yak
Contributor
I took a boat ride with my buddy Jim and his friend Smitty to Smith Rocks. We arrived a little before high tide at 10:30. Smitty didn't have a depth finder on board, but he guessed we were in about 25 feet of water, just south of the smaller of the two rocks.
I was planning to try out wearing my 3mm shortie under my 7mm hyperstretch. When we entered the water, I felt a bit restricted around the shoulders, and decided that I didn't want to be uncomfortable, so I climbed back aboard and removed the shorty.
Back in the water, we descended the anchor line, and as we passed 30 feet with no bottom in sight, I thought , hmmm, 25 feet??? We finally reached the sandy bottom at 50 feet! Temps were about 49 degrees, viz from 10-20 feet. We swam northwest with a slight current toward the rocks, saw a few undersized flounder, and after about 10 minutes reached the ledge. Jim immediately grabbed a just legal bug sitting in the foot tall seaweed growing in the sand. As we rose up the ledge of 10 or 15 foot walls, we saw numerous bugs that were out in the wide open, many of them undersized. We had a few epic battles with some large ones under rocks that ended in silt-outs. We heard a boat pass overhead at some point while bughunting.
When I got down to 1100 psi, I signaled Jim to start heading back toward the boat (across that great expanse of sand). As we turned back, we felt the current in our faces and had to work a little harder. We skirted the edge of the ledge due east, then as I motioned Jim to head south to where I estimated the boat to be, he saw a lobzilla that he started working on. I was down to 700psi, as I underestimated my air consumption against the current. Jim bagged the just-under-max lobster, and we continued south toward the boat, staying at about 30 feet as the bottom dropped away from us. At about 500 psi, we ascended to 15 feet for a safety stop. I tried to get my chintzy safety sausage out of my pocket, and gave up, as I couldn't even feel it with my gloves on. (Note to self, get better sausage with clip-on pouch.)
I was a bit nervous ascending without a sausage. We surfaced and found ourselves about 100 yards from Smitty, who had moved and reanchored the boat as the winds were gusting, causing the anchor to drag in the sand.
After a 53 minute SI, we moved the boat to the edge of the ledge, and after setting the anchor twice, finally got it to stay set against the stiffening west wind coming from the mainland. During this time, we watched a lobsterman working a line of traps that took him west toward another dive boat that was anchored unattended with a huge dive flag flying. We watched as this a@#hole circled the divers' boat close enough to remove paint, then saw that he had snagged their anchor line. Luckily for both parties, he was able to free the line without disturbing the anchor, as the wind would have pushed the boat right into the rocks, or we would have had to go on a retrieval mission. We were pretty pissed, but couldn't see the name or numbers on the boat, and it steamed off before we though to dig a cell phone out of the pile of bags below deck and call the Coast Guard.
Our second dive started right on the edge of the ledge at 47 feet.
The tide was starting to recede, and the viz was down to 10 feet. We saw a couple of rock cod, but no stripers. I was cold starting out - I saw a fleeting 46 degrees on my computer before it settled into 48. I forgot to use the thermos of hot water I had brought (duh), but I warmed a bit as the dive progressed. Wearing neoprene socks under my boots really helped. We had a few more epic battles with some bigguns, but with he viz deteriorating, the silt-outs seemed worse. After 35 minutes we surfaced about 20 yards from the boat with a few more bugs, and trolled (unsuccessfully) for stripers on the way back to the North River.
All in all a nice day, and Jim and I agreed it was our new favorite spot for bugs. We'll definitely be back there on an incoming tide in hopes of better viz and more bugs.
I was planning to try out wearing my 3mm shortie under my 7mm hyperstretch. When we entered the water, I felt a bit restricted around the shoulders, and decided that I didn't want to be uncomfortable, so I climbed back aboard and removed the shorty.
Back in the water, we descended the anchor line, and as we passed 30 feet with no bottom in sight, I thought , hmmm, 25 feet??? We finally reached the sandy bottom at 50 feet! Temps were about 49 degrees, viz from 10-20 feet. We swam northwest with a slight current toward the rocks, saw a few undersized flounder, and after about 10 minutes reached the ledge. Jim immediately grabbed a just legal bug sitting in the foot tall seaweed growing in the sand. As we rose up the ledge of 10 or 15 foot walls, we saw numerous bugs that were out in the wide open, many of them undersized. We had a few epic battles with some large ones under rocks that ended in silt-outs. We heard a boat pass overhead at some point while bughunting.
When I got down to 1100 psi, I signaled Jim to start heading back toward the boat (across that great expanse of sand). As we turned back, we felt the current in our faces and had to work a little harder. We skirted the edge of the ledge due east, then as I motioned Jim to head south to where I estimated the boat to be, he saw a lobzilla that he started working on. I was down to 700psi, as I underestimated my air consumption against the current. Jim bagged the just-under-max lobster, and we continued south toward the boat, staying at about 30 feet as the bottom dropped away from us. At about 500 psi, we ascended to 15 feet for a safety stop. I tried to get my chintzy safety sausage out of my pocket, and gave up, as I couldn't even feel it with my gloves on. (Note to self, get better sausage with clip-on pouch.)
I was a bit nervous ascending without a sausage. We surfaced and found ourselves about 100 yards from Smitty, who had moved and reanchored the boat as the winds were gusting, causing the anchor to drag in the sand.
After a 53 minute SI, we moved the boat to the edge of the ledge, and after setting the anchor twice, finally got it to stay set against the stiffening west wind coming from the mainland. During this time, we watched a lobsterman working a line of traps that took him west toward another dive boat that was anchored unattended with a huge dive flag flying. We watched as this a@#hole circled the divers' boat close enough to remove paint, then saw that he had snagged their anchor line. Luckily for both parties, he was able to free the line without disturbing the anchor, as the wind would have pushed the boat right into the rocks, or we would have had to go on a retrieval mission. We were pretty pissed, but couldn't see the name or numbers on the boat, and it steamed off before we though to dig a cell phone out of the pile of bags below deck and call the Coast Guard.
Our second dive started right on the edge of the ledge at 47 feet.
The tide was starting to recede, and the viz was down to 10 feet. We saw a couple of rock cod, but no stripers. I was cold starting out - I saw a fleeting 46 degrees on my computer before it settled into 48. I forgot to use the thermos of hot water I had brought (duh), but I warmed a bit as the dive progressed. Wearing neoprene socks under my boots really helped. We had a few more epic battles with some bigguns, but with he viz deteriorating, the silt-outs seemed worse. After 35 minutes we surfaced about 20 yards from the boat with a few more bugs, and trolled (unsuccessfully) for stripers on the way back to the North River.
All in all a nice day, and Jim and I agreed it was our new favorite spot for bugs. We'll definitely be back there on an incoming tide in hopes of better viz and more bugs.
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