SuPrBuGmAn
Contributor
Cypress Springs 1-8-05
I met up with Bill(SeaYoda) and some of his family Saturday(1-8) at Vortex early, but not so bright, around 8AM. I drove through nothing but rain from Pensacola all the way to Ponce De Leone and didn't know what to expect as for dive conditions at Cypress. We rented two canoes, one for me and Bill to dive from and another for Larry and Tyler(if memory serves?) to snorkel from, and headed out towards a different boat launch than we launched from on 12-28. Bills decision to launch at the new site turned out to be great - it cut our upstream paddling down by atleast 2/3rds! The spring run started getting really clear about halfway to the basin itself and the basin was absolutely perfect. You could see from one end to the other, probably 80'+. Despite the weather and the fact that we were diving in overcast skies(with rain at times) we could see the entirety of the spring. Cypress has a small fissure on the east-side of the basin that produces a small boil and there is a set of fissures towards the middle that spew nearly 100 million gallons a day! The flow from the main cavern was immense and it took some heavy kicking along with pulling yourself in to get past the restriction and into the cavern. The cavern itself is about 40' wide and about 15' high and leads down to about 50' before it gets a bit more restricted and heads down to about 70'. We were happy to be able to go 50' and left the 70' depths for the pro's
There are freshwater eels, rock bass, and carp inside the cavern. The walls were lined with fossilized shells, making for a pretty nifty cavern. The basin is pretty large with depths only to about 25', it has limestone cliffs at parts and its spotted with different types of vegetation and fallen trees that house bream, bass, mullet, carp, flounder, and tons of snails. The dive was great and the scenery was all that anyone could ask for - we all had fun!
You can find pics here
Morrison Springs 1-9-05
Another early morning, up by 5:30 and onsite before 8AM at Morrison Springs. Morrison floods out pretty easily during the winter, so the rain we had the previous day had us nervous about conditions. When we got there we were relieved that the water was still fairly clear with visibility in the 15-25' range depending on where in the basin you found yourself. We saw several bream and bass around the basin before going down into it. The smaller cavern was cleaned out and easy to access(it had been pretty clogged with sand and debri on previous trips) and it held rock bass and freshwater eels. The walls were covered with graffiti carved into the limestone by past divers... After a quick look around we went further down and into the larger cavern to play with more eels and look at the large schools of catfish you can find inside. The flow at the restriction wasn't as bad as normal so we accessed it easily. Visibility inside is wall to wall(probably 50'+) which is normal with the amount of water released by the spring flushing out silt and any tannick water that may enter quickly. After ascending back to the basin, we searched around the cypress trees surounding the basin to find some large bass hiding away. All in all, we had alotta fun.
You can find pics here
I met up with Bill(SeaYoda) and some of his family Saturday(1-8) at Vortex early, but not so bright, around 8AM. I drove through nothing but rain from Pensacola all the way to Ponce De Leone and didn't know what to expect as for dive conditions at Cypress. We rented two canoes, one for me and Bill to dive from and another for Larry and Tyler(if memory serves?) to snorkel from, and headed out towards a different boat launch than we launched from on 12-28. Bills decision to launch at the new site turned out to be great - it cut our upstream paddling down by atleast 2/3rds! The spring run started getting really clear about halfway to the basin itself and the basin was absolutely perfect. You could see from one end to the other, probably 80'+. Despite the weather and the fact that we were diving in overcast skies(with rain at times) we could see the entirety of the spring. Cypress has a small fissure on the east-side of the basin that produces a small boil and there is a set of fissures towards the middle that spew nearly 100 million gallons a day! The flow from the main cavern was immense and it took some heavy kicking along with pulling yourself in to get past the restriction and into the cavern. The cavern itself is about 40' wide and about 15' high and leads down to about 50' before it gets a bit more restricted and heads down to about 70'. We were happy to be able to go 50' and left the 70' depths for the pro's
There are freshwater eels, rock bass, and carp inside the cavern. The walls were lined with fossilized shells, making for a pretty nifty cavern. The basin is pretty large with depths only to about 25', it has limestone cliffs at parts and its spotted with different types of vegetation and fallen trees that house bream, bass, mullet, carp, flounder, and tons of snails. The dive was great and the scenery was all that anyone could ask for - we all had fun!You can find pics here
Morrison Springs 1-9-05
Another early morning, up by 5:30 and onsite before 8AM at Morrison Springs. Morrison floods out pretty easily during the winter, so the rain we had the previous day had us nervous about conditions. When we got there we were relieved that the water was still fairly clear with visibility in the 15-25' range depending on where in the basin you found yourself. We saw several bream and bass around the basin before going down into it. The smaller cavern was cleaned out and easy to access(it had been pretty clogged with sand and debri on previous trips) and it held rock bass and freshwater eels. The walls were covered with graffiti carved into the limestone by past divers... After a quick look around we went further down and into the larger cavern to play with more eels and look at the large schools of catfish you can find inside. The flow at the restriction wasn't as bad as normal so we accessed it easily. Visibility inside is wall to wall(probably 50'+) which is normal with the amount of water released by the spring flushing out silt and any tannick water that may enter quickly. After ascending back to the basin, we searched around the cypress trees surounding the basin to find some large bass hiding away. All in all, we had alotta fun.
You can find pics here
