- This field of sand dollars is off the main central area of Zuma Beach
ATTENTION!! CLOSURE UPDATE: Effective January 1, 2012, Point Dume north to Encinal Canyon Road will be designated a State Marine Conservation area with special regulations. Just south of Point Dume, Little Dume Cove is also named as a Marine Reserve and is a special closure area. Check the Department of Fish and Game website at http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/scmpas_list.asp for the new restrictions for these areas.
There are several gated public access areas designated for your use off Broad Beach Road, but sometimes they’re locked for reasons unknown. The local residents can be very unfriendly to people who wish to occupy space along their stretch of sand, but it’s legal to pass through if you stay below the mean high tide line. If you’re hassled just explain that you’re not staying, just passing through, and you’ll be okay.
To avoid the hassle, I like to park at the north end of Zuma’s parking access road and hike further north from there. If you want to dive the north point though, you’ll almost have to find an open gate or take a very long walk. Of course you can kayak into that area if you have one available. If you wish to boat dive you’ll have to motor down from either the Channel Islands Marina or Oxnard Harbor located to the north, or make the long run up from Marina Del Rey to the south.
There are underwater gravel patches in 20 to 40 feet of water spread out sparingly all the way from the wash north to the small point at the end of the sand. If that point has a name I’m not familiar with it, so I just call it North Point. Sparse eel grass grows in some of these areas, making them great spots to find halibut, especially along the sandy edges of the grass and gravel and. If you enter just north of the wash and work north you’ll run across several of these between 20 and 40 feet of water. There are a few Pismo clams here, but not anywhere near the quantities found along the main beach.
The entry is similar to that of the main beach. It’s a slow sloping incline that requires you to work through a prolonged surf line. I like to tow a float when I’m hunting here too, then if I spear anything large it’s a lot easier to drag it back to shore. One strategy that worked for me was to walk about half way north up the beach, and then enter and work south back towards the parking area. Then if you have a large halibut or two you won’t have to carry them as far.
If you can find an open gate, try diving along the curve where the beach heads west to the small point of land that’s seaward of there. There are scattered rocks and lots of eel grass through that area, and it can be very productive at times. There are also some large underwater rocks located on a line south of the tip of the point. These are in 30 to 40 feet of water, and they protrude upward several feet. They used to support a good population of tasty rock scallops. If you manage to fill a bag with these, towing a float to hang them on is a necessity, not an option. It’s a long swim back to the beach, and you wouldn’t want to be dragging the weight even after you adjusted your BC for neutral buoyancy. It’s an easy boat or kayak dive though, if you have that option.
Areas north of the point support a number of rocky outcroppings covered by a large kelp bed, but unless you know someone living on the shore, this area is strictly for boat diving. If you want to fish there’s a spot located half mile north and a mile out to sea, just off the south end of Sycamore Canyon beach. It’s called the deep hole, and it’s an excellent fishing area in summer months. Schools of yellowtail like to frequent this spot, and it also harbors some very nice calico bass and even a few white sea bass at times.
Directly outside the deep hole there’s an acre-sized plateau reef that comes up out of deeper water to about 26 fathoms. It’s well marked on nautical charts, and it’s a great spot to fish for rock cod.
Next week, we’ll wrap up with the south end of Zuma Beach.