shark river inlet - short report

[docmartin]

i had the opportunity to dive shark river inlet in avon-by-the-sea on monday. it is apparently a very popular site during the warmer months. on monday i and a visiting buddy were the only ones. the ocean was very rough which may have affected viz in the inlet. i could not see more than 3-5 feet. not a great dive but there are tons and tons of fish. would be fabulous with better viz. there are also quite a few anglers and one of them caught my dive flag and had to cut his line. the entry and exit were difficult crawling over slippery and steep rocks. i read you can do a giant stride under the bridge but given the poor viz i was afraid i would land on a rock. current here moves VERY fast so you have to make sure to hit slack. i used the belmar tide tables but felt that slack was about 10 minutes later than they predicted. water temp was 60F! however, all the tropical fish had already died off or left.

[ScottyK]

Sounds like you're ready for Shinnecock and Moriches Inlets next year. I love diving the inlets. The fast tidal flows scour out the bottom sediment so you can get incredible vis on a good day. As you saw, inlets also really concentrate the fish for good viewing and hunting.

[Lat. Adjustment]

without hitting any rocks, the vis in the inlet has been great this year. If you don't like climbing over the rocks go to A street on the Belmar side, there are sort of steps going down into the water and you are back farther from the surge so sometimes the vis is better. I was headed there Saturday but traffic prevented me from making high slack so I went into the back bay at L street just to get wet, about 10' vis but no fish life there now except juvi flounder and one frogfish.