Bodega Bay

[JustinW]

I am spending this weekend in Monterey, but then I am spending the following week in Bodega. I haven't done a dive out there but I wanted to get some input on anyone that had. I will be staying on Doran Beach, will have a boat with me but was thinking of doing a shore dive off the jetty, likely will be shallow and sandy but at least it won't be too sharky. I am thinking of diving in front of the coast guard station (with permission) in the harbor or on the corner of the jetty next to the harbor mouth as mentioned before. Anyone dove this area?

 

[divenut2001]

I am spending this weekend in Monterey, but then I am spending the following week in Bodega. I haven't done a dive out there but I wanted to get some input on anyone that had. I will be staying on Doran Beach, will have a boat with me but was thinking of doing a shore dive off the jetty, likely will be shallow and sandy but at least it won't be too sharky. I am thinking of diving in front of the coast guard station (with permission) in the harbor or on the corner of the jetty next to the harbor mouth as mentioned before. Anyone dove this area?

Can't sleep huh.
Bodega Bay is part of the red triangle. No one I know dives there. The best person to ask though would be Chuck Tribolet.

 

[zinmaker]

Just out of the harbor is a small island inhabited only by seagulls and seals. I wasn't certified to dive yet, however a couple of friends dove off a sailboat. The depth was about 25 to 30 feet. Diving Doran beach along the jetty looks like an easy entrance and exit from where the restrooms are not sure about the depth. As divenut said it is somewhat sharky and part of the red triangle. Check out the Bodega Bay Pro Dive for contact info www.bbprodive.com .

Bruce

 

[JustinW]

Yeah, I've heard that called seal rock, bird rock etc. I was hoping to stay as far away as I could from that spot, I don't want to be too close to seals. I think the far west side of Doran Beach might have a sand dollar bed near it, as I see some interesting stuff washed up right there.

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

I'd be the wrong guy to ask. I've never dived the mainland north of
the Golden Gate.

 

[renpirate]

I dive along the coast and there is nothing to see there right near Bodega Bay. Seal rock, which is outside the mouth of the harbor is the scene of many, many great white sightings. An abalone diver was attacked off of there about 6 or so years back. Also the vis is exceptionally poor around that area. I highly recommend driving up the coast a bit to Salt Point State Park. There are several decent dive sites including Gerstle Cove, Fisk Mill Cove, and Still water Cove. The diving is also ok at Ft. Ross. Vis is in the 5-10' range normally.

 

[JustinW]

Dive Report

I dove along the jetty, at Doran Beach. I dove the inshore side to avoid the man in the grey suit. While the depth wasn't that great (20' max) there was quite a bit to see. The rock wall is full of life and appears to not be dove very often. Abalone abound here, along with a few different nudibranchs that we saw. As we reached the end of the wall fish life really picked up, possibly encouraged by the tidal currents flowing by to fill and drain the harbor. I saw cabezon, blue rockfish, ling cod and an angel shark that was present on both of the dives we made. The sandy bottom was covered in clams and we picked up hoop nets lost by fishermen, and passed on several others. There was a large swell on the day of our dive, however, I had no problem entering the water (6 foot breakers 300 yards down the beach, 6 inch breakers at point of entry). The visibility was not so bad also, about 10-15 foot. I was able to pick up a few legal sized dungeness crabs on our dive, although one was very close to a hoop net set by some people on shore. I think they were very suprised to see me surface in front of them, bearing the gift of the crab that was walking away from their net. The ones we kept were delicious.

Pros: Lots of life, easy entry even when the rest of the coast isn't diveable.

Cons:never gets very deep, we spend a good portion of our dive at around 8 feet deep (still saw plenty of life). The man in the grey suit is known to frequent areas nearby. Lots of fishermen at times, not unlike the breakwater at monterey.

