Wrightsville/CB/Cape Fear Snorkelling?? - FryingPanTower.Com

Ol'Salt Joined: Apr 17, 2009 Posts: 542

Can any of you divers share a spot or two that would be interesting for a snorkel trip? I'm not a diver but love to snorkel whenever I go someplace like the Caribbean. But we have such nice water here too, so it makes me think there may be some nice places offshore a bit. What about Sheephead Rock, or other places down near the shoals? Is it difficult to boat into a spot down there? Are there interesting bottom structure such as rock or even some coral? The aquarium down at Fort Fisher shows all these cool colorful fish that we have here around Cape Fear. Is it possible to snorkel and see some of these things in the wild?
_________________
Sailfish 30-06 Express, twin Yamaha 250's

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 7:53 am Post subject:

the jetty at w beach , just be careful and aware of falling tides!!!

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 9:12 am Post subject:

FYI - the jetty at WB is not like the Caribean that you are used to... 3-5 vis most times. be careful of the currents, boats and fisherman...

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 10:33 am Post subject:

I would strongly urge against doing any snorkeling here where a boat can run.

or....translated...

don't snorkel anywhere you can't touch bottom.

there's way more boat traffic up here than in the caribbean and you're much more likely to meet a hull or a propeller I'd think.

I'd also not reccomend hopping out of the boat offshore for an extended swim. You'd hate to be able to not get back into it.

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 11:23 am Post subject:

the jetty is pretty cool, high tide is when to go and preferably after its been flat a while you will get better viz. you can see all kinds of stuff there. you can also hit the pier pillings on calm days, thats about it unless you want to get certified and start diving.
_________________
10% of fisherman catch 90% of the fish.....

Cape Fear NC

Ol'Salt Joined: Apr 17, 2009 Posts: 542

Yeah, you're right - down in the Carrib they have the special "parks" where boating is very restricted and hence it is safe to snorkel. They are doing it for the safety of the coral, of course, but the people enjoying it are safe too. I guess snorkeling makes you more prone to meeting a prop since you are always close to the surface - ouch!! Also, great point about getting out of the boat while offshore. Even when I'm fishing with two guys on board that thought occurs to me every time one of us takes a wiz over the gunwale. My other nightmare is when some guy decides to wrap a braided line around his wrist so he can hand line a fish to meet the gaff. If that fish gets a third wind the guy might breath his last! Lots to be aware of, and snorkeling is probably one of those rewards that is just not worth the risk in this offshore environment. Thanks for the thoughts.
_________________
Sailfish 30-06 Express, twin Yamaha 250's

Ol'Salt Joined: Sep 15, 2009 Posts: 360 Location: Burgaw

Last summer I saw a few guys snorkle spear fishing on the 10 mile AR. Water depth around 60 feet. We were trolling and I saw a boat tied to the bouy and wondered what was going on. Nobody on the boat!!! NO DIVE FLAG!!!
As I got closer, I see a head pop up and then fins as they head back down. I am a diver and realized there were probably others so I steered away. Saw at least 2 or 3 of them. They would swim against current to where they wanted to submerge and head down. Tried to hold my breath as long as they were under, and I need to keep my tanks on in 60 feet of water. We left after watching them for about 10 minutes. Never did see any fish go over the rail into the boat.

Good Luck with your snorkeling.

If you get up to Morehead City, the rock jetty on Radio Island is a good place. Go on SLACK HIGH TIDE ONLY!!!! Lots of sea urchins, tropicals, soft corals, etc.

Wyne
_________________
C Wayne, Retired
20 ft Wellcraft
Salt Water Therapy

Wayne Batten Agronomic Services

Cape Fear Anglers

Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2010 10:04 am Post subject:

check out this "snorkelling" @ the shoals and tower

http://www.vimeo.com/2802981

sickness man!
_________________
10% of fisherman catch 90% of the fish.....

Cape Fear NC

Ol'Salt Joined: Apr 17, 2009 Posts: 542

Okay, that is truly sickness! For the record, what I was asking about is basically glorified swimming in 10 foot of water with some kind of colorful things to look at that - that's it! This "free diving" is something that I, as a married man with kids, simply cannot justify even if I wanted to do it! Thanks for sharing, that is amazing. I'll let you all know if my friends and I find anything interesting and safe for snorkeling around the Wrightsville Beach area and vicinity.
_________________
Sailfish 30-06 Express, twin Yamaha 250's

Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 11:54 am Post subject:

If your looking for "Caribbean like" the tower is your best bet. There is good vis most times during summer, 48 feet deep and pilings have tropical reef fish, baracudas, AJs, African Pompano, cobia and the works. Bottom will hold smaller grouper, tropicals, and may see Hogfish. Current can SUCK! On good vis days you can hit the shoals in closer in 30-35 feet of water for good vis. The jettie can be good on high slack tide sometimes as long as no rain and clear water is push in from offshore from North East winds for several days.
_________________
26' cc Southport
"HogWild" on 68,69

Ol'Salt Joined: Sep 15, 2009 Posts: 360 Location: Burgaw

If you get a chance to visit Morehead City area, check out Radio Island ROck Jetty. YOu can walk in from a park area or take the boat. Shallow flat area out to about 10 ft deep then rock jetty to bottom at around 30 feet. Great snorkeling at HIGH slack tide or low Slack tide. Other times strong current.
_________________
C Wayne, Retired
20 ft Wellcraft
Salt Water Therapy

Wayne Batten Agronomic Services

Cape Fear Anglers

2nd Mate Joined: Apr 01, 2009 Posts: 36

jetty on high slack tide can be good. also caught the Liberty Ship on a really high vis day which is rare....saw a bunch of fish and the ship (or whats left of it) looked pretty cool too.

Deck Hand Joined: Jul 14, 2010 Posts: 12

the little rock wall at shinn creek is cool sometimes.tower is great ,just be mindful of the currents
_________________
I CAN LEAD A MAN TO WATER ,BUT I CAN'T FEED HIM THE HORSE

Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2010 9:51 am Post subject: freediving

I happen to be one of those deeper snorklers, and have dove with Ren and Ashley from that video. We have a group/club we started that used to meet regularly in Wrightsville beach. The club is the Carolina Freedivers (but we have SCUBA members as well). We are always looking for people to join us on dives. I am one of a small group of divers that lives north of Lejeune and we go pretty regularly out of Beaufort, Bogue, and sometimes New River inlet. The majority of the club is around Wrightsville and Wilmington.
We went to take advantage of the good weather this weekend , but boat problems forced us to do a quick low tide dive at Radio Island Jetty. Vis was horrible and trout fisherman were pretty territorial. Ended up pulling my first lobster out of a hole there, but let him go due to his size.

We always have dive flags out when diving, nothing worse than hearing a boat prop screaming through the water at you when you are coming back up from 65-70 feet on lung power.

	FryingPanTower.Com Forum Index -> North Carolina Deep and Dark Diving Forum	All times are GMT - 4 Hours
Page 1 of 1