I met Bill (Phxski), Mike (Rudebob) and Laura (Sea Princes) for a couple of night dives on Friday at VP.What a great time we had! It was almost dusk when we got into the water for the first dive. There were a lot of juvenile fish of several species congregated at the thermocline. More than I remember from last year. We swam out to the far wall and followed it back to the boat ramp and across to an area called Spring Canyon Landing. There the bottom was covered with big rocks. Lots of places for fish and crawdads to hide...and be found. Vis was pretty good above the thermocline. By pretty good I am guessing 10 to 15 feet. Temperature above the thermocling was in the 80s. Upper 60s to lower 70s below it, depending on your depth.
After a good surface interval we entered the water again. This time it was fully dark from the get-go. Our dive lights looked like light sabers slicing through the, at times, murky water. This time we followed a more direct path to the Spring Canyon area. On the way we worked our way up and down along the near wall. Peering into every crack and crevice our lights could find. The wall faded into the surface of the boat ramp at about 40 feet.
We were met by dozens of juvie fish taking refuge in the rocks for the night. We saw several catfish. The biggest was a flathead about 18 inches long. We played with the fish and crawdads until we reached the agreed turn pressure.
The lake is surreal at night. Our imaginations played with the mundane rock formation or drowned tree making it, for a few seconds, into something terrible and frightening. We came into a stand of trees that didn't seem to be there when we went out. It seemed for a few minutes everywhere we turned there was another set of finger like branches reaching out from the darkness to block our path. Moss hung from fishing lines crisscrossing the trees as if some giant lake spider had set a trap for the unwarry catfish - or diver. (Crawdads and catfish and bass, oh my). We picked our way through somehow and survived.
I can't wait to get out there again.
Steve.