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Home/Locations/Oregon/South Coast/Umpqua River South Jetty

Umpqua River South Jetty

Winchester Bay · South Coast · Oregon

Spearfishing here is conditional
The short answer is Legal · ODFW rules. The exact rule, who enforces it, and what it covers are written out in the field notes below.
Diver reports today · zones from today’s forecast

Visibility Breakdown

Updated through the day · times PT

Visibility by position

Post Break
headline zone
2ft
today’s forecast
Open Water
2ft
today’s forecast

Solid = diver report · outlined = today's forecast

Cross-section from the sand out to open water, split into 2 visibility zones: Post Break (0-200 ft from shore), Open Water (200+ ft from shore).
Shore
Post Break
0-200 ft from shore
Open Water
200+ ft from shore

Post Break: The range past where any waves are forming, where the water starts to have a significant increase in visibility. There might be some sediment here, but swell energy is diffused and the water is calmer.

Open Water: This zone is far out enough from the shore that the water is at its clearest. It’s deep enough that sediment is not disturbed by the wave energy at the surface. Haze can sit near the surface, so the water is usually clearer the deeper you go.

Through the day

Today's visibility readings at this spot, shown at the hour each one was taken.

Every bar is a reading for the Post Break zone.

This chart shows measured diver reports only.

No measured readings today

Did you dive today?Please share the visibility to make our algorithm more accurate.

Report visibility
Entry type
Shore
Parking
Free lot
Spearfishing
Legal · ODFW rules
Difficulty
Intermediate
Popular activities
Scuba · Spearfishing
Today's forecast

Why it reads 0–4 ft

Updated 6:10 AM PT today · October 27, 2026
Active plankton bloom
Hurts vis
2.45 mg/m³
Major impact
Solid swell
Hurts vis
4.8 ft
Moderate swell
Short-period chop
Hurts vis
6.0 s
Minor chop
Moderate wind
Hurts vis
12 kt
Moderate wind
Waves beyond the fitted range
Hurts vis
4.8ft
Moderate impact
Stale source data
Neutral
1 source cached
Minor impact

Today's forecast runs

6 AM
2ft
Morning run
10 AM
—
Pending
1 PM
—
Pending

Dawn is the clearest window — onshore wind picks up by late morning and surface chop stirs the bottom through the afternoon.

Low confidence

Ocean Oracle

7-Day Forecast

Days 2 to 7 are Pro

Today is the live headline above. Tomorrow onward is the algorithm's forecast from predicted swell, wind, and rain, updated each morning and at 6 PM Pacific.

Today · Tue
Oct 27
0–4ft
Poor
Open Water 2 ft
Swell 5 ft at 6 s, wind 7 kt at 10 AM. Rain forecast, under 0.1 in.
Wed
Oct 28
14
Good
Open Water 21 ft
Thu
Oct 29
9
Fair
Open Water 14 ft
Fri
Oct 30
16
Excellent
Open Water 24 ft
Sat
Oct 31
19
Excellent
Open Water 27 ft
Sun
Nov 1
11
Good
Open Water 17 ft
Mon
Nov 2
13
Good
Open Water 20 ft
Unlock days 2 to 7
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Getting there

Map and parking

43.6658° N · 124.2122° W
Map of Umpqua River South Jetty
Address
Douglas County, OR
Parking
Free lot

Free paved parking at Douglas County's South Jetty County Park at the end of Salmon Harbor Drive, with additional roadside day-use pullouts along the road. Restrooms at the county park.

Field notes

About Umpqua River South Jetty

Winchester Bay sits at the mouth of the Umpqua River in Douglas County, and the south jetty there is the primary jetty dive on Oregon's south coast, centered on the rock armor of the main south jetty and a shorter auxiliary structure called the Triangle Jetty. The site is reached from the end of Salmon Harbor Drive. That shorter auxiliary structure shelters a pocket of water that stays almost calm even when the outer sea is violently rough, which makes it the fallback when conditions close everything else out. Reported visibility across the site runs from about 5 to 40 feet.

From the Nautilids who hunt it

Spot strategies

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How other Nautilids actually hunt Umpqua River South Jetty: the biome they worked, the gear, the tide and time of day, and what they were after.
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