Bull Shoals Lake Dive

[rat314]

Up early this a.m. preparing to go diving Bull Shoals lake.
Been planning this all week but thought it had fell through because my Dive Buddy, (Aka..Brother in Law) didn't think he was going to be able to go.
Did my equipment check and realized that I have several new pieces of equipment that I haven't dove with yet. New tank, I bought a Catalina AL80 to replace the steel 72 I dove previously. A little more bouyant but I have extra weight along to compensate for that. I also have a new wetsuit, a Deep See Quantum 5-4-3.
We are planning a shallow 25-30 foot dive near the Peel Arkansas Ferry landing. Just south of Protem Missouri. We used to snorkel this area frequently and enjoyed the clear water and abundant fish life. I will post again later if anyone is interested in this area.
Hope everyone gets the chance to blow some bubbles today.

 

[rat314]

My Brother and Law and I completed our dive at Bull Shoals lake yesterday.
The rocky shoreline that extends just west of the South Shore Ferry landing at Peel Arkansas.
We made a fairly shallow dive down to only 35 feet but explored the rocky terraces for a considerable distance along the shoreline.

Visability was fair, only around the 15 feet range above the thermocline, but opened up to 30 feet and better below. Saw multitudes of fish including one school of Lineside Bass with at least 15-20 fish. I got a brief glimpse of one good sized Large Mouth around a piece of un-marked sunken fish cover. And we chased a basketball sized turtle around for a few minutes until he got tired of us and headed for deeper waters.

I have seen visability in this area exceed 50 feet at certain times of the year when my Brother and Law and I snorkled here before getting our certifications.

Water temperature was very warm both above and below themocline and I even shed my new 5-4-3 wetsuit after an initial equipment check dive. (Was a little under weighted which also added to my decision to remove it.) Although, there is something exciting about diving free of the encumberence of a restrictive wet suit.
However penetrating the thermocline was a quite brisk excercise without an exposure suit.
I hope everyone had the chance to get out this weekend.
We are planning our next dive in an area across from Point 18 in a few weeks. This area is one that my Dad and Grandpa used to call (the Earth's butt Crack ) because of a unique rock formation.
My lake map indicates a stair step like terrace that go from 20 to 40 feet before then dropping down to 160 ft and better. Hoping to see some more Wildlife.