Beneath blue water diver
Registered
Diving the St Clair river in the best of circumstances is challenging even to the most experienced divers. Diving it at night? Is an almost unheard of in the local diving community here. But this isn’t the vanity project of a fool nor a waste of time. Many of the rivers rarest residents and elusive travelers wander freely into your lights in some of the easiest dives you’ll have in the river!
This is a summary of nearly 50 night and twilight dives in Port Huron over April 2022 to November 2022
My dive pit stop lay out, marking the exit and my “sit and wait” point.
A full moon from 60 feet under
Planning and preparation
This is probably the step that deters most if not all divers from trying a river night dive. How to you not get lost? How do you ensure you don’t miss your exit? Is there even enough light to see? These are all very important questions to figure out before you push off the seawall railing and plunge into the dark fast moving waters. My solution to the problem was quite simple; the strategic deployment of lights near my exit point and around the location I spend most of my time during the dive at. I deploy a line about 100 feet up from my exit point with multiple green glow sticks attached to it. Beyond that is a second line with a powerful red light. I chose red because it’s plenty bright and obviously while also not scaring away the wildlife. Past the lines I also put lights onto the ladder rungs for the exit, these being attached quickly and easily using carabiner clips. Ambient light and water clarity is usually quite good, to the point I’ve successfully done “lights out” dives with zero issues, still able to see and even communicate with a partner. Full moon dives are an incredible scene, you can dive without the use of your light in a strange black and white world. Diving in a new moon is a much different story, it’s the darkest dark you can comprehend.
The main focus of night diving is the wildlife (we’ll double back to this soon) which thankful all rise to shallow waters at night. With that you don’t really need to stray any deeper than 25-30 feet. I’ve been out of 60 feet at night waiting for any activity but saw no fish over several attempts.
There are two strategies that are both equally effective and I recommend you use both over the course of a dive. They are the following: Start far above your exit point and drift. Or, pick a spot and wait for things to come to you.
Many fish will halt their advance upstream as soon as they reach the edge of your lights. It takes them time sometimes several minutes to muster the courage to slowly advance beyond you. Giving you ample chances for up close viewing of many fish you’d in the daytime never be able to come close to.
This is a summary of nearly 50 night and twilight dives in Port Huron over April 2022 to November 2022
My dive pit stop lay out, marking the exit and my “sit and wait” point.
A full moon from 60 feet under
Planning and preparation
This is probably the step that deters most if not all divers from trying a river night dive. How to you not get lost? How do you ensure you don’t miss your exit? Is there even enough light to see? These are all very important questions to figure out before you push off the seawall railing and plunge into the dark fast moving waters. My solution to the problem was quite simple; the strategic deployment of lights near my exit point and around the location I spend most of my time during the dive at. I deploy a line about 100 feet up from my exit point with multiple green glow sticks attached to it. Beyond that is a second line with a powerful red light. I chose red because it’s plenty bright and obviously while also not scaring away the wildlife. Past the lines I also put lights onto the ladder rungs for the exit, these being attached quickly and easily using carabiner clips. Ambient light and water clarity is usually quite good, to the point I’ve successfully done “lights out” dives with zero issues, still able to see and even communicate with a partner. Full moon dives are an incredible scene, you can dive without the use of your light in a strange black and white world. Diving in a new moon is a much different story, it’s the darkest dark you can comprehend.
The main focus of night diving is the wildlife (we’ll double back to this soon) which thankful all rise to shallow waters at night. With that you don’t really need to stray any deeper than 25-30 feet. I’ve been out of 60 feet at night waiting for any activity but saw no fish over several attempts.
There are two strategies that are both equally effective and I recommend you use both over the course of a dive. They are the following: Start far above your exit point and drift. Or, pick a spot and wait for things to come to you.
Many fish will halt their advance upstream as soon as they reach the edge of your lights. It takes them time sometimes several minutes to muster the courage to slowly advance beyond you. Giving you ample chances for up close viewing of many fish you’d in the daytime never be able to come close to.
