Anyone tank-dived that sand beach at Fort Ross?

I'm thinking about tank-diving to spear a few fish at Fort Ross Cove.  I usually hike down to the north cove where water is very calm.  But the hike is long and the entry is rocky; I'm not sure if I can go up and down twice with all that gear. 

I see that the trail which leads to the old fort continues down to a sandy beach.  I'm wondering if anyone has tried diving there and can give me some tips as to how that site is.  Is the bottom there similar to the rest of Fort Ross?  How's the ocean condition considering it opens more to the southwest?  Are there any dangerous currents there??  Any info is appreciated.  Thank you!!

You can drive your vehicle down to the beach to unload, that trail to the northside sucks.  The middle the cove is sand and there's reef on both sides.

Thanks....I'm gonna give that beach a try on Tuesday.

What agarcia said.  The rocks attract some rockfish, lings, and cabs esp in winter.

There is usually a 'longshore current but it is usually nothing to worry about; just surface with enough air so you can duck the current if you don't want to do a surface swim against it.

Have a great dive and remember to post a report.

JZumi

I went out there a few weeks ago... It was pretty cool, surface swam out, then headed towards the kelp on the right.  Went down to 40ft and there was alot of fish and rock formation, I was just site seeing to see what was there.  It was a good dive.

I have like other's have said drive down drop the gear off and re park the truck, once down there kick out to the north side between the 2 coves there is a kelp bed there with a nice reef that has yelded me nice scallops, lings and cabazone last time I dove there about 40 to 60 ft, good dive and like I said it is between the to coves and if you get over far enough you can even run into debris from the pomona ship wreck, not much there but a drive line and boiler. have fun.

OK here is the report JZumi demanded...

We came close to canceling the trip because latest forecast said Fort Ross area will have AM showers and afternoon sun, plus our neighborhood of the bay area was raining at 6 a.m.  Ultimately we decided to go, and I'm glad we did because by 8 a.m. the sun already came out at Fort Ross.

When we got to fort ross cove there was an ambulance on site, then another came.  They hauled away at least one guy on stretcher.  That kind of gave me the creeps.  We proceeded to the beach; to our astonishment, the normally quiet beach had a lot of people roaming around.  So we felt kind of funny in the crowd and decided to just go back to the cove.  I swear to God, some of those people are RUSSIANS.  Some of them were wearing those distinct fur hats.  They were coming out of the fort carrying big travel bags as if they had stayed at the fort.  Very strange...  Maybe someone can shed some light on what was going on.

Anyway we went down the trail.  Did not see any diver there.  Lots of white caps outside the cove but inside is calm as usual.  We decided to swim across the cove to get the the area Matt was talking about, but I made sure I kept inside the 20' line.  Water clarity was not too good, maybe 5-7'.  There were a whole family of sea lions goofing around.

Got to work around the area between the two coves.  Consistent with previous trips, on average I find an ab every 3 dive-downs, a legal ab every 9-10 dive-downs.  Finding the real big ones are more unpredictable.  The first one I got was 7.5".  The second one I got was also 7.5", however the width on this second one is 6", so it looks somewhat round and is bigger than a normal 7.5 incher.

In between I collected a few empty shells that are nicely sanded by the ocean floor.  I decided it is easier to collect from ocean than to mess with muriatic acid.

With two abs in bag, I started taking my time to hunt my third, hoping for a big one.  After 30 minutes of search, On one dive-down I found a huge ab in a hole under a big rock.  I was about to be out of breath but I decided I had to get it right then, because too many times I got up to re-group only to lose sight of the exact spot.  I stuck my iron in as hard as I could, then came some massive rattle.  Stirred up sediment murkied the water.  I stuck my hand in the hole to feel for the ab; it turned out I had dislodged it.  I grabbed and surfaced with no time to spare.

This ab turned out to be my personal best, at 9.25".

I saw one lingcod and several rockfish and perch while ab diving.  I had my gun, but while I went back to my float to get my gun, I either lose sight of the fish, or the fish had split.  I think I need a "side-arm" type of speargun.

After I got my big ab, I was so satisfied I called it for the day.

Here is a pic of the ab

Congrats..... Thanks for the write up, it was a good read..... and a 9+ is friggin awesome, they have so much more meat, its ridiculous. 

What recipe do you plan on using to eat it?

We ate some hotpot (shabu shabu) style last night, and some sashimi style.  The dip I use for hotpot is made of:

diluted soy sauce,
chopped garlic,
chopped scallion,
chopped cilantro,
one egg yoke,
2 spoons of satay sauce,
a pinch of sugar
a tiny bit of chili sauce

all mixed into a liquidy paste consistency.

I will cook some ab porridge later on, with a recipe given to me by a dive buddy.  I tried it once, turned out pretty good but with room to improve.

Great report Blue*, thanks! Now I'm drooling from the feast info! How do you make Ab porridge?

I thought there was more of the SS Pomona left out there....I guess looters and currents have carried it away. It's been years since I was there.

John

My ab porridge reciepe was given by a Korean friend.  Here are the steps:

Slice a quarter of an ab thin (I do 1/16" x 1" x 2"),
Julienne ginger
Heat some sesame oil in a pot,
Add ab slices into pot and stir fry for 1 minute,
Add a cup of rice into pot and stir fry for 1 minute,
Add 5 cups of water and ginger
Bring to boil, then turn to low heat and let simmer for 30 minutes
Add salt and pepper

Note:

1. You might need to add more water during the simmering if it becomes too thick
2. Sprinkle some chopped scallion on top
3. Use just a little sesame oil, or use olive oil instead.  I used too much the first time and it overpowered the taste of abalone.

Great report Blue*, thanks! Now I'm drooling from the feast info! How do you make Ab porridge?

I thought there was more of the SS Pomona left out there....I guess looters and currents have carried it away. It's been years since I was there.

John

Thanks for the report.  Glad you had a good dive.  And congrats on the nice ab!