Diving Lake Marion, SC

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Kayak_Diver

Registered
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
Location
Holly Hill, SC
# of dives
100 - 199
Hello All,

I was wondering if anyone out there knows about some good dive sites in Lake Marion one of the Santee Cooper Lakes in SC. As a new member to the board, I posted a message in the "Meet and Greet" section of the forum and maybe that was the wrong place? We are typically Cooper River divers and are looking for new sites. We have heard numerous stories about the lake, both good and bad, but as we are used to zero vis the bad we hear is not that bad. As for the good, Revolutionary war relics found in very good condition around the Eutaw Springs area as well as some old buildings and landmarks. Eutaw Springs was well known for the battle of Eutaw Springs, and I might be mistaken but a hangout of Marion himself.
Any information would be greatly appreciated. By the way I did a search for the topic before posting and came up empty.

Thanks!
 
Wow! I can't believe nobody has info. about this lake? TerryDive1 and I are going diving Saturday, to see for ourselves. I found a good map with structures and contours. Some of the places we will attempt to locate are Nelson's Ferry the main ferry across the now sunken Santee river. Also, a school located off of Church Island that supposedly still stands. Lastly, an old Brick making plant where the actual smoke stacks are still above water level. If anyone is interested I will post our results. with GPS coordinates.
 
The last time I was there the water was way down and the guy we were fishing with showed us the remnants of an old canal. It must have been locks of some sort. The brick work was pretty detailed and looked good. I've thought about diving there but I get nervous around gators and no current.

They can probably get you in the current too but it makes me feel better.
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Post up a report if you don't mind.
 
The gators are of no concern, I have learned that if you leave them alone they will leave you alone. Besides they are more in the swampy areas of the lake and close to shore, they very seldom venture out into the deep lake. The trip went well, we went to place called the "Brickyard". The weather Friday night before we left was bad, Lake advisory for high winds and severe thunderstorms, all of which tend to cloud the water and make for less than satisfactory vis. Saturday morning was windy and clear though so we went anyways. White capped waves made for a rough trip out, but once anchored, I made a vis check dive and at 20' the vis was 10' to 12'. I was completely surprised the lake was stained red (Red Clay) from the previous nights storm and I would consider this a bad dive day. SO on a good day when the lake is calm and clear I would expect vis to be around the 20' range. Bottom was not as bad as expected, as we kept moving along the bottom very little silt was kicked up. Silt was actually very minimal, maybe 1/2" at most before a hard clay bottom.

All in all a very good dive even though my 11 year old son backed out of the dive because of equipment problems. We willl definately make the lake a frequent dive area.
 
Thanks for the report. We might have to give it a try this summer. Do you do any diving in the Cooper or other Lowcountry rivers?
 
Yes,
We do dive the Cooper, I dive with a good friend of mine (TerryDive1) who I met while building his pool. He was having the pool built for his dive business and to make a long story short we became really great friends. He is a Captain and does do Charters, it might be worth your while to check out his profile, I would give his website but can't because I have not posted the required number of posts. He is really a great guy and he is who we went to the Lake with. As far as the other rivers, no as of yet. The Cooper is where that artifacts are and as far as Teeth go, there is no better river in the South. Everyone has their favorite spot and most are tightly gaurded secrets, that is why I would recommend a Charter.
The Lakes on the other hand, are really just now being explored by us. We are going to dive on Francis Marion's home sometime soon and are hoping to locate the "privy" thats where all the garbage went in those days. Maybe we will find some good pieces of pottery or who knows? Definately should be an interesting Dive.
 
HEY ! are ya'll still diving the lake? We are moving to Florence at the first of the year and we just drove over the lake for the first time this weekend. My wife and both knew we would have to give it a try. As far as gators go, we are moving up from south ga and we tend to try not to stomp on the tails, that's about the only way you can really get them to mess with ya! We also are looking forward to diving off the coast and the great cooper river dive. Maybe we can meet with ya'll sometime and hear about this " brickyard" and other dive sites.
 
I have heard rumor of people diving Lake Marion. I would certainly be respectful of the damn operations.

I dove some backwoods water in the Francis Marion National Forest. The first thing I noticed was the gators had much less exposure to people, were MUCH larger with much larger territories, and much more curious.

We found some pathetic (very worn) prehistoric shark teeth frags and a few worthless old bottles. I picked up a wooden dowel (from an old wooden ship) that had lost its way and was wandering down the river bed.

I was going to suggest Terry because he lives up that way.

Contact Phil @ http://www.backwaterdiversions.com

He lives in Eutawville, has done 1000's upon 1000's of dives in the area and may have some information for you.
 
HEY ! are ya'll still diving the lake? We are moving to Florence at the first of the year and we just drove over the lake for the first time this weekend. My wife and both knew we would have to give it a try. As far as gators go, we are moving up from south ga and we tend to try not to stomp on the tails, that's about the only way you can really get them to mess with ya! We also are looking forward to diving off the coast and the great cooper river dive. Maybe we can meet with ya'll sometime and hear about this " brickyard" and other dive sites.

The "Brickyard" is on Lake Marion which I haven't dove as often. I conducted numerous OW checkout dives on Lake Moultrie off of Short Stay this summer. We had days where the visiblity was close to 15-20'. To top it off, I never saw any alligators!! I'm in the process of seeing if we can build platforms and/or sink a few objects to the bottom to create our own little "Jocassee" in Moncks Corner. Due to my upcoming Middle East deployment, I haven't had the time to do any diving lately (outside of the Navy that is). Feel free to PM for any additional info on the Lake. Phil is also an awesome resource since he has been diving them forever!
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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