Dennis's Dive Log

I've made this dive several times. It's a long hike from the parking and showers to the water. Most folks dive on the channel side, entering and exiting from the "kiddy pool". I way prefer to dive at slack tide and enter on the Gulf/surf side and swim the whole jetty out to the end, then back on the channel side, exiting through the kiddy pool. The largest flounder I've ever seen live on the surf side of the jetty about a third of the way out; some real door mats! Too bad spearing is illegal in the state park. I've seen ling on the outside, as well as a variety of jacks. Mangrove snappers are everywhere and groupers anywhere close to deep water. Dive on the channel side and descend the barren-looking slope to 60 feet for lots of sand dollars. You can't always rely on the Tide Tables at this site, but learn to use them as they are what counts when diving. This is a great dive, but be prepared to deal with current at the end of the rocks regardless of the state of the tide. Beware that there is sometimes a current running down the coast.

I dove this site in early summer. The attraction is the EroJacks, jacks like the child's toy but 4 feet tall and made of concrete. There are hundreds of jacks piled in a long groin/jetty running perpendicular to shore. There are quite a lot of small fish and inverts that live inside the reef. I saw a large Tarpon there and a variety of small and school fish. I was there right before the Sport Season and saw several poached lobster shells, as well. The jacks run a few hundred feet our from shore. Find the reef by looking for the single jack on shore. The reef is straight out from it. Offshore, the reef terminates at the first natural reef line (parallel to shore). It's nothing to write home about, but once you're there you may as well check it out if you have the air time (you will). The reefs are less than 20 feet deep. I was there on a good day with 25 feet viz. Another guy there shot a Spanish mackerel - I was not hunting this day.