Dive Condition Reports

[eieio_24]

Friday - July 3, 2009 ; 3:00 pm
Inks Lake - Devils Water Hole area
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Dove area around Devils Water Hole at Inks Lake State Park. Visibility was approximately only about one foot (or less), down to a depth of 21' and never improved. There are a few large overhangs and it was so murky, dark and green that the dive was aborted quickly. Very silty bottom - don't disturb it or you won't see anything, as if it really mattered...
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Left Inks and went to the area of the LCRA office and Public beach along SH 29, just west of the Inks Lake bridge and Llano/Burnet County line. This area is where there used to be public access to the dam of Lake Buchanan. We only freedove here - vis was only approximately 2-2.5', and only on the bottom between 10-15' deep. Found a fishing rod/reel.

Also, we were checked out by the rent-a-cop armed security guard. Apparently, they do not want any divers close to the dam, and that we would not have been allowed to use scuba gear near the dam.
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[therealwwdiver]

Vis from 2'-15'
Water temp @ 26' to 30' around 90 degrees
air temp 95
water is very stratified in some places but not at all in others
shallow depth makes for very long bottom times (90+ minutes w/ 100 cu ft)
only colder water I found is in the deep hole
perch still active on spawning beds
every time I go to Mammoth I find something new

 

[austinspace]

7/5/2009 10:42am 39mins to max 48 ft

Five of us parked out on the west-side of the spit for a very easy entry. Descended to the edge of the wall and took a slight turn to the left (south) where we found some really nice grottoes around 40' and below. In one cave-like grotto found a BIG catfish resting. He came to the opening to check us out. That was very cool.

Visibility was decent for that depth at this time (not sure how far, 6-8' maybe). Shallow enough that some sunlight still came through.

Water temp according to my computer was 79F - whatever it actually was it felt good.

Followed by a nice brunch together at the Oasis - a great start to the day.

 

[PeppermintPaddi]

Surface 86F, 60'+ 72F
Visibility 3-5' down to 20F, below that 6-10 feet everywhere
ARLUT says lake is at 641.65'

Entered at Porta Potty cove, down to 60ish feet and headed right. No problem seeing buddy, but those silt covered trees kept jumping out in front of me. Treed boat at 54'. At 65' starting to get into bigger trees and metal posts set in round concrete footers. Came back at ~35'. Found Austinspace's catfish a little ways down Zinc's line.

 

[austinspace]

#1 ... Did basically the same dive as PeppermintPaddi's report, above, starting around 5pm. Air temp 103F, water temp was 72F below 60ft. Entered at the buoy in front of the porta-pottys and immediately encountered the scoreboard (a first for me!). Went left maintaining depth of 55' but after awhile visibility got quite bad and trees thicker so turned back and went the other way for awhile. Didn't find the catfish or his cave this time! Much to explore here at various depths. Watch out for the trees anywhere below 50' - they do have a way of sneaking up on you. Noticed many little fishes living in the thinnest horizontal crevices.

#2 ... Boarded the Giant Stride (Lake Travis Scuba) for the sunset trip at 7pm and dove West Point. Entered (with a giant stride!) at the point and followed the wall to the north. With lake level so low, the best combination of interesting rock structure and visibility here is in the 30-40' range.

 

[driftwood]

John Payne and me were diving Thursday and were sent to Cream of Wheat. Vis was about 40'. Bad for Spring Lake. There has been a major bacteria outbreak in the lake which has killed most of the coontail. Right now, the lake is more open than I have ever seen it. On the plus side, most of the dive sites are up to three times larger than I am used to. In addition, the catfish have fewer places to spend the day and now can be found under big rocks and holes in the banks.

The real purpose of the post is that there seems to be a change in policy due to the severe low flow conditions. Volunteer dives will now be limited to Arch Site. The Aquarena staff has made this change to preserve the visibility for the glass bottom boats. The real effect for us is that only two or three divers will be allowed in the lake at a time.

 

[ianr33]

7/11/09 Windy Point Private
Went out around 6pm to check out some gear mods.
It's one sorry looking lake at the moment..........
Air temp hotter than hell!
Surface 86F, 62F at 100 foot depth.

