SuPrBuGmAn
Contributor
Josh L and I took the Zodiac out of Bayou Point yesterday morning and headed out of Perdido Pass in Orange Beach and West a few miles to the Gulf State Park Pier in Gulf Shores. The pier isn't open for divers normally, but Hurricane Ivan busted it up nicely, so its condemned and closed to fishermen ontop - which opens it up for divers by boat. There were two boats reel fishing on arrival and a different boat fishing when we surfaced. They stayed a safe enough distance from my inflatable w/dive flag. There is no land access to it, the roads were destroyed as well. Current was moving very slowly from the West and there weren't any seas to speak of - it was glassy on the way out and a bit of wind chop on the way in. It was a beautiful day, cool in the morning, but it did get pretty damned hot by mid-day. There wasn't too many boats about during our way out, but the pass was jammed up with boat traffic when we got back.
There were large schools of mullet and spadefish everywhere. There were also sheepshead, white trout, redfish(drum), pompano, and hardtails schooling. Saw a few southern rays and blennies filled in crevices made by barnacles and coral on the pier pilings. I found a nice sized anchor and after picking it up out of the sand, a small octopus shot ink everywhere before jetting off out of sight. Flounder littered the bottom and we took 5 of em as well as a nice sized sheepshead, filling the small styrofoam icechest we picked up from the gas station
Visibility varied from ~3' to 30+' depending on which side of the pier you were on and at what depth in the water column you happened to be in. Theres a funky layer on top, I believe from spawning, and the bottom is pretty stirred up, I believe from the dredging taking place not too far off. Midwater was very clear. We dove for about 70min hitting a maximum depth of 18'. It made for an excellent dive, it was totally awesome looking up at the sun through the pier columns with litterly hundreds of mullet and spadefish schooling around you in circles. Would have been a great day for the camera. I had been wanting to hit this site since the hurricane made it available and I'm glad I went through the trouble of getting out there. I haven't heard of anyone else actually diving it, even though a ton of people have expressed interest at the local dive shops.
There were large schools of mullet and spadefish everywhere. There were also sheepshead, white trout, redfish(drum), pompano, and hardtails schooling. Saw a few southern rays and blennies filled in crevices made by barnacles and coral on the pier pilings. I found a nice sized anchor and after picking it up out of the sand, a small octopus shot ink everywhere before jetting off out of sight. Flounder littered the bottom and we took 5 of em as well as a nice sized sheepshead, filling the small styrofoam icechest we picked up from the gas station
Visibility varied from ~3' to 30+' depending on which side of the pier you were on and at what depth in the water column you happened to be in. Theres a funky layer on top, I believe from spawning, and the bottom is pretty stirred up, I believe from the dredging taking place not too far off. Midwater was very clear. We dove for about 70min hitting a maximum depth of 18'. It made for an excellent dive, it was totally awesome looking up at the sun through the pier columns with litterly hundreds of mullet and spadefish schooling around you in circles. Would have been a great day for the camera. I had been wanting to hit this site since the hurricane made it available and I'm glad I went through the trouble of getting out there. I haven't heard of anyone else actually diving it, even though a ton of people have expressed interest at the local dive shops.
