We arrived on site (The south end marina) about 8:30 a.m.
One dive boat had departed and the second was loading up. Luckily we had planned to do shore dives anyhow.
We staged our gear. I wore a 2 piece 7 mm with hood, gloves, and boots. My buddy wore a one piece 5 mm with a 3 mm shortie, gloves, hood, boots.
We surface swam out about 30ft or so. We descended and stopped at 30 ft to signal our okays. I was towing the flag and my buddy was following. At about 35 ft we hit the thermocline. We went from a nice and toasty 70 degrees to 53 degrees. This temp remain constant down to 80+ foot.
Viz was about 25 - 30 ft. Bottom time was 25 minutes. We surfaced more to get out of the 53 degrees than anything else. This was my buddies first time in water that temp and first experience with thermoclines.
We saw only small fish, and very few at that. Lots of zebra mussels and as I looked closer there were lots of little teeny zebra mussels as well - the new crop has been born.
A few logs and tree trunks that had sunk - and they were covered in zebra mussels.
On the second dive we stayed within a 20 - 35ft range. Just deep enough to keep us out of the thermocline. We saw more of the same as on our first dive. On the return route we hit a grassy area that had a few sun-perch and was hding a rather large carp.
I've dove this lake before - but always off a dive-boat. The boat dives, while still devoid of a lot of underwater life, at least have walls, deep submerged logs, fossilized coral, and there are two small wrecks. One is an old mail-boat that was used on the lake many years ago and the other is a sailboat that is still attached to the steps that it was moored too.
Below is a link to more info about the area.
http://www.skaneateles.com/index.shtml
One dive boat had departed and the second was loading up. Luckily we had planned to do shore dives anyhow.
We staged our gear. I wore a 2 piece 7 mm with hood, gloves, and boots. My buddy wore a one piece 5 mm with a 3 mm shortie, gloves, hood, boots.
We surface swam out about 30ft or so. We descended and stopped at 30 ft to signal our okays. I was towing the flag and my buddy was following. At about 35 ft we hit the thermocline. We went from a nice and toasty 70 degrees to 53 degrees. This temp remain constant down to 80+ foot.
Viz was about 25 - 30 ft. Bottom time was 25 minutes. We surfaced more to get out of the 53 degrees than anything else. This was my buddies first time in water that temp and first experience with thermoclines.
We saw only small fish, and very few at that. Lots of zebra mussels and as I looked closer there were lots of little teeny zebra mussels as well - the new crop has been born.
A few logs and tree trunks that had sunk - and they were covered in zebra mussels.On the second dive we stayed within a 20 - 35ft range. Just deep enough to keep us out of the thermocline. We saw more of the same as on our first dive. On the return route we hit a grassy area that had a few sun-perch and was hding a rather large carp.
I've dove this lake before - but always off a dive-boat. The boat dives, while still devoid of a lot of underwater life, at least have walls, deep submerged logs, fossilized coral, and there are two small wrecks. One is an old mail-boat that was used on the lake many years ago and the other is a sailboat that is still attached to the steps that it was moored too.
Below is a link to more info about the area.
http://www.skaneateles.com/index.shtml
