Shore Diving around Panama City

[sabbe]

Dove the jetties this week while down there on work trip. Aim for slack tide or wear gloves and go hand over hand when you get out of the kiddie pool. I started in the kiddie pool but a pair of divers also went on the ocean side of the beach. Did not see much but it was not slack tide and current was stronger than I could swim.

 

[wetjon]

I dove there in 9/21 and they had added more rocks (or maybe were wrapping up as they still had the barge with the crane on it out there). There was still a gap by the kiddie pool to get out and I didnt notice significant fishing lines. Unless I dove before they finished the change..

I'll post on FB for Panama City Diving and see what they think since they usually do guided shore dives there

Plungee and Tarponchik, That's the info I am looking for. I really appreciate hearing to good AND the bad about site. Nobody likes bad surprises when your facemask dips below the waterline.

 

[soduh]

Just went out there yesterday and will make a trip report thread. I always start on the gulf and beach side of the jetty and work my way around to the cut. Not a ton of big life out there yesterday (as mentioned there's usually lots of jacks, drum and grouper) but there were huge schools of cigar minnows and plenty of small creatures in the nooks and crannies of the rocks. My dive buddy found a fireworm which had been on her mental checklist for some time.

Didn't explore much down the cut side but didn't see much as far as fishing line. Found an old knife. Last time I went in March I got mildly hooked in the wetsuit so some kind of cutting device is probably a good idea.

 

[ReefHound]

I thought the "cut" had been filled in and you had to come around the east end of the jetties to get into the kiddie pool? Has it reopened or are we talking about different things?

 

[soduh]

Oh, sorry, different things. I should probably call it the pass instead of the cut. Where the boat traffic goes through. Was living in Apalachicola where they have a similar jetty that is known as "the cut" to the locals.

I haven't messed with the kiddie pool side in a while because the clarity is usually pretty low. It used to be great though!

 

[ReefHound]

Ok, we used to call the small gap in the middle of the jetty wall the "cut". So you enter and exit from the beach? I've never seen anyone do that, seems like a very long walk from the area with covered tables where most people gear up. Do you take a cart?

 

[soduh]

We just gear up outside the car and walk by the gift shop. There's really no great spot since they switched the beach access points in 2021/22 and the beach side makes me feel a little bit more protected from the yahoos that just rented a pontoon boat.

 

[tarponchik]

The beach side, as you called it, is pretty shallow, as I remember. I found lots of junk there, like lost masks and snorkels, sunglasses etc but not much marine life.

 

[soduh]

I mean, it's a jetty, you follow it out and once you get to 15 feet or so in depth there is all kinds of stuff out there. If it were trashed on that side we wouldn't do it regularly. You might be thinking of the side they call the Kiddie Pool? That is really shallow and kids are losing stuff over there all the time.

That being said, if it has been stormy recently the gulf waves can pull sand off the beach and push it against the jetty and you have to swim out further to get to depth but I have never seen it junked.

 

[tarponchik]

No

I mean, it's a jetty, you follow it out and once you get to 15 feet or so in depth there is all kinds of stuff out there. If it were trashed on that side we wouldn't do it regularly. You might be thinking of the side they call the Kiddie Pool? That is really shallow and kids are losing stuff over there all the time.

That being said, if it has been stormy recently the gulf waves can pull sand off the beach and push it against the jetty and you have to swim out further to get to depth but I have never seen it junked.

No, not the kiddy pool. If you walk along the beach with the kiddy pool on your left and cross the sand and come to another beach, which is the continuation of the main PCB beach, and the jetties on your left. I thought this is what you called "beach side'. I thing the currents drag stuff there from the main beach.