Aurora Res. some Q's

[Red_5]

Took my first trip to Aurora Res today.

vis = 2-4'

needless to say, I found new appreciation today for 40' vis in the Keys! lol


what factors effect vis in this situation

obviously today, there were quite a few people around to muck it up.

those that dive there regularly, do you find conditions better say on a friday or even middle of the week vs the weekend? (due to less traffic(?))

does time of year or weather have anything to do with it?

just trying to get the feel for the local dive spot, I'm only about 15 min away.

 

[CON8IV]

Sure, lots of people out there will definitely stir things up. But, like you are guessing, the vis can be pretty good during the week. I have seen it as good as 15 or 16 feet before, late in the week. Water temp. and therefore the amount of algae, etc. will also affect the vis. 2 to 4 feet isn't much fun, but don't give up on Aurora just yet.

 

[pipefish]

There are so many things that affect visibility: Water temp, wind, rain, algae, fins, ground runoff...

As the water temp increases the visibility tends to decrease due to accelerated algal growth. I suspect that's part of what's going on out at Aurora right now. If there were lots of people out there, then they probably had an impact as well. Fin turbulence is usually pretty short in duration and will settle given a half hour or so. Of course, 2-4 foot vis isn't so bad in my book <grin>.

A general rule of thumb is cooler water produces better visibility in the lower elevation "warm water" lakes in the area.

Hope you have lots of great lake experiences!

PF

 

[H2OU]

How deep is the Aurora Reservoir??

 

[Red_5]

good question. I think I maxed out at 30 or 32'. I didn't venture too much farther east than the airplane.

 

[robanna]

If you go to the furthest buoy out past the plane, I believe we hit 55-60ft.

 

[mhedstrom]

We went there last Friday to do a couple of dives. Viz was pretty nice for the first 15 feet or so, but became maybe 2-5 feet max around the plane. We'd been there before on a Friday too, probably about a month ago, and had about 10 feet around the plane. We did get to see a fish eating a crayfish so that was cool.

 

[Red_5]

what kind of fish was that?

 

[mhedstrom]

I think it was a bass, but I have no idea.

 

[knotical]

How deep is the Aurora Reservoir??

There&#8217;s a sort of subtle channel that runs toward the dam in which I&#8217;ve hit 70 ft, while I think I was still within the buoys. But that was several years ago when the water may have been higher, and there might have been less sediment. According to an old fishing map, you can exceed 90 ft near the center of the dam (but you would then be well outside of the scuba area).