We decided to take a much needed day off from work and see if we could get ourselves into some fun... The plan was to go off and try to hit some of the structure within the Barnegat reef area. We figured it doesn't get dove much during flounder/ seabass season so it should be loaded with bugs... We targeted some of the concrete castings. We never found a big pile of them but the few we found did in fact have bugs and some nice Tog. I was also visited by a school of large Stripped bass. We certainly didn't catch our limit of lobsters but enjoyed the day for sure. Surface conditions were calm, bottom temp was mid 60's with about 25' visibility. I'll spend a little more time next summer paying closer attention to the structure out there for sure. Has anyone else dove the reef lately?
Good to hear a report from there. Suggested a few times to drop in and have a look on the way in but always got grumpy looks so never did. I think there are a couple small boats and some subway cars or what's left of them. Good vis for being close to the inlet. Must have been incoming tide.
I'm hoping others will chime in... That area is far enough offshore and north of the inlet that is should have very little if any influence on it. We'll definitely revisit the area again sometime soon.
We just dropped a ball with a small mushroom anchor and splashed a diver. No anchoring or grapnel...
I always wondered if the tanks would be any good. Maybe in the tracks if not buried in the sand for lobster. There's nothing big, so buoy diving is the way to go, take turns dropping 1 or 2 divers. If you could find a pile of the concrete pipe, that might be the "best". 55' and very near the Persepnony is not generally known as a great vis area with an outgoing tide, been in that area to many times. However there are occasions. I've dove the Weeks barge by the bell buoy. Literally 0 vis for 15' then opened up to an honest 50', maybe more. That was once and I may have been the only one to ever see that.
A few years back we dove a few of the tanks on the middle/west side of the reef. we were unable to grapnel them so we buoy dived them. There were quite a few tog but no good hiding spots for bugs...
RE the pipe barge by the bell. How was that? I've often thought of trying it but figured the vis would be poor.
The vis generally is poor, pick an incoming tide. I've only dove a few times, it's not great for bugs, not many hiding places. Barge is mostly sanded in, last I dove about 7 years ago was maybe 2' high, but was rotton so there were large caves for tog and sea bass. There are big winches and a small house. The huge A frame lays in the sand to the South and is actually better for lobster than the barge. It's worth a drop just to see. I'd say Spring and Fall, like now is best time for vis, again incoming tide and if no big swells from offshore storm stirring up the bottom. Vis is usually in the 5 to 10' range, I really lucked out that one time with 50'. There was a thermocline and all the cloudy water was on the surface.
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on 10/12/2014, 9:28 pm
