Stillwater Beach

I have dove here twice. The first time was my first attempt at abalone diving. This made a good first place to learn as it was reasonably calm that day. Visibility was about 15-20 feet. While there, I was only able to get a single legal abalone in about two hours. I had fun though. I have also learned since then that the south side of the cove seems to be a little more productive than the north side in that respect. The second trip I was attempting to spearfish while free diving. This did not go very well. Conditions were poor, maybe 10 foot visibility, and heavy surge. There were a few large black rockfish, but not very large numbers of them, and they were very skittish. I also was within inches of getting a china rockfish. I did end up going home empty handed. However, my two friends also had about the same luck, neither catching anything. I did notice that the scuba people were picking up large lingcod directly in the center of the cove, in around thirty or forty foot water.