'Diving' the Comal

[PeppermintPaddi]

Hinman Island with BlazerDiver on Wed Feb 11th around noon.

Parked for free near the restrooms on Hinman Island Dr, between Elizabeth Ave and Liberty Ave (for Google mapping), across from the golf course. (TSD rumor says you can't do this in the summer.) (Saw a Zink St :shocked2: while we were scoping out the route to Landa Park.) Walked about 50 feet to the middle steps to enter. For other dives we got out at the stairs nearest the dam, took maybe a 3 minute stroll up the sidewalk, almost to the railroad trestle, and entered again at those steps.

3 dives and 2 surface intervals
61 minutes total 'bottom time'
Max 14', avg 6 feet
74 degree water
viz 10-15 feet
all one 1 tank

Lots of big fish on the south bank in the shade of the elephant ears and trees down towards the dam. Not much current there either. The bottom throughout was mostly plants. The patches of white stone were covered with what I feared were bird droppings, but turned out to be snail shells and some gray muck that I probably don't want identified.

Found these links while trying to figure out what fish we saw:
Aquatic Species Found in Fresh Water
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/pwdpubsmedi/pwd_bk_w7000_0013_edwards_aquifer_species.pdf

I _think_ there were Rio Grande Cichlids, Bluegills, Green Sunfish, Redbreast Sunfish, Black Bass, some kind of Buffalo, some Shiners, a couple of live mudbugs and several mudbug heads, 5-6 Yellow Bellied Slider turtles, 3 plecostomi out in the center of the channel, parked 'uphill' on mounds of vegetation, and 1 mesh non-native 'fish', removed for its own safety.

 

[Hemlon]

Awesome report, PP!

I was scheduled to go with PP and Mark but the high wind made me change my mind. (Don't start with the Princess comments, Timeliner!)

So I went today. The conditions were identical to what PP wrote. I saw two large plecos and several other fish. (I'm not as good at identifying them as PP is.) No turtles, however.

The weather was unbelievable!

 

[Hemlon]

Here are a couple of pictures. Neela was my dive sherpa. Don't let her small size fool you...she's strong.

 

[BlazerDiver]

Is the carabiner what you use to attach your sherpa to your bc for transport?

 

[Hemlon]

Is the carabiner what you use to attach your sherpa to your bc for transport?

Hmmm...I never thought of making her JUST carry the BC. I usually make her carry the load as a whole.

(The carabiner attaches her harness to her car safety seat.)

 

[Heavy D]

Great report, but 61 min is all you got on 3 dives? I can usually get about that on a single dive. If you walk up the sidewalk to the last set of stairs and put in there, you can swim upstream for a little bit to the railroad tressle. After that, just drift down with a gentle kick against the current and work back and forth between the banks. You can make the dive last practically forever it seems.

 

[DM Gary]

I'm thinking I might roll down there tomorrow morning around 10am. Anyone interested?

 

[oldschool]

I'm meeting up with John Lindsey tomorrow around noon. Don't know who else may be showing up.

 

[DM Gary]

I spent the afternoon yesterday diving the Comal. My regular dive buddy is married so he chose the smart route and took his wife out for Valentine's Day. Since this was planned spur of the moment (10:30 Friday night) I was limited on who to call so I dove solo. The air temp was chilly but the 74 degree water felt really nice.

My first dive flew by for some reason. I guess I swam too much on my own and surfaced just before the tube chute at 20 mins and less than 500 psi used. I walked back to the stairs just down river from the train tracks and jumped right back in. The second dive was a little longer at 33 mins but I still had a lot of air left and I can't stand turning in a rental tank with good air left in it.

I put in again at the stairs and tried to surface kick to the train tracks and soon grew bored with that and went under in time to see a huge school of sunfish go into a frenzy over a medium sized crawfish. A bigger fish latched on to him and took away his right claw. You have to give it to the little guy, he still stood his ground to me with one claw raised up in defiance.

This third dive was 37 mins and I used a satisfactory amount of air. Toward the end I scared up a decent sized turtle and followed him for a little while. Other than that and the crawfish battle there wasn't anything out of the norm for the Comal. Same fish and scenery. It was a good day of diving though. I got an hour and a half of nice relaxing diving out of one tank.

Due to bottom time, amount of life and visibility, the Comal has quickly become my favorite freshwater dive site. I am planning on being there again the weekend after next. I look forward to seeing some of ya'll there. I'd really like to dive some of the down river section if anyone is interested in doing that let me know.

 

[Heavy D]

I might be interested in doing the comal the week after next. Shoot me a pm when it gets closer and I will see if I can work it into my schedule.