Canyon Lake and Comal River

[grantwiscour]

My wife and I will be diving Holiday Lodge at Canyon Lake and also the Comal River this weekend. Does anyone know any dive spots at Canyon Lake other than North Park and Holiday Lodge? North park is closed for winter. Any ideas for diving the Guadalupe, San Marcos or Comal rivers. Where to put in, park, etc. is appreciated. Also, where are you getting air fills? We have been driving tO the Dive Shop outside San Marcos.

I found some nice maps on Duggan diving's website. We've enjoyed the dive at Holiday Lodge and will do some night diving.

Thanks in advance for any hints, tips or recommendations.

 

[Smurf Stomper]

comal - put in @ texas tubes, they're pretty good about letting you use their parking lot and changing room. Just park and hop in at the stairs the tubers use to launch.

san marcos river - put in @ Sessom & University (see here for specifics)

Both of these rivers might be a bit worse off due to the drought. When I went over summer, some parts of the San Marcos were too shallow to dive, and the Comal was almost getting there in some spots as well. But, one thing you might want to do at the Comal is check out the abandoned hydro plant, just to the right of Landa Falls (1/2 mile upstream from Tx Tubes, right side). Whatever you do, don't go the Comal during the first half of the week, in case that flooding program is still going on.

 

[parrotheaddiver]

skip the San Marcos River it is very low and very congested by the "aquatic weeds"

 

[grantwiscour]

Thanks for the info y'all. We are headed back down again this weekend.
Probably dive Holiday Lodge tomorrow and the Comal on Saturday.

We're still deciding where to do a night dive. Any suggestions would be great.

Have a safe New Year's Eve.

 

[Smurf Stomper]

from what I hear the crawdads come out @ night, especially under a full moon. Might be amusing, since they're quite reclusive during the daytime.

 

[grantwiscour]

We went back to the Comal for New Year's Eve weekend. I'm really liking the diving on the river. Diving all summer at CSSP and Athens gets you wet but not much more. The water temp was 73 day and 71 at night. Viz was better during the day. The water was a bit stirred up for our night dive...we still had good viz 8-10 but with some particulates drifting downstream. During the day we saw lots of Rio Grande Cichlids and some Fountain Darters as well as Bass, Perch and a very large Plecostomus. On our night dive we didn't see any of the Fountain Darters and only one Cichlid but found lots of crawdads and some giant Plecostomuses; three of them on the stairs off of Hinman Island Drive (just upstream of the tube chute). One was light brown and spotted. We're still looking for the eels. So far it's only rumor but I'll keep everybody posted. If you know where and when to find the eels, I'd like more info.

You can check out the video at: Comal River Night Dive New Years Eve 2011 - YouTube

Our next scheduled dive is at Valhalla Missile Silo outside of Abilene.

Dive Safe.