CoasterFreak
Contributor
Wow! What a blast!
Got up early this morning and met up with my dive buddy here in Bentonville and headed out to Beaver for some morning diving. Boy am I glad we did! It had been 3 months since I last went diving, and this was only my 8th dive in all. Got to the lake about 8:00, and barely anyone else was there.
Wore a 3 inch full (WAY overboard - could have gone with trunks and t-shirt). Started west along the shore above the first thermocline (about 23') and water temperature was 83 degrees (HOW NICE
). Add in 20 feet of visibility and I knew there was a huge potential for a great dive!
So here is the part that me laughing through my reg. About 10 minutes into the dive, I rolled over to look up at the sunlight through the water, and saw we were being followed by a school of perch about 40-50 strong! Boy they are QUIET! I guess they were looking for breakfast. About 30 minutes in we stopped and fed the little moochers some hot dogs, while we could see 5-6 striped bass hovering off in the distance. Then just as we were finishing, a 2 foot blue cat came swimming up to finish off the scraps. He swam right up to the tips of our fins without a flinch.
We then headed back to our entry point and surfaced, admiring some of the statues along the way. Since we had plenty of air left and were feeling bold, we agreed to try a swim out to the house-boat. We only got to about 38' down and had to turn back because of the cold. My dive computer did not register it, but I could have sworn we were in a second thermocline.
On the way back to the shore, I happened to look down under a little rock overhang and came face to face with a 2.5' yellow cat. So that now qualifies as the largest fish I have seen up close under water.
All in all, my eighth dive was superb! Several firsts...first dive with a computer, first blue cat sighting, first yellow cat sighting, first hour-long dive. Only downside now is that this has only increased my addiction. What to do? What to do?
Got up early this morning and met up with my dive buddy here in Bentonville and headed out to Beaver for some morning diving. Boy am I glad we did! It had been 3 months since I last went diving, and this was only my 8th dive in all. Got to the lake about 8:00, and barely anyone else was there.
Wore a 3 inch full (WAY overboard - could have gone with trunks and t-shirt). Started west along the shore above the first thermocline (about 23') and water temperature was 83 degrees (HOW NICE
). Add in 20 feet of visibility and I knew there was a huge potential for a great dive!So here is the part that me laughing through my reg. About 10 minutes into the dive, I rolled over to look up at the sunlight through the water, and saw we were being followed by a school of perch about 40-50 strong! Boy they are QUIET! I guess they were looking for breakfast. About 30 minutes in we stopped and fed the little moochers some hot dogs, while we could see 5-6 striped bass hovering off in the distance. Then just as we were finishing, a 2 foot blue cat came swimming up to finish off the scraps. He swam right up to the tips of our fins without a flinch.
We then headed back to our entry point and surfaced, admiring some of the statues along the way. Since we had plenty of air left and were feeling bold, we agreed to try a swim out to the house-boat. We only got to about 38' down and had to turn back because of the cold. My dive computer did not register it, but I could have sworn we were in a second thermocline.
On the way back to the shore, I happened to look down under a little rock overhang and came face to face with a 2.5' yellow cat. So that now qualifies as the largest fish I have seen up close under water
.All in all, my eighth dive was superb! Several firsts...first dive with a computer, first blue cat sighting, first yellow cat sighting, first hour-long dive. Only downside now is that this has only increased my addiction. What to do? What to do?
