Dirtiest Lake you have ever been in?

[RadRob]

I am on a search and recovery team called on by fire departments and police departments. I have been in Lake Lavon, Lake Lewisville, Lake Ray Roberts, Lake Ray Hubbard and Bachman Lake. I would have to say the Ray Hubbard and Lake Lavon were the worst diving conditions in Texas waters. I also used to clean boat hulls in Lake Lavon when I was a kid. Near black water conditions.

I also used to dive in different ponds at golf courses recovering golf balls. In Mississippi, I used to dive in the Mississippi river getting anchors free from the bottom. Digging down in the silt and having to dig deep in the muck sure sucks, but it was an adventure. Do these types of dives make me eligible for Texas Swamp Divers?

Just wondering what the worst each of you have been in?

 

[texdiveguy]

The black water conditions of Mountain Creek Lake on a S&R dive.

 

[PacketSniffer]

Offat's Bayou in Galveston. Dive by brail at ~17' on deck of boat wreck during assistance with S&R practice session ("bag the body").

It sounds like you've earned your Texas Swamp Diver badge a long time ago.



Richard

My Upcoming Dive Trips
01.28.06 - Valhalla ICBM Missle Silo
02.03.06 - Flower Gardens [Hammerhead Migration]
02.16.06 - Florida Chickdiver Event (USS Spiegel Grove, USCG Duane, & more)
02.25.06 - Rescue Class Open Water
??.??.?? - Puget Sound (March?: Ski & Dive trip)

 

[ScubaTexan]

What was diving in Bachman Lake like? I've often wondered about both Bachman Lake and White Rock Lake.

 

[dherbman]

I did a check valve rebuild on an irrigation inlet once. Maybe 3" vis at the surface. It was red colored and got dark very quickly. All work was done by feel.

Also set chokers in a couple of mill ponds. After the first pull, vis was 0.

 

[Jay_SMART_Diver]

Did an Operation in Lake Conroe last year that was pretty bad, pitch black at 10 ft and gear stunk like *** had to wash twice.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

I do a fair amount of freshwater commerical work. The average low visibility jobs include fixing irrigation intakes and head gates (by feel in what is always zero viz), and recovering vehicles every spring that fall through the ice (nobody is dumber or more optomistic than an ice fisherman.)

Orman Dam(n) is my favorite place to work as it has zero viz at the surface with the water becoming progressively blacker until you reach the 4 feet of steadily thickening silt at the bottom). When you are not sure where the water stops and the bottom stops - the viz is bad. Once when feeling my way along the bottom for a sunken 4 wheel drive vehicle and trailer, I encountered a wall and discovered I had managed to find my way into the ice house that had been on the trailer that the customer had forgotten to mention (afraid GF&P would make him take it out if anyone knew it had went in the lake). I am not a big fan of nasty surprises or adrenalin rushes in zero viz conditions so I was not a happy camper and the bill reflected it.

Last year I was asked to recover a bunny bucket a forest service contract helicopter pilot had dropped by mistake into the Angastora Reservoir. The abundance of dead clams in the ooze at the bottom of the zero viz lake should have been a clue - several hours after I completed the job, I reacted to whatever bacteria was in the water and my throat nearly swelled shut.

But I digress...Anyway...I am not from Texas, but I have relatives who are and I have been there several times...so could I qualify as an honorary Texas Swamp Diver?

 

[ScubaTexan]

But I digress...Anyway...I am not from Texas, but I have relatives who are and I have been there several times...so could I qualify as an honorary Texas Swamp Diver?

Yes, you would qualify as an honorary Texas Swamp Diver. And if you'll come down and dive with us, you will become an official Swamper.

 

[SStrecker]

My spookiest low visibility fresh water Texas dive was in Lake Lewisville. I was looking for a map-listed submerged bridge in this Army Corps of Engineers created, dam flooded lake. Visibility was barely two feet, at best, with algie blooms. Overhead boat traffic was excessive. The bottom was a soft muddy swamp of indefinite depth. It appears that there are iron ore deposits in the lake because my compass went completely haywire, redefining north every few seconds. Needless to say, I aborted the dive 17 minutes into the fruitless search effort. On the positive side, the water was quite warm, at 82 degrees.

 

[RumBum]

"dirtiest" lake is relative... Smith Lake does not have too bad vis (8') but it has the most trash-per-square foot in it of any lake I have seen. It has a toilet, a cash register, several 50 gal barrels, and lots and lots of beer bottles, coke cans, just trash. Smith Lake is in Vidor, TX.