Oyster Diving Chesapeake Bay Near Kent Narrows

[gemiller]

Looking for someone that has done this outside of charter boating. The wife's family has a boat at mears point marina right inside from where the shoals are northeast of kent narrow. We have a decent sized dinghy with a big enough motor to get out to what I think is the general area in a 10 min motor out. Looking for spot advice, anyone interesting in doing a few oyster dives come october, or just general information.

Thanks.

 

[Katch]

I also have small dinghy with a good motor and would be interested. We could tie them together at a dive site.

Steve

 

[gemiller]

I also have small dinghy with a good motor and would be interested. We could tie them together at a dive site.

Steve

Responded to your pm when I got it, season is getting close! I'll be at the marina this upcoming Thursday evening and might motor out in the dinghy just to get a time out on how long it'll take!

(we're headed down to Cambridge, MD for the weekend, i'm going to take my dive gear and maybe motor up the chop tank river a little as i've heard rumors there's some spots with decent clarity but its only rumors at this point, unfortunately the chop tank river oyster beds are in the off limits part of the map).

 

[scuba-todd]

How did this go? Any tips? Is anybody interested in going November 1st?

 

[josephmc]

If any of you guys need a diver I'm familiar with all the marinas ie-Piney, Mears, kent island yacht club, castle marina and would love to give you a hand with this new oyster season

 

[bankyf]

Wouldn't mind doing some oyster diving myself this season. I probably have a few sets of numbers for some older oyster beds. Not sure how long it takes a worked bed to become productive again though.

 

[Katch]

I got a bigger boat this year. It should be able to take 2-3 divers and someone to watch the boat. I'm just not sure about any laws/licenses needed for Virginia residents oyster diving in the Chesapeake. This boat is still small enough to tow with my Jeep, so I'd be up for going any time.

 

[bankyf]

I got a bigger boat this year. It should be able to take 2-3 divers and someone to watch the boat. I'm just not sure about any laws/licenses needed for Virginia residents oyster diving in the Chesapeake. This boat is still small enough to tow with my Jeep, so I'd be up for going any time.

View attachment 217633

Hmm... Just checked and MD says it is illegal to harvest oysters if you are not a resident. Hadn't ever considered that before. Kind of makes me wonder how we did it on the charter boat. This is no good.

---------- Post added October 7th, 2015 at 09:22 PM ----------

Looks like we may be able to go on the Potomac, but its Monday thru Friday only and there may be some hoops to jump through. I actually found a map of all the oyster bars on the river.

 

[Katch]

I plan to be out around Point Lookout Sunday/Monday. I'm looking for Civil War artifacts (at least I think there should be stuff around there). The Union had a big prison camp at Point Lookout. Apparently, they threw all the inmates' belongings in the water when they in-processed everyone. While much has been recovered, I bet there still is a good bit in the 10-20 foot deep areas. I'm still learning on an underwater metal detector.

 

[scuba-todd]

Hey Katch,

Did you have any luck on your Civil War dive? Both this and oyster diving sounds interesting. I'd love to tag along some time.