Welcome to ScubaBoard, an online scuba diving forum community where you can join over 100,000 divers from around the world discussing all things related to Scuba Diving. To gain full access to ScubaBoard you must register for a free account.
As a registered member you will be able to:
Participate in over 500 dive topic forums and browse from over 3,000,000 posts.
Communicate privately with other divers from around the world.
Post your own photos or view from 80,000 user submitted images.
Gain access to our free classifieds marketplace to buy, sell and trade gear, travel and services.
Use the calendar to organize your events and enroll in other members' events.
All this and much more is available to you absolutely free when you register for an account, so sign up today!
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact the ScubaBoard Support Team.
Southwest Sand SharksIf you can't stand the "Dry Heat" stay out of the region. In the heart of the Sonoran & Mohave Deserts, we dive lakes, rivers and diverse tropical waters. Including Arizona, Southern Nevada, SW New Mexico and the Northern Sea of Cortez (Gulf of California to you gringos).
Please note: The last reply in this thread was more than 6 month(s) ago.
I had a great time diving with Mike and Josh. I was excited to see the vis improving. The down side is that we could see all the junk folks leave at the lake. In fairness, most of the stuff we saw was on dry land last week. But a lot of it was tossed in by folks that will never see it again. I was wondering how we can arrange a Project Aware type clean up dive day. maybe before the Scuba Show in April. I'll start a thread on it so this one can stay specific to lake conditions.
I haven't called yet this week. I'll check with the marina GM. Kris and Mindy say that they'll dive there, boat docks or not. They're both skilled divers and instructors so I feel pretty safe diving around the docks if they'll be there.
I'll bet that trench is at least 80' deep now. Maybe even 90'. It was 67 feet way back in January. The lake has gone up quite a bit since then. I'm going to start including the surface elevation in my logbook.
We'll check it out for sure, if the docks are totally blocking the cove (not sure if this is the case) we can always move around the cove to the south- where I think the actual "Vista Point" is. I'd like to see the docks though, sounds sort of interesting. Glad to hear the trench is so deep now, we've been looking for a good spot to run AOW deep dives! Either way I'm getting to try my new dry gloves!
We'll check it out for sure, if the docks are totally blocking the cove (not sure if this is the case) we can always move around the cove to the south- where I think the actual "Vista Point" is. I'd like to see the docks though, sounds sort of interesting. Glad to hear the trench is so deep now, we've been looking for a good spot to run AOW deep dives! Either way I'm getting to try my new dry gloves!
The GM at the marina says that there is room to get around the docks (if they're still there). When I first saw it a few weeks ago it looked like you could. I forgot to call today. I'll call them tomorrow and post the reply.
The docks are gone but it was a double edged blade. With the docks away, the boaters came to play. It was VERY busy there Sunday.
We had a great time diving though. Mike (rudebob) Mark (not on SB..yet) and I met sunday morning at Spring Canyon Landing, just east of Vista Point. The vis was pretty good though. At least 20 feet near the surface. Not as good deeper. We needed dive lights below about 40 feet. We found a deep trench that was a lot farther out than I remember now that the lake level has come up quite a bit. The surreal lighting from our dive lights and meager sunlight made the area resemble a freaky graveyard from some horror flick.
The water temp was around 50º at the surface. We found a thermocline at the bottom of the trench (74') and the temp went down to mid 40s.
The fish were pretty active. Staking out their nesting territory. We found a catfish and I thought it was dead. We swam right up to it. It was about 10-12" long and resting on a rock at about 30 feet. Mark waved his hand over it expecting it to swim away. Nothing. More vigerous waving. Nothing. He touched it. Nothing. He rocked it back and forth and I guess it woke up because it finally bolted.
At the end of our second dive we were coming up from the trench again. The "banks" of the trench are at about 30 feet. We were swimming about half way up the side of the trench looking up into the sunlight. We saw a huge shadow swim across our path along the top of the trench. Then it swam back. Further on we got close enough to see the size of the fish. It was huge. I think it was a bass but I don't know my fish that well. It seemed to be guarding it's nesting area. When we were almost to the top of the trench wall we saw 4 or 5 smaller fish trying to get past the big guy. There must have been a ladyfish thereabouts We hovered for a while watching the whole thing play out. The little guys finally gave up and swam further along the top of the trench to a rock wall where they joined a few more unlucky bachelors.
We stayed with the group and it was wierd. They seemed curious about us and gave us a look over while keeping their distance. But we were to big and what with our spewing bubbles every few seconds must have been off-putting to those self respecting fish. Hey, they were just looking for some spawning action.
We ended up moving around closer to the real Vista Point area for our third dive. There were just to many boats at the landing. They were either launching or coming back in. Dive flag violation seemed to be the sport of the afternoon.
Snaggle-toothed beer swilling boat driver, "Hey Mable, What IS that thar red and white thing a floatin' over by them buoys? 'better go and see. An' git me a sammich ana nuther beer."
The last dive was fun just getting there. We scaled (scooted?) down a bank to the shore. The vis there was every bit as good as at Spring Canyon Landing. The water seemed to be a bit warmer but I may be just getting used to it. We saw a lot of debris around the lake bottom on all three dives. That's the down side of the improved visibility, I guess. This time we literally saw a fish in a barrell. Again, we found 70' without any trouble. The boaters finally left us alone, which was nice. Another great dive day to be sure.
Sooo.... is there a shallow area at the Vista Point area (for teaching) or would you suggest Spring Canyon? A gradual drop-off is ok, just didn't want a wall like Scorpion had when the water was down.
It's not a good day if you don't get wet. 
Linear Mode
