Sept 16 Dive Report - Sunset Cove

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Snuff

Registered
Messages
53
Reaction score
3
Location
Monticello, GA
# of dives
25 - 49
Hi everyone... dove for the 2nd time at Lanier yesterday. My first dive was at West Bank and was a checkoff dive for a rescue class, so this is actually my first leisure dive.

We went to Sunset Cove. I am not familiar with the lake, but it is my understanding that Sunset Cove was off limits to boats last year, but was opened this year. If you haven't been there, it seems like a really nice place, its at the island that the water park is on. You can beach your boat right on the sand. There's a restaurant at the beach (which comes in handy since they don't allow outside food on the beach). I've heard from other folks that this is the 'new' Cocktail Cove, and that alot of folks are going there now since they have a beach.

Anyways, we anchored the boat on the beach, and put all of our stuff on the beach. There were a few boats in and out during the day, but not too bad. There's just not alot of folks there on Thursday in mid-Sept. It picked up significantly about 4:30, which is when we decided to get out.

Water temps were awesome, 82-84 down to about 28 feet where the thermocline was like hitting a brick wall. I had on my 3/2 suit, but probably would have been fine without it. Visibility was much better than I expected varying from 8 to 10 feet. Past 10 feet you could still see a silhouette of someone out to about 15 feet, but you couldn't make out any details. At one point during my dive I sat on the bottom (20') and looked up and could clearly see the water splashing above me.

We didn't have a search plan for the day, just random swimming and looking. We found alot of junk, mostly sunglasses (probably 12-15 pairs between the 4 of us, but only 1 good pair of Underarmours) about a half dozen golf balls, 3 boat anchors, 3 unopened beers, a crackberry belt clip, 1 kids scuba mask, 1 snorkel, lots of towels and a disturbing amound of underwear. It seemed like most of the things we found were around the 12-15 foot mark. Any deeper, and there just wasn't anything there. This was surprising to me because I figured beyond that is further than most folks are willing to try and swim to retrieve lost items.

There are some really cool trees still standing upright closer to the dock. Lots of roots and structure for fish to swim in and out of. There was alot of small fish hanging around along with several half pound to 1.5 pound stripped bass, as well as one largemouth who looked to be probably 4 or 5 pounds. There was also a really nice blue cat who came up to my fin and checked me out.

All total, I had about 1:45 of down time during 2 dives and 2 tanks. We cut our 2nd dive short at about :35 minutes because of increasing boat traffic as well as some dark clouds in the horizon.

I was surprised at how good the diving was. I already had it in my mind that vis would be 2 inches and temps would be too cold to be comfortable, so it wasn't going to take much to impress me! I'm looking forward to returning, and would like to go again before the water gets too cold. I don't have a dry suit, so anything less than about 70 degrees is too cold for me!
 
Good, well-written report. You were not deep enough to experience the cold and poor visibility of Lanier, you stayed at a depth which is comfortable to dive in at this time of year.
 
Glad you had some good dives at Lanier . Just remember to allways have a buddy seperation plan . It only takes ONE miss placed fin and you have o viz . If you can dive Lanier with no problems you can dive any where.
 
U got my final tally of 3 golf balls and one monster spot!!!!!for the last 2 days beat! I burnt a tank yesterday and one today around the corner from cocktail. The spotted bass was right in the top of the thermocline @ 36'. The fish was maybe 20 inches from my face EYEBALLING me. Biggest Spot i've ever seen. Had to be a 5lb fish!
I was surprised at the great viz down to 30'. So surprised I went back today right? First 2 Solo dives! Diving Solo was different.... I wasn't real warm and fuzzy at first as my total time shows. Yesterday i got 28 minutes max depth 42'. Today 48 minutes max depth 52'. temp @ 50' 68... 69 ish. viz@ 50'... I had to turn my light around to make sure it was on! I enjoyed my dives.
 
If you want a local dive buddy, I am available.... send me a PM
 
I'm trying to make it back up for a couple of more dives before the water temps get too cold. I'll post here if I go, and maybe we can all meet up and make a day of it. Its just a LOOOOONG ride from Monticello. Its about a 3 to 3.5 hour ride for me.
 
The water won't get cold that quickly, you still have a month or 2 of decent temps. I didn't realize you were driving that far to dive in lanier of all places, are you diving with a friend local to lanier?
 
No, I work for a local Fire Dept, and this particular dive was just a few of us from the dive team. None of us is local to Lanier. 3 of us had never been in Lanier other than for checkouts, but the 4th has dived Lanier several times in his 20+ years of diving. I do have a buddy who has a boat at a marina on Lanier who said we should dive under the docks since several people live there year round.
 
I would be cautious of diving under the docks as there is sure to be lots of entanglement hazards; the treasures you could find may be really cool though.
 

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