Clark Hill/Lake Thurmond - Augusta, GA

Two dives planned Saturday. Dive 1 is nitrox 35%mix (we are doing both walls on this dive, 100cf steels). Dive two air, maybe a dive 3. Starting at 9am. East Dam. sunday, hmm, maybe river if no rain. Its' been looking good.

Have to work Sat. ,but we are going to try to go offshore on Sun. if the weather hold's out. I'm needing some saltwater. Fresh water is so much easier though.

Do you have a report.

Today was one of those special dive days for local diving. We had preplanned to do dive one on 35 mix so that we could do both walls. From shore the vis looked great, but by 30' vis was down to 2-3'. It did not clear until 44'. Not the most promising of dives. We went first to the 3 big rocks. The thermocline was about 2-3' down the three big rocks - looked like the tops were in the clouds, but vis below was 15'. Vis remained great at depth with 15-20' on the walls. We dove both the 80' and 100' wall, spending much of our time at depth. Lights were not needed unless you were looking into holes. Not too much marine life on dive 1, but great vis and the walls, stumps, rocks, etc were great. We returned south along the 55' ledge and into the trench. Exiting the trench we began our swim to the angel statue. Just before we got there vis dropped to 1-2', but cleared as we came upon the statue (10' vis). We swam up for an extended safety stop heading south along the dropoff to our exit. Dive one was 96' for dive time of 58 minutes.
Dive two was one of those special dives. We began by dropping down to the three big rocks, then to the pool filters and the budda statue. Vis was dropping at that depth (most all stuff b/w 25 or 28' and 44' was low vis in the lake today), so we dropped on down towards the 80' wall. Really nice dive along the wall and onward to the missle (plane fuel tank). Heading up the slope to the plane things really got interesting. At 55' we ran into a huge school of herring (3-5" long, thousands of them). Vis was 15-20' or so at that depth and the fish just swarmed around us. It was like a wall of fish, all swimming in unison. You could get a bit of vertigo as they changed direction. I have run into them before and it is always a great experience. When you exhale they move off a few feet and then close back in. We rose up about 10' off the bottom - fish below, above in the water column and all around, moving quickly, swirling, changing direction. We were in the herring cloud for 10 minutes (got within 4 min of deco). Hard to top that. We went to the plane, several large bass and one of the biggest crappie I've ever seen - guy was the size of a laptop computer. After diving in and around the plane we did an extended safety stop along the rocks. As we neared shore, I brought out a piece of bread and introduced my dive buddy to the attach of the killer bream. We have fed them at this spot for years and dozens come around looking for a handout. What a great dive. Dive two was 86' for dive time of 1:18. We were going to dive the river tomorrow, but after today's dives are now heading back to the lake at 1pm for a couple.

willardj:

Have to work Sat. ,but we are going to try to go offshore on Sun. if the weather hold's out. I'm needing some saltwater. Fresh water is so much easier though.

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How did your dives go?

What was the temps like between 35-80'? Could I dive it with a 3/2?

Not what I would try. Below 35' you are in the mid 60's, by 80' you are at 60 degrees, and by 100' 58 degrees. I wear 7mm fullsuit, hood, gloves and was getting cool by the end of our two wall dive yesterday. you could dive the river in a 3/2 (70 degrees) or the top 30'. If you are looking at local diving, 7mm is the way to go year round.

Two more good dives today. Vis in the shallows was down a bit due to the wind (5-9' in the top 25', low vis 25-40' , Great vis below 40' - 15'+). Cats, bass, and other stuff. Dive 1 was E. Dam (we dove on and below the 80' wall 107' for 59 min.) Dive 2 W.dam. (25' for 1 hour). What a nice day - oh, I did see two boats on our lake today - is it the gas prices or is our lake really this underused???

diveprof:

How did your dives go?

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We made it out today to the JY reef. We did a ledge on the first and attempted to dive the Jane yarn for the 2nd. I said attempted. To start with we headed hoping for the best but got 3' to 4' sea's most of the day First dive was our NOAA checkout dive on the ledge a few skills then off to wast the rest of our gas looking at the reef. 2nd dive was going to be to the Jane Yarn but the current was ripping and we missed it. We swam into the current for about 5min. or so the turned the dive sent a bag to the surface so the boat could keep track of us and started a drift about 10min. later we ran into a Lib ship called the Duglas so we dove it till gas got low then called it. Vis the hole day was about 10' to 15'. water temp was 83*. Good day though.

willardj:

We made it out today to the JY reef. We did a ledge on the first and attempted to dive the Jane yarn for the 2nd. I said attempted. To start with we headed hoping for the best but got 3' to 4' sea's most of the day First dive was our NOAA checkout dive on the ledge a few skills then off to wast the rest of our gas looking at the reef. 2nd dive was going to be to the Jane Yarn but the current was ripping and we missed it. We swam into the current for about 5min. or so the turned the dive sent a bag to the surface so the boat could keep track of us and started a drift about 10min. later we ran into a Lib ship called the Duglas so we dove it till gas got low then called it. Vis the hole day was about 10' to 15'. water temp was 83*. Good day though.

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Sounds like fun. Glad to hear you are moving forward with the NOAA thing. Is "JY" reef the same as "J" reef? Did you dive out of Savannah?. I've always enjoyed diving J reef and the Sagebrush nearby. Saw one of the largest loggerhead turtles and one of the largest nurse sharks I've ever seen wedged under the J reef ledge within 10' of each other. 83 degree water temp! What wimp diving!!! Just had to rub it in didn't you.....