Yaquina John Point

Wow! The winter storms this year have really changed this site. The first thing we noticed as we crossed the bridge was that there seemed to be more visible sand in the bay at low tide. Next we discovered that the trail going down to the beach was partially blocked by all of the new logs and assorted driftwood accumulated over the winter. And finally to re-enforce our initial perception, the sand level of the beach was at least 5-8 ft higher than before. So all of this elevated some concerns about the site and we treated it like a brand new site that we hadn't ever dived before. My wife was uncomfortable with the changes, so we modified the plan to do only one dive and wait until it was positively slack tide to get in. Normally we get in about a half hour before the slack and deal with the current. We modified our usual entry point by parking along side the highway and unloading the gear, then moving the truck to a turnout about 50 yards up the road. There were steps going down to the beach there and it was only about 100 yards to the staging area from there. The plus was that there was no steep trail to climb up and down and we didn't have to negotiate the pile of drift wood. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the bottom topography was relatively unchanged. The crab bowl seemed smaller from the surface but we got right down to about 45' and found the usual rocky bottom with lost crab rings etc. This continues to be our favorite dive site on the Oregon Coast. I learn something new about it each time we dive here.

The pic and site description are a bit deceiving, as things look a lot closer than they really are. But once on the beach, everything else was great. We walked out to the rock wall and jumped in. Dropped straight down to about 45' and followed the wall inshore. Vis was great for the NW at about 6'. Dove this site at low slack and saw many crabs, mostly females and undersize males. Our dive buddies managed to take home some keepers though. I do have to re-emphasize what some others have said... this is DEFINITELY a slack tide dive.... the current rips through here very fast during an exchange.

Dove this site strictly for gathering crab and pulled 15 legal sized crab on a 22 min dive. Good diving when you have to toss 3 crab back. Dove slack tide on a day with minimal exchange so currents were not bad but I did notice the current increasing at the end of 20 minutes. I wouldn't dive this site if tide exchanges are moderate to high.

Hard to climb down the rocks. Many Fish and life at night on high tide. Good place to dive just for fun.

My dive partner and I dive the fingers a lot. We have tried this dive in the summer time and viz was horrible but this Jan/Feb 2005 we have been diving it almost every week and viz has been between 15-18ft each time that we have gone. Fish life is all over at night.

Dove this on 12-27-03. Vis was about 2 to 3 ft. The walk into this site is a bit of a hike but no big rocks to crawl over as at the jetty. Sandy entrance bottom drops off fairly sharp after a few ft or sooner depending on the tide. Rock wall runs from east to west and provides some area for crabs. I have heard this spot was hot for crabs but only brought up one keeper, and another pair of divers that went in at the same time also only pulled in one keeper. The channel is only about 75 yards across at low so the current is very strong here. Must try this spot in better water conditions. It had been rainning for weeks so lots of run off, and water was a bit choppy with a storm moving in. Seems like it could be good diving under better conditions..

Sure it is a crabby place. Went there on August 2, 2003. My 8-cells flashlight was giving me just barely enough light at 30'-35' to get crabs. Actually it was more like a night dive. Go on low tide slack. Just jump into the water from one of the rocks and go down. Interesting, that I've got the biggest males at 15'-they were hiding in the sand!

I've done about 3 dives here so far. The last one was 8/18/2002. There is a short hike to the entry, which really kills on the way out and up the hill. The entry is easy, dive this at low slack and the top of the rock walls are visible, some drop nearly straight down to 30' and 40'. Max depth for me at low tide was 42' the deeper you go the bigger the crab were. Vis was 3-5', my buddy said that was the best vis he had seen at this site in 6 years. Watch the tide, if the tide changes and your in the water you ARE going out to sea!! This place should be called the "Crab Hole" they are like cockroaches! There are some great over hangs and wall structures. The crab literally are falling all around you and running in every direction. My biggest problem is there are so many you can't decide which ones to grab as they scatter in every direction. This weekend we pulled up 3 crab that didn't even fit between our crab gauge! Lot's of fun but watch the tides, try to stick together with your buddy, watch the boat traffic on the surface tending their crab pots and bring a good light, it usually turns black at 20'.

Crabs!!! This spot is a crab nursery. Try to hit this site at slack coming into an incoming (high) tide. An outgoing tide could blow you out to sea if you are not careful. Nothing much here to look at, but the crabbing is a blast. There are small channels and fingers in 20-30 feet of water right next to shore where the crabs are sitting on the surface of the rock or sand, or just under the sand. It's a race when you get down there to chase crabs, turning them over looking for legal size adult males with one hand while grabbing the next crab with the other hand. My wife and I loved going here regularly and getting a free meal or two of Dungeness crab before we moved to Kona.