Dive Condition Reports

[tripntx]

Vis: 12' @ 20-30 feet
Temp: 78f @ 20 - 30 feet
Thermocline: at 30', stayed above it

Dove on the C-130 (front of lake) and then on and around the fire truck with ladder extended (more towards the middle of lake). Vis is the best I personally seen to date, hope the trend continues.

 

[Hover-Stop]

Lake Travis - Mansfield Park 5/14
3:30pm

Vis: 1ft at surface, 10-12ft at 70ft
Temp: 72 @ 30ft, 59 @ 95ft

Did a few compass skills on the sailboat right by the buoy then took a hard right toward the dam, and followed around 60-70 ft. Swam RIGHT up to the dam and found two boats I didn't know were there right where the dam meets the bottom of the lake at around 50 ft and again at 30ft. Was an EXCELLENT dive, lake was beautiful, vis was great near the dam, that drastic thermocline is quite interesting though, pretty chilly at depth but quite warm near the surface.

Lookin to go out again next week!

 

[James R]

Lake Travis - Windy Point 5/14 / 710pm

Vis was about 5ft at 15' and much better around 55-70' Water temp on my computer was 72 at surface, 61 at 66 feet. You can definitely feel the thermocline. Better vis in the colder water so we stayed there for the most part.

There's a big school of fish right at the entry/exit which made the safety stop time pass faster. Was, overall, a nice way to spend a Thursday evening.

 

[Zinc]

May 16, 2009
Lake Travis - Mansfield Dam Park
Air Temp: 76f Cloudy, windy, raining, very choppy surface
Surface Temp: 73f
Depth Temp: 66f at Max 102'
Vis: 2-5 feet down to 48', 15-20 feet 50'-90', 5 feet below 90'
Lake Level Down 28'

Arrived at Mansfield 10:30am under some very ominous clouds and strong winds. I actually put on my dry suit first and it really paid off; the rain came pouring down with a few strikes of lightning and thunder while I finished setting up in the rain (still dry). After 30 minutes, it seemed to lighten up a bit w/ no sounds of thunder so went ahead and hit the water. Very poor vis down to a dramatic thermocline at 48' where visibility jumped to 15'-20'.

Originally headed to the Jungle Gym, but missed the downline (went right under it I think). Didn't matter though b/c I was seeing plenty of new bottom while proceeding north in the good visibility. On way back, crossed the line, marked it w/ a white cookie and dropped to the Jungle Gym, currently at 100'. Vis there was avg. 5'. Added a "guest book" slate to the Jungle Gym, toured around a bit then headed back. Very nice 103 minute dive in mostly good vis other than some deco in the shallows.

 

[ianr33]

May 17th ,2009
Windy Point Public
Surface Temp 75F
Temp at 110 feet 58F
Viz poor down to 30 feet but opened up nicely below that.Got really bad below about 100 feet.

Planned on taking the Goldline down to the River Channel. Viz at 110 feet was only inches so revised that plan! Cruised around at 70 feet instead. Nice having warm water to do deco in.

 

[eieio_24]

May 18, 2009 ; 3:30 - 5:30 pm

Stillhouse Hollow, Marina area
vis poor - 2-5 foot to 15' - then opened up a bit on decent - a lot of silt easily disturbed.
Temp - nice 70-74 deg ; no clouds, sunny
Calm winds, though too much boat traffic, and too many fishermen in around the marina. Watch out for lots of fishing line, cables, and lost lures w/ hooks.
This area doesn't get deep quickly, maybe better around the dam ? (might need a boat ? )

 

[psiborg1812]

Lake Murray-5/19/09

Dive 1
Went to Marietta's landing, went to the camping area and got in at a place that was at the end of a dirt track, i dunno if that's the regular entrance or not. Went down shoreline towards dam.
Visibility-1 foot, if that. Very murky
Max depth-25 feet.
Water Temp was around 60-65 degrees, not too cold.
Saw a mattress, really. Also saw several schools of fry fish in the plant life and literally ran into several bass or bluegill. With the visibility the way it was and us not knowign the area that well, we decided to call the dive early and move on.

Dive 2
Pulled over on the side of the road near dam, saw path leading down to the water by these odd looking stone and metal towers, decided to do some exploring!
Visibility-2-3 feet, after 40 feet it opened up to 4 or 5 feet. Dark after 50 feet.
Max depth-68 feet
Water Temp-65 on the surface, thermoclines at 35 and 50 feet, or around there. got colder pretty fast!
We poked around the submerged part of the metal tower and tried to figure out what it was in a previous life before it was underwater, no luck there. Found a line tied to one of the legs of the tower and followed it down to this weird metal thing that looked like a grate-box thing, no idea what it was. It got dark FAST after 50 feet or so, and after a few minutes at the odd metal box thing we went back and left something for future divers on the tower structure.

Good dives, hope to go back when the visibility is better and see more oddities!

 

[Rhino2K]

Comal River



May 20, 2009
Hinman Island Park
Air Temp: 85f Sunny, clear skies
Water Temp: 75f
Vis: 12'

Lots of tubers and noise above the surface. Below the surface, peace and tranquility. I saw a large plecostomus in the vegetation. I was the only diver in that part of the river at the time.

 

[Zinc]

May 20, 2009
Lake Travis - Tom Hughes Wall
Air Temp: 76f Clear skies, calm lake
Surface Temp: 75f
Depth Temp: 62f at Max 77'
Vis: less than 5 feet down to @ 35', 5-12 feet 40'-77'
Lake Level Down 28'

Nice calm evening for diving w/ Lake Travis Scuba. Started just north of Tom Hughes park and headed north towards the Oasis Wall (it's really the same wall, but I'm calling it by starting point ) Poor vis in the shallows, LOTS of suspended matter (fish sperm I like to call it, or maybe snot ). Once beneath the major thermocline, things opened up a bit, but vis has declined in the last four days :depressed: Grottos are nice and large... made it to the south end of the Oasis wall.

Here's some video from this dive... Tom Hughes Grottos

I'm obviously not a pro, just thought I'd share

 

[psiborg1812]

Lake Ray Roberts- 5/21/09 ...yes, me and my buddy actually dove Ray Roberts.

Dive 1
We bought a fishing map and decided to explore one of the old cemeteries near Johnson Branch Park, via an old road that is below the lake and runs right past the cemetery. The road was closed to the public, so we had to park in one of the campsites and use a hiking trail to get to the water. Well, we kinda veered off the hiking trail a bit, heh heh.

Visibility- 4 inches, maybe 6, it was brown murk.
Max depth-9 feet.
Water temp- 65-70, not bad, but there was a thermocline at 6 feet.

We tried to follow the road after finding it, but it was tough to see at times because of the silt covering it and the visibility. We got really good at following our compass, though! We decided to call the dive after following the road for a while and losing each other every five minutes only to discover that we were literally a foot from each other. We didn't want to find a tombstone in that vis. On the way back a ran into one of the biggest bass i have ever seen. I think was three inches from it's face. I think we both screamed a bit! I think if the vis cleared up it would be a great lake, there weren't that many boats on it and they stayed away from our flag. I would like to go back with a boat and see more of the submerged stuff. Not a bad dive!