Lanier - WBP - 4/10/05

[Corigan]

Kyle and I are going to be heading out to WBP late in the afternoon tommarrow after I get off work. We are going to be try to be out there around 4:30-5PM. It should still be sunlight till 8 or so. Supposed to be 74F and sunny tommarrow. We are only going to burn off one tank just to see how temps are and to log some BT. So it will be a nice long dive. If anybody feels like diving come on out,

Matt

 

[JKSteger]

would love to go but it will be next weekend before I can log some bt at WBP. I will be out there next Sat. (hopefully).
Let me know how the temps are.

Jeremy

 

[Corigan]

Kyle and I got out to WBP around 5:00. I had worked most of the day and was exhausted. On top of the allergies and the pollen I knew this was going to be a fun one. When we got to WBP it was packed! A huge line of cars waiting to just get into the place. Once we got to the normal cove it looked like butter. The pollen was everywhere and the coves were a disaster that was covered in a sea of yellow. On a positive note, we saw a bunch of people taking dips into the lake without their shirts on.

Kitting up was fun and I sliced my finger on a stainless steel belt buckle. After my whole finger was covered in blood and a bunch of my gear I decided to try to stop the bleeding. After being unsuccessful at stopping the bleeding I did what any right minded diver would do, I went diving and worried about it later.

Air Temp 80F, no wind, and sunny as could be. I got hot as heck kitting up and was jumping in and out of the lake to cool down in the 7mm semi-dry. Readings on the surface were in the mid 60's. I could see why people were jumping in and out of the lake. Kids playing in it and such, even with all the pollen and the sea of yellow. The best looking cove was the least disturbed one that is caddy-corner to Cove #1 (the one we normally dive). Kyle and I ventured out and were in mid 50's in around 30-40' of water. We then got way out to where it got dark and hit a huge thermocline. I felt it and looked at my temp gauge, 51F. I registered 49F on both my temp gauges as min temp for the time. We didn't want to stay below the thermocline and decided to goof off above it in the warmer water. I was happy to see there was actually a thermocline and a place to escape to from the cold! Kyle and I had a nice :43 min dive to 48'. The viz in the cove where the pollen was less than 3' but once out at depth of 30'+ we had the norm 15-20' viz. Kyle spotted a few nice sized basses on the way and pointed them out to me. Quite a few children that were fishing were prying information out of Kyle and Me as to where to find the bass.

Luckily once I came back from the dive the bleeding had stopped. I can't wait till we can do these lanier dives in 3mm's and reef gloves..

Hopefully if all goes as planned Kyle and I will be in the panhandle doing some springs/gulf diving next weekend.

Matt

 

[scubaPT]

The pollen definitely worsened as the day progressed. Cliff and I arrived out there at about 9:00 am so I could finish up my nitrox dives. We did 2 dives over at the front cove. Our plan was to head out to look for the roadbed, but we didn't find it. The first dive was to about 80', water temp was as Matt stated. We turned around when we started to get into a lot of trees and didn't want to get the dive flag hung up on anything. The pollen seemed to have thickened while we were down so we decided to exit going over the rocks to keep all the junk off our gear. We took a hour SI, boy was that nice just standing around in the sun. Our second dive was to 83' and we headed a little further east than our original heading. This heading took us just off the point of the island. This was much better from as we hardly saw any trees until we turned to come back. I finally saw 1 fish after 10 dives at Lanier. We saw a pine with about 1.5' diameter standing straight up, looked like it would reach to the surface from our perspective. On the turnaround, we had drifted a little further east and ran across a pile of logs, must have been 10-15 of the suckers, largest looked to be about 2.5' diameter. We had to watch getting the flag hung up on these guys. The visibility was terrible until you got below 40-50' and then things cleared up, we probably had 20-25' viz at 80'.Overall, we had two really good dives, temperatures were nice, no rush to change. It want be long before the 3 mil will cover things.

 

[The Kraken]

How are things looking for Gray's Reef???
What are the travel plans, if any ???

