JKSteger
D/M Wannabee ! ! !
Jesse and I drove over to Lake Juliette this morning. The drive was only 30min from my house and I was anxious to get wet as I had not been diving since June which has been way too long.
We arrived at Dames Ferry Park only to find that the day use area had been reserved for the day. I don't know how often this happens but it seems like everytime I've been by there the day use area is reserved by some church or civil organization. We were directed to go over to the boat ramp. There was a small beach area beside the boat ramp so we pulled in and geared up.
The parking fee was $3.00.
One thing I do like about this lake is the fact that boats with over 25hp motors are not allowed in the lake neither is jet ski's, seadoo's etc. Because of this I think that the only people that use boats on the lake is locals and older fishermen. There wasn't very many boats on the lake today.
After we are geared up Jesse and I walk down to the floating dock to jump in. The water looked clear so I entered in first with Jesse right behind me.
First issue. Grass!
The lake is covered in water grass and it was so thick that my straps on my fins were getting tangled up in it not to mention my gear! We went for deeper water and were greated with about 7' vis and more grass. Here the grass doesn't reach the surface. We swam about 10' below the serface and about 1' above the grass. We decided to follow the contour of the bottom to a little deeper water still. After we go to our deepest point in our short dive the grass started getting thinner and the type of grass changed from long blades to short "bundles".
Here we say many fish and I was hoping to see a turtle but none was sighted.
Overall it was a good break from Lake Lanier. We were told by some locals that the grass doesn't grow much below 20' to 30'. The bottom was soft clay / silt with a few dense bottom areas where the bottom was hard. We stayed above the thermocline in 86 deg. water Max depth = 20' Dive time = 30min. Viz ranged from 3' to 10'.
I look forward to diving here again. I would like to dive the dam area but it is only accessable by boat. We were told that the better dive locations were accessable by boat only.
Jeremy
We arrived at Dames Ferry Park only to find that the day use area had been reserved for the day. I don't know how often this happens but it seems like everytime I've been by there the day use area is reserved by some church or civil organization. We were directed to go over to the boat ramp. There was a small beach area beside the boat ramp so we pulled in and geared up.
The parking fee was $3.00.
One thing I do like about this lake is the fact that boats with over 25hp motors are not allowed in the lake neither is jet ski's, seadoo's etc. Because of this I think that the only people that use boats on the lake is locals and older fishermen. There wasn't very many boats on the lake today.
After we are geared up Jesse and I walk down to the floating dock to jump in. The water looked clear so I entered in first with Jesse right behind me.
First issue. Grass!
The lake is covered in water grass and it was so thick that my straps on my fins were getting tangled up in it not to mention my gear! We went for deeper water and were greated with about 7' vis and more grass. Here the grass doesn't reach the surface. We swam about 10' below the serface and about 1' above the grass. We decided to follow the contour of the bottom to a little deeper water still. After we go to our deepest point in our short dive the grass started getting thinner and the type of grass changed from long blades to short "bundles".
Here we say many fish and I was hoping to see a turtle but none was sighted.
Overall it was a good break from Lake Lanier. We were told by some locals that the grass doesn't grow much below 20' to 30'. The bottom was soft clay / silt with a few dense bottom areas where the bottom was hard. We stayed above the thermocline in 86 deg. water Max depth = 20' Dive time = 30min. Viz ranged from 3' to 10'.
I look forward to diving here again. I would like to dive the dam area but it is only accessable by boat. We were told that the better dive locations were accessable by boat only.
Jeremy
