sealskin98
Contributor
The trip to Broken Bow Lake turned out to be a nice outing for a weekend. Although there were some thunderstorms in the region, the area that we were at was clear and warm. Read that about 100* during the day. The wife and I rented a cabin for Friday and Saturday nights to avoid the looong one hour drive back home after a full day of fun and sun.
Timeliner arrived about 9:30 on Saturday morning and brought his Sea Doo. We proceeded to Stevens Gap area to launch the watercraft. After the launch (I backed down the ramp real quick and hit the brakes, oops) Timeliner took the craft around to the Eagle Drive area of the S.G. part of the lake while I drove the truck and trailer to the same spot. The Sea Doo seemed to be working just fine after the launch.
After gearing up and putting together a dive plan we decided to swim to the little island that is a short distance from the end of the Eagle Drive portion of S.G. The weather was nice, no wind and the water was flat and clear. The plan was to take a compass heading to the island then swim counterclockwise around the little island. We submerged into about 10 ft. vis. and proceeded on. The vis. would run from 10-15 ft. down to 5-6 ft. at spots during both of the dives.
As we were swimming to the island the bottom disappeared, giving us no visual reference point. According to my depth gauge the thermocline that day was at about 22 ft. and we stayed at about that depth. 30 ft. was the deepest that I registered on both dives. Since I don't have a computer I don't know exactly what the water temp. was at the thermo.
It started to seem like it was taking an extraordinary length of time to reach the little island; it is only a short distance from the entry point. It also seemed like the ambient light from above was doing funny things. I finally swam up alongside Timeliner and found out what the problem was. He was using the second hand on his watch as a compass and we were swimming in circles.
Just kidding, the card on his compass was sticking. We surfaced and checked out the compass to make sure that it was being held level and it still stuck at times. So we just took a dead reckoning heading and made it out to the island.
The little island was interesting as on the east side there are some large tree roots that look like the eroded space under them could hold some nice catfish, although we didnt see any this time. We did see a few nice sized bass and some "calf slobbers" (fresh water jelly fish). Then we did a short swim to a little cove on the north side of Eagle Drive and played around for a bit before heading back to the entry point on the south side of the road. We had about an hour and ten minute dive out of that one.
After an S.I. and lunch we decided to explore a cliff area across the lake just to the southeast of where we were entrenched. Timeliner ferried myself and our equipment except for the tanks across the lake, then went back and picked up the tanks. Timeliner was right, we need a bigger boat.
The site looked interesting; there is a large spot where there is just a sheer cliff that drops off into the water. We geared up in a little cove just west of the cliff and made a rather muddy, silty entry into the water. After we were able to get into deeper water the silt was not a problem.
I was also trying out a new camera and housing on this dive. Im going to have to get used to it, some of the pics. did not take. Couldnt be operator error.
We descended into vis. about 10-15 ft. and made our way easterly along the wall. It was and interesting dive, Timeliner said that the wall went to about 140 ft. at that spot (or was that the other cliff area that we checked out on snorkel), but I havent looked at a map and the water level at the lake was down about 20 ft. or so.
As is usual in a lake the vis. went up and down, the worst was about 5-6 ft. at spots but you would swim out of it. We came across a submerged tree a few minutes into the dive, nothing to worry about as you could see it and there was plenty of room to swim around it or even through it in spots. The wall contained several medium sized rocks that had many little fish in its hidey holes. One of my attached pics. did have some fish in it when I hit the button really it did.
As we traversed the wall we came across three or four other submerged trees, again nothing we did not see before we reached them. There were several (read that many) good sized bass around these structures. Hmm, attach a float; come back with a boat and fishing rod .
When we reached the cliff face area the rocky terrain turned into the smooth cliff face that descended to the depths below. It is a nice drop-off area kind of like the chimney area at CSSP that is along the wall directly across from the usual Swampers place, except much larger and deeper.
I stayed mostly around the thermocline area.
After the smooth wall we ran into more of a rocky area again, and then we turned back toward our entry point. We made it back after right at an hour on the dive. It was a really great wall dive that I would like to do again. I did find a 5 lb. soft weight on the way down the wall that I put on a ledge, but didnt find it on the way back. Oh well, that will give me an excuse to do that dive again!