Viz too bad to read gauges from surface down to 20 feet.From 20 to 80 was O.K. maybe 5-10 feet. At 80 feet it again got too bad to read gauges,even with a 10W HID. But,........once below 100 feet the viz opened up to maybe 10 feet.Not exactly Windex but certainly diveable and the best I have seen it this year. At 110 feet it was starting to look like the River Channel. Give it a week or 2 and the Great Travis Traverse will be an NDL dive on 32% !!

The crappy surface viz is due to boat wakes lapping on the exposed sand/silt on the shoreline.

Best way to do deep dives at the moment would be to surface swim out to the swim buoys and descend down the cable.

 

[TwoBitTxn]

CSSP 7/11-12

Air temp: Smokin hot.
Surface temp: 91
Thermal starts at 27: Above 85 Drops rapidly to 33 or 34 feet. low 70's at that point.
Vis above thermal 15 feet. I could see full length of platforms plus a little. Below thermal 1-2 feet.

 

[eieio_24]

Tuesday - July 14, 2009 ; 12:45 pm
Comal River - New Braunfels, TX
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Same ole' river dive. However, this was primarly just a get wet practice session with an inexperienced family member, to try out and familiarize them with their gear.
But hey, I got to breathe underwater, so it was all still fun...

Temp, still HOT - 100 +
Vis, pretty good - average 10 + (better if tubers were not present)
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[psiborg1812]

FYI- Really long post!

Lake Texoma- Eisenhower Park. -7/18/09
Swam out to the no wake buoy, left a present on the bottom, took a North heading, and started swimming!

Max depth-68 feet

Temperature- Started out 81 degrees, thermoclines @ 30 and 55 feet getting down to 68. With a 3 mil on it was a little too warm for me.

Visibility- Started out around 2 feet, opened up to 4 or 5 around 40 feet, then dropped FAST to les than 1 foot at 60 feet. Also, it got very dark around 35-40 feet, then kept getting darker.

Pluses- I was actually really impressed with the conditions at Texoma. I have never been there before and it's a good place to dive! There's schools of fry that hang around the 30 foot rocks, perch that follow you around, and i saw several large freshwater clams, something that i had never seen before in a Texas lake. One of the clams happened to jump right out of the water and land on my Explorer, so i had to take it home and take care of it, right? Plus, in Texoma, you can see the dark water before you get to it. Sounds weird, but i swear at a certain point, you can look ahead and see this area of darkness that you think is a big rock or a structure, but nope, it's just the dark water! Kinda creepy, especially with a little dinky light.

Negatives- It's a bit of a walk down a hill with about 100 steps, Nobody was joking when they called them the steps from Hell! Also, when it get's dark, it gets DARK. I'd recommend a powerful light if you go!

All things considered, though, it was a great place to go!

Edit: I also found my weirdest object to date here- a kite. No joke, a kite was just sitting there partially buried at 30 feet!

Lake Murray-7/18/09

Stopped by here to burn up a tank and check out the bottom again.

Max depth-71 feet

Temperatures- started at 78 on the surface, thermoclines at 30 and 50 feet, dropped to 62. 3 mil suit was too hot on the surface and just right on the bottom!

Visibility- started around 3 feet, then around 45 feet it opened up to maybe 5 or 6 feet, i was impressed! However, Murray get's the darkest the fastest, it might as well be a night dive after 40 feet!

I was going to go to Marietta's Landing and see if i could find all the stuff people say is down there, but holy s**t there were a bunch of boaters in that area! So i went to the metal structure by the spillway and said hi to the crab pot. Even there i heard boats going over constantly, and when i surfaced i yelled at one that was 10 yards away "just checking out what the flag was". Grrrr I'm still mad that all i have seen of M's Landing is a mattress. Really, a mattress.

Although i like the crab pot on Murray, because you just follow the line, then it get's crazy dark and you can't see the bottom, only the line, then BAM, there's the crab pot! I was feeling a little more adventurous and dropped to the bottom off the line and explored a bit. LOTS of old bottles and beer cans and junk in the dark. Really fun dive!

Both of these lakes had lot's of boat traffic, so be careful of where you pop up if you do go.