Lake Murray, OK - July 21st

[Cyprian]

Lake Murray - Marietta's Landing

Bryan and I arrived early as we often try to do, around 7:30 am and the place was almost empty. There were a few campers and one scuba group.

We jumped in just before 8 and were treated to around 15' of vis for dive 1. When we surfaced a scuba class was gearing up. After dive 2 the place was packed! There were 3 dive shop classes going on as well as swimmers, etc. It was somewhat crazy and the most people I have ever seen on the dive side of Marietta's. The vis around the platforms dropped to 5-8' as expected. However, Bryan and I dove the wall and out close to the first wake buoy. I am happy to report that we had ambient light down to 51' and the vis below the second thermocline has opened up a little. We had about 5-7'. But the West wall still had all the vis. There was one spot where we had 20' of vis and the whole wall did not deteriorate below 12-15' of vis.

Temps? It was hot on the surface (86-88), the first thermocline dropped to upper 70s and the second thermocline was around 39-40' and temp was low 70's.

Side note: We stopped at the "deep" tower on our way back and the vis looked awesome. Johnny Johnson had his boat in the cove and there were about 8 divers there that I could see and 4 swimming toward the tower. It was a scuba day at the lake for sure.

Oh, and Bryan and I got a good smile in at the end of our dives. As we were packing up, we heard over a loudspeaker "You see that dive flag? You are to stay 150' away from that dive flag at all times." The lake patrol had tagged a jet skier who had managed to drive right up to the cove at Marietta's. It was crazy. There were no less than 5 dive flags in the water and they just drove right in, and not at a slow speed either. Thank you lake patrol!

Safe dives,

Cyp

 

[Timeliner]

Nothing but Crickets ..... nobody replying to your post

Lake Murray is a cool place. 'done a bunch of dives there.
The pull off between the mechanical tower and the spill way has the best/deepest diving areas.
Enter there and head East towards the Tower. then... Drift Left and head on down deep and follow the wall East to the VW at 77 feet. if you keep going out towards the middle of the lake you might find 100 feet of mud . But it's a Spiritual Mud......
If you follow the bottom up from the VW you'll find the Plymouth at about 33 feet.
Search some of my past posts and threads on Lake Murray.... Good info

 

[Cyprian]

Nothing but Crickets ..... nobody replying to your post

Lake Murray is a cool place. 'done a bunch of dives there.
The pull off between the mechanical tower and the spill way has the best/deepest diving areas.
Enter there and head East towards the Tower. then... Drift Left and head on down deep and follow the wall East to the VW at 77 feet. if you keep going out towards the middle of the lake you might find 100 feet of mud . But it's a Spiritual Mud......
If you follow the bottom up from the VW you'll find the Plymouth at about 33 feet.
Search some of my past posts and threads on Lake Murray.... Good info

LOL...no worries. I actually didn't expect anyone to reply, just providing info to the board.

As relates to searching your posts on Murray.....well sir, I've already done that and gathered the info for the next time I dive the tower.

Now, in the future, I hope to pick your brain about Broken Bow.

 

[paulw]

I have not dove Murray since the early 80's, we used to dive by Tucker's Tower back then is that the tower you are talking about?

 

[Cyprian]

I have not dove Murray since the early 80's, we used to dive by Tucker's Tower back then is that the tower you are talking about?

Paul, not Tucker's Tower. This "tower" is approximately 1/4-1/2 mile West of Marietta's Landing and not exactly easy to get to without a boat, but it can be done. In the picture that I uploaded below (reduced clarity to meet SB upload), the tower is in the upper left corner. This is also one of three trails that I know of to get to it from shore.



Safe dives,

Cyp

 

[paulw]

Paul, not Tucker's Tower. This "tower" is approximately 1/4-1/2 mile West of Marietta's Landing and not exactly easy to get to without a boat, but it can be done. In the picture that I uploaded below (reduced clarity to meet SB upload), the tower is in the upper left corner. This is also one of three trails that I know of to get to it from shore.
Safe dives,

Cyp

Thanks, it has been a long time since I was there but spent a lot of time on the lake back then, I am going to have to go up and dive there again. When I dove there the vis was pretty good but from what I read it has gone down over the years but hey vis is overrated! There used to be a place to get a fill at the marina is it still there?

 

[Guba]

Yup, you can get air at Scuba J's in the Marina, but only on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday (that's when they are open).

 

[richerso]

Chiming in here ! ! !
I am glad to see Lake Murray is making some posts on the board. . . . . I absolutely love lake Murray! Lake Murray is a blast!
Timeliner has some great posts in the archives regarding Lake Murray. I think I am in a few of them.

About "the tower" . . . just to reiterate . . . this is NOT Tucker Tower. Approximately mid-way (approximately) between Tucker Tower and Mareitta Landing (SE corner of lake), there is a large (but small than Tucker Tower), mechanical stone tower sticking out of the water. I don't have all of the details on the tower but it is related to a general lake architecture feature known as a "bottom outlet". A bottom-outlet is an engineered feature just like a dam is an engineered feature.

This particular stone tower has a giant crab trap down at 70 ft. OK. It is not really a fishermans' crab trap. It is just an old, forgotten, dilapidated, steel training platform at 75 ft. But it is a really cool feature to explore at 75 ft in the darkness and coolness of the water.

About Scuba J, the last time I checked (4 years ago), Scuba J accepted phone calls on the published business line, and if you were respectful, Scuba J would make air fills on demand. He apparently lives really close to his dive shop, so even if the shop is not officially open, the owner can be there in 15 minutes. And more importantly, is willing to do so -- or at least he was willing 4 years ago.