 

[Corigan]

Congrats on finishing up your nitrox class Allen. I would be interested to see the heading you took on the 2nd dive, maybe you could show it to me one of these days. Looks like I might have to can my plans this weekend to go diving in NFL and just dive locally after I get off work. With the rain coming, and this being full swing season for my company I am swamped with work. The pollen is also killing me and I'm having to wear masks outside, it is miserable. I don't think I want to camp in pollen, and I'm going to need to work all weekend. I'm waiting to see what the rain is doing, but it looks like I might be looking for a local buddy to dive lanier sat and sunday late afternoon (5ish) if anybody is interested.
Wouldn't mind pulling 2 dives each afternoon/evening. Maybe a night dive if anybody is interested. I am flexible though, I just want to get wet next weekend and know my only option is most likely going to be after I get off work.

Matt

 

[JKSteger]

yea, Next Sat. is out for me but I'm planning on going out Sun. my wife is thinking about comming out and we might have a picknick after our dive or maybe during the SI. My brother Jesse will be out with me too and my sister may come up to the park. Of course this is all dependent on the weather. If it looks as good as this past Sunday it's going to be great.

Thanks for the report Matt. sorry to hear about the possible change of plans for you jumping into the wonderful NFL springs and such. I'm looking forward to being able to dive Lanier comfortable with just my 5mm or 3mm for that matter! Sounds like it will not be too far away.

I'm also trying to get a little family day trip up to Jocassee. You know, me and Jesse get a couple of dives in off of the boat ramp, bring a canoe to piss around in after dives, have a picknick and sightsee with the wife and Jesse's girlfriend. When I get a date for that I will let everyone know. It would be great to meet up somewhere like that and dive and grill out and just hang around and tell dive stories and such. If you can't tell I've got serious SPRING FEVER. Ha, Ha.

Jeremy

 

[Corigan]

yea, Next Sat. is out for me but I'm planning on going out Sun. my wife is thinking about comming out and we might have a picknick after our dive or maybe during the SI. My brother Jesse will be out with me too and my sister may come up to the park. Of course this is all dependent on the weather. If it looks as good as this past Sunday it's going to be great.

Cool, Please let me know when you are going to be out there on Sunday once plans have firmed up and it's obvious as to what the weather is going to do this weekend. If you don't mind a third wheel for a dive, and my schedule can coincide, I would love to come out and get a dive in on Sun. Also still looking for anybody that wants to come out on Saturday, Friday, Sunday, whenever..

Thanks for the report Matt. sorry to hear about the possible change of plans for you jumping into the wonderful NFL springs and such. I'm looking forward to being able to dive Lanier comfortable with just my 5mm or 3mm for that matter! Sounds like it will not be too far away.

Thanks, it's not that big of a deal, I'm going to be heading down to vortex a week from this weekend for a rescue class.

I'm also trying to get a little family day trip up to Jocassee. You know, me and Jesse get a couple of dives in off of the boat ramp, bring a canoe to piss around in after dives, have a picknick and sightsee with the wife and Jesse's girlfriend. When I get a date for that I will let everyone know. It would be great to meet up somewhere like that and dive and grill out and just hang around and tell dive stories and such. If you can't tell I've got serious SPRING FEVER. Ha, Ha.

Jeremy

Sounds like fun, let us know when you have some dates firmed up. I've been wanting to go out to jocassee this summer and do some camping/diving. Maybe if there is enough of us together we can get a charter from Bill at off the wall. Go dive the junk (chinese wreck) and a few other fun dives out in jocassee. http://www.offthewalldiving.com/2.html for info.

Matt

 

[scubaPT]

I would love to dive sometime this weekend, but not sure if I will be able to yet. My wife is going out of town and I will need to find someone to watch my 6 year old.

 

[Corigan]

I would love to dive sometime this weekend, but not sure if I will be able to yet. My wife is going out of town and I will need to find someone to watch my 6 year old.

Well, I could possibly try to talk Fran into coming out and watching her while we dive. Just another option to look into,

Matt