Columbia MO diving spot

[cummings66]

Recently somebody asked about diving at Finger Lakes in Columbia. Well, yesterday my buddy and myself did just that and I'll tell you what we found.

First, right now the depth at the Swimming spot is maybe 17 - 18 feet max, temps around 43F and vis ranges from 5 - 15 feet, on average I'd guess 10 feet.

The other spot people dive I didn't do because it's a horrible mud pit and there is no way you'd get out without being covered in mud. Trust me when I say this, the mud there would be so foul that you'll throw away anything that it dries on. I found a couple items on the bottom at the swimming lake and took them home, they never made it. It got so rank in my van I pulled over at the next trashcan and tossed it in. It's all the same there, every pit there is, so if the mud in the swimming lake was rank it'll be rank elsewhere. This was the nastiest stuff I've ever smelled.

PS, what makes scat that's all over the bottom? It's the size of a dogs but I wouldn't think a dog would do that much all over there. It's too big for fish, not that I saw anything larger than 1 inch.

By the way, the diving was ok. Vis was acceptable and getting wet was fine. I would only dive this spot given no other choice, IMO.

You'll need to check in with the ranger's office before and after diving. The weekend hours are 9 AM to 3 PM.

 

[SteveC]

Thanks for the post. I've been wanting to check it out for awhile now. I guess I'll pass on it for now.

 

[cummings66]

The mud is why we chose the beach, you've got sand there to exit on. Just don't pick up goodies you'll find on the bottom and don't crash into it and you won't stink.

If you've got to get wet it's not a terrible place to go, but I'll tell you this much. The beach at Long Branch is much nicer than this one was.

 

[SteveC]

Where is Long Branch?

 

[theskull]

. . . PS, what makes scat that's all over the bottom? It's the size of a dogs but I wouldn't think a dog would do that much all over there. It's too big for fish, not that I saw anything larger than 1 inch. . . .

My best guess would be geese or ducks.

theskull

 

[cummings66]

Long Branch Lake is in Macon MO. It's not a deep lake, I think the Ranger I talked to said it was supposed to be around 21 feet deep at it's deepest point.

I know I talked to the Corp about diving there and they said it was fine with them as long as I did it early or late during swim season. Didn't want to scare the swimmers...

I dive the beach sometimes to look for trinkets, good places to find things like Rings, and stuff like that. Many beaches are, but it's all shallow diving.

 

[wb5plj]

that's interesting but depressing. I heard about finger lakes from my secretary, her and her daughter where lounging on the beach when a diver surf iced scaring the @#$% out of them. It was their only encounter with a diver. Before meeting me about a year ago. I had assumed it was a place for pretty young ladies to lounge around on the beach but from the sounds of it, it is a sewage dump.

bummer

 

[cummings66]

The beach itself is not that great but it does have sand that extends outwards maybe 20 feet from shore. Get past that and it's muck.

The beach there pales in comparison to Long Branch, there really isn't much sand on shore and the water isn't that clean. They let weeds and various things like that grow into the swimming area and onto the beach. They do have buoy's and the water depth there is about 10 feet.

As a swimming area it's not special. I would probably do Stephen's Lake first.

It's odd, I'm from out East and to me a Lake is something like Lake Ontario. These things are nothing more than a pond in our backyard in comparison. However, we here in MO call them lakes, so be it.

 

[plot]

Finger lakes is a great place to take ATV's.... From what I've seen of the "lakes" around there though while riding my atv, I wouldn't even want to swim in them.