cross at high water. I haven't dove the fingers since 1985. I went down to Newport last spring and looked at the fingers at low water. I decided there was no way I was dragging my old rear over all those rocks in the rain. Be sure to stop by South Beach Scuba when in Newport. They have local knowledge and are way cool people.

[Beefcake]

Okay, NWBobber was absolutely correct; there is not a bay at the Necanicum. I was headed down there for something else yesterday, so I took RiverPirate along to check it out. We jumped in right behind the high school. Our max depth was 6', and the current was stronger than expected (we were there just before high tide, but it was flowing out anyway). I guess with better vis it might be fun to snorkel / freedive for crabs, but it was a waste to try to scuba. Oh well, I can knock that one off of my list of destinations. I wish we had driven to Nehalem instead.