A fun week of diving the Oregon Coast

[OreCoastDiver]

My bro was here all last week and we dove The Fingers on Yaquina Bay south jetty five times and Netarts once. My brother is a spearfishing nut and he really liked the fingers. He was almost guaranteed near limits. The weeks total was: 3 ling, 2 greenling, 1 blue and about a dozen black rf.

What I leaned from all of this is that the fingers and Netarts are pretty dependable dives. We went to Netarts on Wednesday and it was just nasty out -- wind, cold, 20-foot waves -- yet we had a great dive with about 10-foot viz. Neatarts has lots of interesting inverts because of it's high salinity. The small amount of fw flowing into the bay helps viz on following big rain storms. We saw seven types of nudies and lots of crab. Even with the big waves just outside the bay there was no swell to speak of with only a little wind chop. We must have been a little late to catch high slack because we had to hand-over-hand our way back, but that was fun too.

The fingers is a great dive with lots to see. I think I've done all of them now and the surprise was the first finger, which mostly drys out during a minus tide, is a great dive! We saw lots of fish -- including a copper rf, cabie, lots of greenling, stripped and red tail perch and, of course, blacks -- and my brother got a near limit spearing. The first finger (the thumb?) is also easier to get in and out. Our dives were shallow and lasted about 70 minutes on 80cf steels.

[BASSMAN]

The fingers is a great dive with lots to see. I think I've done all of them now and the surprise was the first finger, which mostly drys out during a minus tide, is a great dive! We saw lots of fish -- including a copper rf, cabie, lots of greenling, stripped and red tail perch and, of course, blacks -- and my brother got a near limit spearing.

If it's such a great dive site with lots to see, why would you want to spear fish there?

without a big war, is there any other opinions on this?

No name calling or I will have this thread locked. I know people.

[OreCoastDiver]

The fingers are very heavily fished by both shore angler and boat anglers. I usually pick up about a pound of lead sinkers and jigs on a dive. What's the difference between catching a fish hook and line or spearing it?

Do you eat fish Bassman? They've got to come from somewhere.

I also know people. Most of them are fisheries biologists. All the species we took are all well managed and abundant and legal. My brother and I both bought licenses. His was out-of- state and expensive. The money we spend on licenses does more for protecting fish, inverts and their habitat than anything you're doing right now, I'll bet. If you care about fish and underwater wildlife, buy a fishing license. Whether you use it or not is up to you.

[nice-diver]

Newport is good for spearfishing
Florence and Waldport and Reedsport are good for crabs.
Newport is also good for photography.
open ocean out of Coos Bay is good for spearfishing and photography...on a spearfishing boat

[BASSMAN]

I do eat some types fish and Ling Cod is one of my favorites!
I'm not sure what the unwritten rules are down there, but up here in the Seattle / Tacoma area's I don't see anyone spear fishing at local divesites. All hunting is being done with camera's there! Spear fishing and most other types of fishing are done at areas other than local dive sites.

Just an observation I'm not accusing anyone of illeagle spear fishing.

[selkie]

The Tacoma area has more local and reliably accessible (protected) dive sites than the whole of the Oregon coast. Therefore the comparison is apples and oranges. We need to think about the fact that these are diffrent regions with diffrent norms.

[BASSMAN]

The Tacoma area has more local and reliably accessible (protected) dive sites than the whole of the Oregon coast. Therefore the comparison is apples and oranges. We need to think about the fact that these are diffrent regions with diffrent norms.

Okay, then that answers my question, no harm, no foul.

[bob]

where are these jetty you speak of ? i would love to join you in picture taking
i love fish

[OreCoastDiver]

Hey Bob, I'd love to go diving with you and show you some spots on the Oregon Coast. To answer your question, I submitted a report on diving the Oregon Coast that will appear today or tomorrow on the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's Web site under the Recreation Report. (It might be here under "viewing" here: http://www.dfw.state.or.us/RR/marine/)

Here's the text:
Winter is prime time for scuba diving on the Oregon coast. While wind and waves can make an open ocean dive difficult or impossible, there are some sheltered areas of the coast where divers can safely see the wonders of our emerald ocean even when the waves are marching in. While outside winter temperatures drop, the ocean remains about the same – about 48 to 54 degrees. In fact, the sea temperature off the Oregon coast during the winter is usually a few degrees warmer in the winter than in the summer.

