Mammoth Lake?

[Texasguy]

Blue Lagoon is nice, visibility usually is great, but 2 hours and it gets boring, it is rather small and empty. Plus, acidity gets inside the mask, after 1 hour it gets hard to keep it fog free even with the best anti-defoggers. Between dives I'd bring drinking water and soap to fully wash the mask from inside, then re-apply defog. Also, if it rains, even a little, the waters become opaque white, like milk, killing diving for hours.

Twin lake is not a bad dive, I like the East side with sunken trees. Though power lines, train, hilly-billy camper city... Looks depressing on surface.

Lake 288 is good looking on surface but visibility is always bad lately.

Mammoth smells balls. Sniff your gear when you'll come home, smells bad as no other lake. Visibility probably worse than 288 and twin lake.

PS: Houston sucks for diving, there is not a good spot.

 

[tripntx]

I just spent Sat 7/27 diving Blue Lagoon, and Sun 7/28 diving Mammoth Lake. I haven't dove Twin Lakes since Mammoth Lake opened, plain and simple there's just no good reason to dive it when Mammoth has a lot more underwater attractions.

7/27 Blue Lagoon: Water is warm from surface to deepest spot of 30'. Swim trunks only. Nice bluish water color and visibility was decent in the 15-18' range. Plenty of goby on the bottom and two boats, but nothing else. It gets boring real quick.

7/28 Mammoth Lake: Water is warm on surface to 20', approx. 83F or so. Temp dropped to 73F by 35'. Visibility is good above 20' depth, approx. 10-12'.
Visibility dropped off below 25', but still good enough to enjoy the many larger boats and stuff in the lake. With that said, I had no sun and it was raining while I was diving today, so it would be better on another day. Mammoth has several attractions above 20' to dive on if you want to stay above thermocline. A lot of Bass and Perch call Mammoth Lake home, and you will always see plenty.
Rope guide lines connect attractions, and most have a tag at each end telling you which attraction it leads to. You can drop underwater on one attraction, dive from attraction to attraction, and never have to surface again until your tanks reach 500 psig.
If I was going to drive a few hours to dive freshwater training holes, then I'd pick Mammoth Lake over any of the others in this area. It's a great place to practice skills.

 

[MadMouser]

Just registered, so new diver and new user. I'm going to be in Houston for the Independence Day weekend and was wondering if anyone's got a trip to Mammoth Lake planned for either Thursday or Saturday. I'm going to bring my gear and would like to get some more practice in, but need a buddy...

 

[tripntx]

Just registered, so new diver and new user. I'm going to be in Houston for the Independence Day weekend and was wondering if anyone's got a trip to Mammoth Lake planned for either Thursday or Saturday. I'm going to bring my gear and would like to get some more practice in, but need a buddy...

Shoot me an email with your cell # and I'll see if I can be a dive buddy for you. I live approximately 15 miles from ML. I was planning to dive mid day Friday, but might push it off till Saturday. tripntx at nwcable dot net

 

[Rilelen]

I'm also a new diver, and will be in the area next week (visiting folks in Beaumont for 2 weeks...exact days in Houston still TBD). Don't know how long you'll be in town, but would love to squeeze in a few practice dives if there's any overlap!

 

[ttriton]

Did anyone make it to Mammoth?

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[Sushi Boy]

I've been to Mammoth multiple times, most recently at the end of May. Conditions are typical of any Gulf Coast lake. You can whine about it or you can jump in and be a diver.

There's a TON of stuff to see at the bottom of this lake. It was an old sand pit, and before the owners turned the pumps off, they placed boats, airplanes, trucks, shipping containers and a bunch more stuff around the bottom to create unique diving areas. You could dive here for two days and not cover it all. There are some cave lines run between the various points which are marked at each end to aid in navigation.

When we were there in May, viz was 7-10', water temp at depth was 68. It should be toasty warm by now.

I drive 1 1/2 hours each way to go there a few times a year. Would I drive 3 hours to dive there for a chance to dive somewhere new? Yep, but I tend to like road trips and enjoy visiting places I haven't been before. I would NOT recommend camping there unless you're the mosquito whisperer. Better to get a hotel room if you want to stay the night. If you're coming this far, you could combine it with some touristy stuff in Galveston if you wanted some variety. Lots of options.

Have a great time. Who knows, maybe you'll wanna make the trek back every now and then or maybe you'll be satisfied with a one and done. The only way to know for sure is to strap on a tank and dive in.

 

[ttriton]

I dove it a few years ago. I plan on making a trip there and maybe get a few other things in.

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---------- Post added July 13th, 2015 at 08:41 PM ----------

What about Twin Lakes, have you been there recently? I dove that about 2 years ago. My sister lives in Pearland, so I visit the area few times a year.

 

[Sushi Boy]

I haven't been to Twin Lakes in a couple of years. I was at 288 Lake on Sunday. They're only about 13 miles apart, so the conditions will be very similar day to day. Viz was 5-7', temp 86 degrees down to the thermocline at 18'.

 

[Texasguy]

... temp 86 degrees down to the thermocline at 18'.

Right, it is mid of summer, still diving a full drysuit with max thermal protection. I am broken. Never thought I'd get so much use from a drysuit when I bought it last September.