Sacramento - Folsom Lake / Lake Natoma

[KHedahl]

Hey everyone,

I want to hop into the water in a week for some tune-up/buoyancy control work prior to a Mexico trip a few days later. I'm in Sacramento and I don't want to drive more than 30 minutes. So I thought a boring Folsom Lake or Lake Natoma dive might be just my speed.

Does anyone have any current insight on diving in either? I'm curious whether they are currently deep enough to dive (Folsom looked pretty dry a couple months ago), what depths I can expect (am I going to be stuck at 10 ft), if there are any currents on Natoma, etc.

Thanks in advance,

 

[KHedahl]

I dove twice at Beal's Point this last weekend. The water is extremely low but wasn't very cold. A 7mm kept me super toasty. My first dive maxed at about 20ft with 15ft max visibility. I moved a little north on my second dive and made it down to 60ft with 5-10ft visibility. Overall it was pretty boring. Besides silt and a few small uninhabited tree trunks, I only saw one mussel with a foot sticking out. Great practice site, but a little dull.

 

[JQuesada]

I have dove Folsom a few times. Last year My dive buddy and I did a 63 minute dive with a max depth of 21 feet at beals point. The base of alot of the trees were under 16 feet of water and were riddled with small blue gill accompanied by the occasional bass that hung around for a possible meal. There was alot to see however the water was high and it was summer time. I like sugar pine reservoir by the boat launch, the vis is better most the time. Plan a dive at 4000 foot elevation for this lake though: ive seen it at 44 degrees around 60 feet so this can be cold past the thermocline. Saw lots of bass and the occasional crappie here with large crawfish in the rock piles in 30 feet and shallower. Natomas is... yeah its a get wet lake. I had noticed that there was a 10 degree difference between 38 feet in Natomas and 56 feet in Folsom. Natomas being the colder of the two.

 

[Scubagolf]

I have lived 2 miles from Lake Natoma for 30 years and never considered diving it. Scuba World does an annual polar bear New Years Day dive in Folsom. Call the shop and talk to Andy. He might have a suggestion for you.