 

[divenut2001]

Dive Report

I dove along the jetty, at Doran Beach. I dove the inshore side to avoid the man in the grey suit. While the depth wasn't that great (20' max) there was quite a bit to see. The rock wall is full of life and appears to not be dove very often. Abalone abound here, along with a few different nudibranchs that we saw. As we reached the end of the wall fish life really picked up, possibly encouraged by the tidal currents flowing by to fill and drain the harbor. I saw cabezon, blue rockfish, ling cod and an angel shark that was present on both of the dives we made. The sandy bottom was covered in clams and we picked up hoop nets lost by fishermen, and passed on several others. There was a large swell on the day of our dive, however, I had no problem entering the water (6 foot breakers 300 yards down the beach, 6 inch breakers at point of entry). The visibility was not so bad also, about 10-15 foot. I was able to pick up a few legal sized dungeness crabs on our dive, although one was very close to a hoop net set by some people on shore. I think they were very suprised to see me surface in front of them, bearing the gift of the crab that was walking away from their net. The ones we kept were delicious.

Pros: Lots of life, easy entry even when the rest of the coast isn't diveable.

Cons:never gets very deep, we spend a good portion of our dive at around 8 feet deep (still saw plenty of life). The man in the grey suit is known to frequent areas nearby. Lots of fishermen at times, not unlike the breakwater at monterey.

Nice report, glad to see you made it back.

 

[norcadiver]

Not too many people dive around Bodega Bay. The inside is a muck bottom (great clamming) and VERY shallow unless you're in the boating channels. Diving in the boating channels might be exciting but the Coasties might get cranky about it. Off Doran Beach (as you mentioned) it's nothing but sand and, maybe, the occasional sea dollars. I haven't dove it with tanks but I know what's there because it's really shallow for quite aways offshore and, a few days a year, you can see bottom details from the surface on a kayak.

Seal Rock is rumored to be very sharky. It certainly looks very sharky it being a yearround seal haulout. Just a few miles away is Bird Rock which, to date, has more White Shark hits on divers than anywhere else on the California coast.

Yes, Bodega Bay is part of the Red Triangle. So is Lovers Point off Monterey. Lovers Point is also the deadliest spot off the California coast in terms of White Shark deaths in one place. Local divers don't take the Red Triangle thing too seriously. In fact, the most popular dive spot in the Bodega Bay area is the mouth of Tomales Bay which, as every Red Triangle fan seems to know, is the breeding grounds of Great Whites (though, in fact, Tomales Bay is NOT a breeding area (at least not for White Sharks (in fact, one of the mysteries about WS is that noone has yet determined where they breed))). The reason the mouth of Tomales Bay is popular has to do with the Halibut hunting. It definitely is NOT popular because of the scenery (gravel bottom, 1'-2' visibility with the occasional BIG nurse shark encounter (nothing particularly dangerous but definitely spooky). Unless you're diving with someone that's familiar with the area, it's best to stay away for a number of reasons involving tidal flows and surf break (the mouth of Tomales Bay can have a break that's on par with Mavericks; even when it's not going off, boats getting overturned is fairly common).

More interesting than Bodega Bay is Fort Ross Cove. It's about a 30 or 40 minute drive north of Bodega Bay and includes an honest to goodness wreck in the middle of the cove. I haven't dove it for awhile but last time I was there, it was marked with a bouy. Just north of Fort Ross is Stillwater Cove, a very easy entry with lots of interesting scenery on a good day (including a nice maze of deep water, vertical rock walls covered in metridiums).

There's lots of better places than Bodega Bay within a short drive of Bodega Bay.

Rocky

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I freedove that same spot once a long time ago while the wife and kid were playing on the beach. The vis sucked but I enjoyed it anyway. I am going to try it again with scuba just for the hell of it.
I did see a guy once , also freediving, walking back through Campbell Cove dragging a huge Ling that he speared. He got it on the outside of the north jetty (the one that gets blasted by the swell). I've also seen people pulling limits of abs out of there.

I dove right off Lawson's Landing once when I was doing some work out there. It was similar, only about 15 feet at the deepest. Lots of sand. I found a whole pile of horse neck clam shells and saw some crabs scurrying around. I did manage to get one good popeye. Around the pilings was kind of cool with different growth. Amazing how we can enjoy the crappiest of dives when we haven't been out in a long time and that's all we can get.