When the guy diving with you has double white tanks and a white wetsuit on, and you loose him when you're 4-5 feet away from him?!? . . . If she can pass all her skills in that murk, she's gonna be a great diver. Hello from TX, by the way. I'm new here to ScubaBoard. We're going to Lake Travis in Austin at the end of September. What better way to celebrate your birthday but to go diving, right? Hope the vis is better there.
Ah, the joy of diving Mudholes. . . Your glass is half empty, mine is half full! Two tanks in our lakes is extreme. To enjoy our lakes, you should use small tanks and move around to different locations, because much of the problem with visibility is self made.
In Texas lakes, I've been in a lot of them, you need to eliminate 70% of the lake area as unsuitable for diving. Lakes like Travis have good and bad areas, to tell the difference look at the bottom. . . mud bottoms will always be a poor choice, rocky or sandy bottoms will always be better viz.
How much visibility do you need to enjoy the dive? If you're worried about "JAWS" or the "Creature From the Black Lagoon" it will never be "good enough". If you swim over a shallow rocky or sandy bottom with some earthworms, you'll encounter more sunfish than you can count. Viz more than your arm length, can mean more sunfish to count.
Why would you want to spend time feeding sunfish? Because sunfish are the most forgiving of all our lake fish. Trouble with bouyancy and waving hands, bumping the bottom, breathing erratically? Floating an earthworm out in front of a sunfish, and all is forgiven. Spend some time feeding sunfish, and you'll recognize your bad behavior, and work to eliminate those problems. . . When your "wild arm waving, bumping, etc. is eliminated. . . then you'll see the bigger fish.
Time spent blowing bubbles in the shallow rocky or sandy areas of Travis, will make you a better diver when you want to go to the tropical resorts. Underwater skills will only develop by blowing bubbles, even if they are shallow areas (longer bottom times). Skill approaching fish works if your trying to put fish on the table for supper, or trying to take closeup pictures in exotic locations. Fish behavior is similar in muddy lakes, or clear oceans.
