Potential places to dive in Virginia

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Hello:

Here is a list of Lakes in Virginia. Seems like we have a lot of fresh water in our State. How come most diving is in Millbrook and Rawling? Has anyone tried any of the following places? Lake Anna sounds interesting.


List of lakes in Virginia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[bankyf]

VERY limited visibility in Lake Anna. I have dove both sides of the lake. When I dove the warm side, there was 0 visibility at 15'. I have seen as much as 5' of visibility at 15' on the cold side before we stirred it up.. Nothing to really see, although I have heard there is a church or some type of building somewhere on the bottom of the lake. Far to much boat traffic to dive during the summer. A winter dive is your only safe option and may provide slightly better visibility.

---------- Post added December 17th, 2012 at 10:07 PM ----------

I have also dove Abel lake, you can scratch that one off the list. No visibility at any depth and it is closed to any type of swimming or diving. I am guessing that most of the lakes on the list will fall under the same category of visibility. There are quite a few quarries that most people don't know about. There is a very nice, deep quarry in Fairfax right beside the Occoquan. It is closed to EVERYONE with 24 hour security just to make sure. A few years ago there was a quarry near Lake Anna for sale on ebay. The pictures of the water were crystal clear. I have been unable to find any details about it lately.

 

[Katch]

I haven't begun, but I'd like to research some history where armies crossed the local bodies of water and try diving for artifacts.

I'm up for any exploritory dives. I even bought a RIB last summer that I plan to do some diving from. It should be big enough for three people with two sets of gear.


There's also the Fredricksburg Quarry. Patriot Scuba dives there along with the local F-burg dive shop. Of course, there is also the U-1105 (but I think the Potomac is considered Maryland waters)

 

[bankyf]

I can probably take you to the Fredericksburg quarry, buy visibility has been pretty bad this year and the water level is down about 5 feet. You would have to search to find 30ft of depth right now. I am down for artifact searching. I know of a few places, I just need to sort through where we can legally recover artifacts. I also have a JW Fishers Pulse 8x metal detector and unlimited free air fills. I dove the 1105 this past fall 1 week after the hurricane came through. It was quite an experience to say the least. Would love to try it again under less adverse conditions.

 

[Paladin]

Forget Smith Mountain Lake. I've dived there several times over the years and the visibility always sucks.