Brandy Branch Report...

[scubatexastony]

Loaded up the kiddos and gear and to the lake by 10:00, an hours drive pulling the pontoon boat from the house. Ryans eyes lit up as we rounded the last curve and he saw WATER! Last of the "are we at the lake yet?" questions anyways... hehe

Brandy sports over 1200 acres of clear warm (hot on the surface) water. It's a power plant lake and can be dove year round. Plans was a day of swimmin, eatin' and a couple dives by Granny and Pawpaw.

Bren had a sinus block and pains on submerging so her diving was out. I grabbed my camera and headed out with my 40cf "buddy". Water was low 90's on the surface cooling to a comfy low 70's around 20-22', with vis in the shallows around 10'. Had a nice 40 min. dive making friends with the local perch.....not the nibbling kind as yet!

We boated about the lake with captain Ryan, I noted 65' depths in a few spots and on the return trip anchored near the dam in 35-40' and swam a bit, and went to check the viz on the bottom. It was a bit better in the 40-50' as much as the light filtered through. Guessing if I had brought one, could have seen 15-20'. There was a gradual thermo from 25 to 50 settling out in the lower 60's, and a cloud of bottom murk below 55'. Not much to see on the bottom other than some interesting logs and dead hydrilla, but it was nice just to be in the water again.

Still a lot of lake to explore and will make a point of taking some better pics to post.... till then

 

[Dee]

Man...those kids are gettin' big! I almost didn't recognize Capt. Ryan. Sounds like a great place. Maybe Beast and I can join you guys on another run sometime this summer.

 

[tx.lakerats]

sounds like a great time had by all!!

 

[BillT5]

Where's this lake at? Sounds like a good winter time dive option!

 

[scubatexastony]

It's just southwest of Marshall, east of Longview about 30 mins. I'll dig up a map and post it soon. There is only a public boat ramp and no facilities, so a boat is a must, but that makes for some private diving and not much traffic on the lake.

Dee, loved the pictures and looking forward to watchin' some of Dougs videos! I have about 3 1/2 weeks left here punching out the buildings and then two or more weeks off the last week of June and first of July. (Just may take all of July) Maybe ya'll can head up then for a road trip. My brother is supposed to come in the week of July 4th, but other than that, we'll be free!

Oh, not to jinx another prospective job, but they have me slated for some time in August to go do a 18-20 month job in Curacao!

<edit> for grammar!!!!