Welcome to the Board, Courtney. . . While our lakes start to warm up, you have time to look around the board to see what you've been missing. At the top of each page is a button for "Forums" click this and start your Scuba tour of everything diving. The beginnings of the Forum are beginnings for divers with answers to many of the questions new divers ask over and over. Later forums will give opinions on every piece of diving gear. When you scroll down far enough to "Regional travel and diving clubs", you can answer your questions of where to go. Look under Regional Travel. . . United States. . .Central U.S.. . .Midwest Muck Divers." This is the spot to look for area divers, and lake reports. The lakes are cold now, and only a few hardy divers are going. You can use the search function and go back to last summer and read the messages for several lakes.
Tenkiller lake in Eastern Oklahoma, with it's underwater park is a good beginners destination, 10 to 20 foot visability if you're first in, and 0 if you're following a beginner, dragging the bottom. . . there are other choices there, and one dive shop near the dam, and another dive shop near the north end of the lake at Cookson bend.
For a long weekend, Beaver lake in Northwest Arkansas, and Ouachita lake, in West Central Arkansas are sometimes better, sometimes worse, depends on weather. In Southwest Oklahoma, there is Elmer Thomas lake in the Wichita wildlife refuge, small but good diving if not shoulder to shoulder check out divers. South Central Oklahoma is Lake Murray, just above the Texas Border, just off I-35, In South east Oklahoma, Lake Broken Bow, is a pretty area and usually clear water, It is best if you have a boat.
Blow lots of bubbles and get up to speed, with the area divers. . . you can act as a go between the divers and the state fisheries biologists, who ignore what we report. Freshwater Jelly Fish, we find them every year in late summer. . . repeated questions to the state biologist, thought all divers were drunk, they tasted the water, expecting salt, when we took them a Freshwater jelly fish. Chemicals killing fish, they investigated weeks later, then blamed a mysterious "turn over" on the fish kill. Look in your books for Lamprey eels, The scourge of the great lakes several decades ago, showed up in Tenkiller. . ."No worry". The color changing of Flat head catfish, like chamelions. . . they don't believe it.
Get your bubble blowing going at local areas, and talk with the active divers. . . maybe the "experts" will listen to you. . . or, they'll group you with all the other crazy divers
, that take up their time.