Perhaps more enticing to divers is that during the winter months the visibility improves. Most winter days divers can see 10 to 12 feet or sometimes more. During the summer the visibility is usually about half that. Make no mistake, diving in the Pacific Northwest is challenging because of the cold and the limited visibility, but the profusion of life and the beautiful fish and invertebrates make it worth it.

Two popular dives on the central Oregon coast are the south jetty at Newport and Netarts Bay.

The Fingers off the south jetty is probably the best known dive in the Newport area. The entry is over big rocks and is tricky, especially since most divers are packing somewhere around 60 additional pounds of gear. You can always carry your gear over a piece at a time, but most divers do it in one pack and hope they don’t fall in a hole. The jetty area provides some great hiding places for crabs, lingcod, black, blue and copper rockfish, greenlings, cabezon and lots of invertebrate life. The finger jetties are perpendicular from the main jetty and protect the diver somewhat from the current and the swells. But since this is the only outlet for Yaquina Bay, diving at high slack tide is recommended.

Netarts Bay in Tillamook County is another dependable dive when the surf is up. It has the added advantage of not having much freshwater flow into the bay so visibility is usually pretty good even after the coast has had a lot of rain. The higher salinity in the bay also means that the crabs and other invertebrates flourish. Entry is easy down the boat ramp. Keep the rock wall on your right and study the life hiding in the rocks. Going back, keep the rocks on your left. The sandy bottom is home to many crabs and eel grass beds that provides cover to small fish. Most of the action is on the rock breakwater, however. On a dive last week a team of divers saw more than four kinds of crab, five different species of nudibranchs (sea slugs), several smaller species of fish and fields of flower-like anemones.

[spatman]

great write-up, brandon. thanks for sharing that.

[bob]

I
googled it the this morning .it sounded like neatarts and yaquina were close together . I was just down there in newport
dove 3rd finger killed fish also had a wonderful dinner ! I live at the mouth of the columbia so newport is a 4hr drive
don't get down there to often .neatarts i've dove a couple of times' looks like a good place to go fishing

[OreCoastDiver]

I
googled it the this morning .it sounded like neatarts and yaquina were close together . I was just down there in newport
dove 3rd finger killed fish also had a wonderful dinner ! I live at the mouth of the columbia so newport is a 4hr drive
don't get down there to often .neatarts i've dove a couple of times' looks like a good place to go fishing

I didn't see any fish bigger than a gunnel in Netarts, but there are plenty of crab.

So, Bob, is there any good diving up north? I hear diving in the Columbia sucks. How about around Wheeler?

[bob]

The only really good spot is barview other than that haven't really experemented.May have found a spot in grays harbor!

[ORDiver]

Hey Bob, I got your PM but couldn't reply. System told me that you're unable to recieve PM's. Sund Rock last Sunday was about the same for us as your dives were. Lots of shmutz kicked up by the 50 or so divers. I'll be out of town for the next couple of weekends but after tht we should hook up for a Barview dive. I haven't dove the jetty there before.

[OreCoastDiver]

That's one thing about diving the Oregon coast, you usually have the place to yourself. Last Saturday I saw two other teams of divers at The Fingers. It was the first time I've run into someone else diving there.

Let me know when you're doing Barview and I'll try and join you. Tuesday my wife and I are on the big bird to Maui but we'll be back March 20.

[Diver Doug]

I agree with your report on Netarts Bay. I've dove it probably 60-70 times, and one of the best was when the surf was high and the storm surge was pushing water out of the boat ramp. Ther were white caps a couple of feet high. Down below the vis. was approaching 20 foot ( amazing ).
Doug