Panama City Beach conditions

[RaginCajun]

I'm planning a trip to PCB next week (Aug 16-23) and was curious about the recent diving conditions. I was there in June and surface temps were close to 80 with a sharp thermocline at ~30 feet or so where it dropped into the 70's.

What are the temps & vis like lately? Has the vis cleared up since all of that rain and flooding up north a few months back?

Hoping to get a few dives in and possibly do some spear fishing..

Thanks yall

 

[MRXRAY]

Here's our post for a recent trip to the Tex Edwards in Pensacola this last weekend:

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/de...ort-tex-edwards-pensacola-fl.html#post3752971

 

[RaginCajun]

Thanks!

Conditions look similar to what I noted a month ago ~80's near the surface with some murk and low 70's below with improved vis. From what I hear this improves as you get farther offshore too.

Now let's see if we can keep storms out of the gulf for the next week or so!!

 

[MRXRAY]

I'm not sure if a storm would help or hurt the vis. Something needs to happen to clean the water up. There isn't a lot of light getting to depth and I think that's making all my pictures look greener than normal.

 

[PatMyGreen]

The vis has been 30-40' on the inshore sites lately. The bottom temp is about 80* fairly consistently now.

 

[Dive Turkey]

panama city is great. I dove with the dive locker on the 4th and I have to say they are great people. My lady got advanced certed. They even kept our two weiner dogs in the shop for the day, how cool is that, thanks Chris, Rachel, and Tiphanie!! we dove two offshore dives, the bridgespan 4 and uss chipawe, the vis at the bottom was 30 feet or so, and that was when the tropical storm was in the gulf heading toward texas. There was a thermocline but it was only 78 degrees at 98 feet, easy to deal with. So many fish, spearfishing will be easy. Just pat you fin on the bottom and kick up a little bit of sand....get ready, aim, and shoot. its that easy. I recommend going for sure, and if you like late night parties with country music, go to tootsies at pier park...last call goes down at about 230 am. live band, you wont regret this party no matter how old you are!!
have fun
Mike

 

[Fish Food]

Waves for tomorrow are forecasted to be 7-9ft :11:

Hopefully it'll calm back down in time to produce some good viz for your dives!

 

[Ana]

This past Saturday 09, seas were 1' to flat. I went to the west side to some live bottom and the temps were over 80 on the surface but sure enough below 30' or so it was mid 70's. Plenty of fish to spear. I don't think viz was more than 20'.

On Sunday we went to the east side since we heard the viz was "crystal" on the chippewa. Well that particular wreck had a fishing boat when we got there so we started with the bridge span that is right by it. I don't know what type of crystal these other divers were talking about but we could not see the bottom from the upper members of the structure, from about 70' all the way to sand was a blur. Seas were nice with a great looking sky. As far as the temperature, you could actually see the thermocline at around 30". Fish? sure, I'm sure there was plenty, we just didn't shoot anything Sunday.

 

[RaginCajun]

Dive Turkey,

What was the format like for your wife's AOW? I'm considering it, although it's $100 more here than at my LDS??

Do they use the Kiddie pool at the St. Andrews Jetties, or do they do Jetty dives? Also, since jetty dives are so tide dependent how to they manage it? Are the classes for 2 hours around high slack tide?

I've been working offshore in the Gulf for about 10 years and have one thing to say about weather; if you don't like it just wait a few days and it will turn around.

I'm just hoping that this storm doesn't run right into my summer vacation plans. I'm still working on my condo/hotel/lodging situation and will make the final Go-No Go call on it tomorrow evening. Just doing some final bargain hunting...

 

[PatMyGreen]

The only fish that really come into to check you out if you are kicking up the bottom tend to be red snapper which is closed in federal waters (Where the Chippewa and all the other "offshore" sites are). Spearing isn't as easy as just pointing a gun and the fish is on a dinner plate. Make sure you know your laws and fish ID.