A group of us dove just west of Beismeyer Point yesterday. Thanks to Bill, Beth (shore support) Josh and Ryan for a fun day of diving.
We dove off the point that is west of Beismeyer Point. There wasn't a lot of boat traffic early in the morning so vis was about 15-20 feet for the first 20-25 feet of depth. It pretty much remained that way all day.
We headed west on our first dive toward DT. I buddied up with Ryan and Josh and Bill paired up. We've found that two buddy teams are easier to keep track of than one group of four divers. First thermocline was at about 30 feet where the temp probably dropped about 5º and vis dropped to about 10'. Another thermocline at about 45'. Temp dropped another 5º or so and out came the dive lights. All the better to see your buddy with. At 70 feet we swam into an area where vis went to zero and I had to grab Ryan's arm to keep track of him. Temp at that depth was 61º. That was the deepest dive of the day. After that we decided to keep it to about 30 feet where the vis and temps were a bit more favorable.
On the second dive we swam to an area that Bill found last weekend. It's a rocky area just east of the road. Bill navigated right to it and we were able to stay for a little while before we hit our turn pressure. We saw a bunch of juvvie bass about the size of your hand and some pretty good sized mommas and pappas as well as a big ol' speckled catfish with pleanty of attitude. Before the dive I had changed to my 3mm because I'm dang tired of wrestling my way into and out of my 7mm. I hoped that if we kept it to 40 feet or less I would be able to take the cold. Only just but I did it. I'm strongly thinking about adios-ing the 7mm for a few months. It was nice to only have 10# in my weight pouches. I still felt overweighted though. The vis on the second dive was probably 15'+. Temp at 40 feet was a balmy 65º.
Dive three. We returned to the rocky area and found that it continued north for quite a while. It's about 50 to 100 feet east of the road. Lots of huge bolders and lots of fish to see. Bill found the remnants of an umbrella on our way to the rocks and we ran across the usual odds and ends of people's leavings. We didn't have any bags with us so we had to leave it where we found it. We may need to plan another clean-up dive day. I couldn't get over the schools of dozens of small fry about the size of your finger. I even followed (herded?) about 10 bluegill the size of my fist along a large boulder until they decided to dart into a crevice. Obviously most of these critters will be eaten by other lake dwellers or the place would be teaming with fish each year. On this dive the vis ranged from 5' to 20' depending on our depth. Near the thermocline we could see the different "layers" of water coming together. The boundry between the relatively warmer and cooler water looked like whisps of smoke. I swam through one to see if I could feel a difference and I could. The "smokey" areas were cooler. I have only been diving Lake Pleasant on a regular basis since January so the whole thing about seasonal changes and changes in the ecology throughout the year is facinating to me. The temp at 49 feet was only 63 degrees and I was shivering in my 3mm. I was happy to turn back and head for shallower warmer waters.
Between our first and second dives, Granny and RMsimmons dropped in. We were just going in when they arrived and they were just going in when we came out so we never got to dive with them. We did take a minute to say hi and talk a bit. I hope we get to dive together one of these times.
Josh and Bill had three tanks each but Ryan and I had four so we stayed around for another dive after the others left. First we headed south into the cove but the vis started to really suck. Ryan was looking for another fish to add to the three he had speared for dinner. After about 10 minutes of seeing nary a fin we turned around and retraced our route back to where we started. We surfaced and after talking it over decided to descend there and make our way back to the rocky area where we had seen all the fish. Shortly after we started the dive, Ryan got his fourth fish of the day. On this dive we decided to keep the depth to 20 to 25'. The vis was good all day at that depth and the temp hovered at around 70º. Thanks again to Bill, Beth, Josh and Ryan for making it a great day for diving.
