Belews Lake NC Diving?

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EevelMonkee

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I found a couple reports on the internet but wondering if any Scubaboarders have ever dove Belews Lake in North Carolina. More specifically in the winter but please share any experience you may have. Thanks!
 
JMR Quarry is close to it and it is suitable for scuba diving and has good visibility, especially in the winter. Plus it has 10 paddle fish!
 
Thanks for the responses! JMR does look generally better for diving but does not have the heated water aspect of Belews. I will be diving wet to test the suitability of the location for conducting open water dives for a course. I'm looking for 20ft of water, 10ft of viz, and water temp of 65 or warmer. A local who has property on the water told me the surface temp was 75 last weekend. I'm planning to check it out this week with a buddy so I'll let you know how it turns out. Could very well be a bust but its worth a shot.
 
Did a couple dives at Belews Lake yesterday. Conditions were better than expected but not great. Had a really good time though. Paddled out in a canoe from the boat ramp to a small island and then entered the water from shore. Water temp was 61, 5-10 ft of viz and got down to 42 ft on the first dive. Check out the video:

[video=youtube;ejDsgAI941g]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejDsgAI941g[/video]
 
Looks like you had a good time. I have seen visibility that low at Lake Jocassee a couple of times.
 
I am a Stokes county resident and diver. It has been a while since I dove at Belews (we call creek) Lake. it is fed mainly by the Dan River and a few other small estuaries. The interesting thing is there is a Duke coal fired power plant on the lake (the reason for the lake) but the surface temperature will be between low 70's to low 90's on the main channel out near the hot water return. They have done many up-fits to the process and recycling the ash. and the lake has responded very well in the aquatic life. As mentioned, the surface temp remains warm through out the year so the lake doesn't turn like most lakes. When diving there is a thermocline at around 12' then a specific line of temp difference at 30' even chilly. most of the lake is pretty clear away from the shore. If there is a lot of boat traffic It will be cloudy near the banks due to our Red Clay native to our area. I found this forum looking for information about something one of the local dive shops " Blue Dolphin" guys mentioned to a customer that I didn't know. He was talking to a customer that was diving up there and said that there is a church and house under water from the boat ramp and island off the main channel. I can't find any information but would like to dive that to see what's down there. He said that if the lake is drawn down the steeple is visible. If this thread becomes active and someone has info I would like to know. Thank you!
 
the PDRA quarries should all check off those boxes for you. They're historically relatively cold at depth since they're spring fed but they surface warms up pretty quickly in the spring. Fantasy Lake in Raleigh is also an option. Bit farther of a drive, but it definitely hits your requirements
 
Can't comment about JMR Quarry but, American Quarry has warmed up nicely. A month ago, American got pretty cool below 35 ft. However, we were at almost 40 feet there on Friday and never felt like we hit the thermocline. The lowest temp on my dive profile was 83°F.

Lake Norman Quarry is an entirely different story. The thermocline remains at 25 ft. and it dropped to 72°F at 38 feet. It actually felt cooler than that. However, there are a lot of instructors at Lake Norman quarry every weekend doing cert dives. I have no direct experience but, I'm told that the PDRA quarries remain diveable in a wetsuit through October (unless there's an early cold snap). Despite the cooler temperatures, Lake Norman Quarry is actually a very good location to do cert dives. I was out there Sunday and was a dive buddy for one of my instructor's students who was doing their cert dives.

I would imagine that Belews Lake would stay pretty warm in the winter due to the size of the Belews Creek Power Station. In the winter, the warmest water is going to be on the discharge side of the plant. If I recall, the discharge is on the southwest side of the plant. However, I don't know if there are any accessible locations near there. If you find a good location to dive there in the winter let us know.
 

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