Current River, Missouri

[ChelBob61]

I'm looking for anyone that has ever been diving in Current River, Missouri. I saw an add through a St. Charles dive shop that is taking a camping/floating/diving trip the end of June, but I wanted to know if anyone out there had ever been before. We spent a weekend on the river several years ago - beautiful crystal clear water, but COLD. Would love to find out more about diving the river. Where to go? Dry suits? Etc...

Please share,
Michelle

 

[Bill51]

I have some friends that canoe the Current and take small tanks with them for occasional stops to cool off and check out the bottom. They’ve also been known to drift dive the river in places towing the canoe behind them and had some fun.

 

[cmcarver]

I am signed up for the trip. I talked with the organizer and they expect the water to be about 70*-75*. That is if Emily doesn't make it as far as Dennis did and give us 4 days of rain.

 

[scowens]

I am signed up for the trip. I talked with the organizer and they expect the water to be about 70*-75*. That is if Emily doesn't make it as far as Dennis did and give us 4 days of rain.

Tell us how it went, sounds interesting.

Steve

 

[cmcarver]

The water temp was 77*-79*. I had a max depth of 23'. I decided to dive Eanx36 just because I was also going to be canoeing and thought it would help with being too sleepy afterwards and it did. The diving was good for Missouri diving. We had 6-10' vis and dove 3 spots. 2 of them where on the float saturday and the third was sunday morning. The dive Sunday was just a drift dive that we put in at the boat dock in Doniphan and drifted about a mile. When we first started the current was swift and grabbed us then we were off. After that the current wasn't as strong the rest of the dive. Most of the dives were either silty in the deeper spots where there was no current or sandy in the current. Saw quite a few fish ranging from Bass, Crappie, Carp, Cat, Perch and others. I ran out of air on the third dive and surfaced so the other 2 could continue on. They said the last 20 minutes was the best because there was even more fish and lots of boulders lining the bottom. That I may have to try again. I will how ever do this again but would perfer it when it is cooler out and not so many boaters to stir the bottom. I think this would be nice in Oct or Nov but would require a wet suit then.

 

[cmcarver]

Not only did I get to try river diving this weekend but also got to try camping and diving. I chose to stay at the Rocky River Resort camp grounds where I pulled a pop-up camper to and setup camp then dove the following morning, sunday morning and then broke camp and drove home. That too was worth doing again. I can't say I spent much time at camp with the float trip but with 3-4 people it would be about $10 to stay for the weekend and then dive the river. I think I was at the camp site for 1 hr when I wasn't sleeping. I may even try this at other local spots like Mermet Springs, Table Rock, or Bull shoals.