All in all it was a great day and I plan on going back again before the dive season winds down.
Timeliner arrived about 9:30 on Saturday morning and brought his Sea Doo. We proceeded to Stevens Gap area to launch the watercraft. After the launch (I backed down the ramp real quick and hit the brakes, oops) Timeliner took the craft around to the Eagle Drive area of the S.G. part of the lake while I drove the truck and trailer to the same spot. The Sea Doo seemed to be working just fine after the launch.
After gearing up and putting together a dive plan we decided to swim to the little island that is a short distance from the end of the Eagle Drive portion of S.G. The weather was nice, no wind and the water was flat and clear. The plan was to take a compass heading to the island then swim counterclockwise around the little island. We submerged into about 10 ft. vis. and proceeded on. The vis. would run from 10-15 ft. down to 5-6 ft. at spots during both of the dives.
As we were swimming to the island the bottom disappeared, giving us no visual reference point. According to my depth gauge the thermocline that day was at about 22 ft. and we stayed at about that depth. 30 ft. was the deepest that I registered on both dives. Since I don't have a computer I don't know exactly what the water temp. was at the thermo.
It started to seem like it was taking an extraordinary length of time to reach the little island; it is only a short distance from the entry point. It also seemed like the ambient light from above was doing funny things. I finally swam up alongside Timeliner and found out what the problem was. He was using the second hand on his watch as a compass and we were swimming in circles.
Just kidding, the card on his compass was sticking. We surfaced and checked out the compass to make sure that it was being held level and it still stuck at times. So we just took a dead reckoning heading and made it out to the island.
The little island was interesting as on the east side there are some large tree roots that look like the eroded space under them could hold some nice catfish, although we didnt see any this time. We did see a few nice sized bass and some "calf slobbers" (fresh water jelly fish). Then we did a short swim to a little cove on the north side of Eagle Drive and played around for a bit before heading back to the entry point on the south side of the road. We had about an hour and ten minute dive out of that one.
After an S.I. and lunch we decided to explore a cliff area across the lake just to the southeast of where we were entrenched. Timeliner ferried myself and our equipment except for the tanks across the lake, then went back and picked up the tanks. Timeliner was right, we need a bigger boat.
The site looked interesting; there is a large spot where there is just a sheer cliff that drops off into the water. We geared up in a little cove just west of the cliff and made a rather muddy, silty entry into the water. After we were able to get into deeper water the silt was not a problem.
I was also trying out a new camera and housing on this dive. Im going to have to get used to it, some of the pics. did not take. Couldnt be operator error.
We descended into vis. about 10-15 ft. and made our way easterly along the wall. It was and interesting dive, Timeliner said that the wall went to about 140 ft. at that spot (or was that the other cliff area that we checked out on snorkel), but I havent looked at a map and the water level at the lake was down about 20 ft. or so.
As is usual in a lake the vis. went up and down, the worst was about 5-6 ft. at spots but you would swim out of it. We came across a submerged tree a few minutes into the dive, nothing to worry about as you could see it and there was plenty of room to swim around it or even through it in spots. The wall contained several medium sized rocks that had many little fish in its hidey holes. One of my attached pics. did have some fish in it when I hit the button really it did.
As we traversed the wall we came across three or four other submerged trees, again nothing we did not see before we reached them. There were several (read that many) good sized bass around these structures. Hmm, attach a float; come back with a boat and fishing rod .
When we reached the cliff face area the rocky terrain turned into the smooth cliff face that descended to the depths below. It is a nice drop-off area kind of like the chimney area at CSSP that is along the wall directly across from the usual Swampers place, except much larger and deeper.
I stayed mostly around the thermocline area.
After the smooth wall we ran into more of a rocky area again, and then we turned back toward our entry point. We made it back after right at an hour on the dive. It was a really great wall dive that I would like to do again. I did find a 5 lb. soft weight on the way down the wall that I put on a ledge, but didnt find it on the way back. Oh well, that will give me an excuse to do that dive again!
All in all it was a great day and I plan on going back again before the dive season winds down.
:bigun2:
