Dive Condition Reports

[Dave55]

Weds Nov 17
Mansfield Dam, Lake Travis
no thermocline-- 66F from top to 85 ft
5-10 ft vis at depth with period rolling clouds of sediment at 40-60 ft as indicated by chadpeddy in previous post.
strangely clear at <20 feet (10-15 ft vis)

 

[Aquatrax]

CSSP Saturday 11.20.2010

Water temp 61 down to 41ft

Vis 15ft avg, Black and brown out has dissipated at least near the Rescue Dock

North end almost devoid of fish

 

[Dave55]

Lake Travis
Sat Nov 20, 2010
still great visibility at shallow depths
5-7 feet viz at Shaker Plant
5-15 feet viz at Starnes Island
66 degrees from surface down to 103 feet

 

[driftwood]

Spring Lake, San Marcos

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Spring Flow: 170cfs
Temp: same
Vis: call it 60'

We did the usual "clear the algae" in Riverbed. Not too much at the top, but got a big "log" rolling at the bottom. Catfish Hotel will be a mess. The transitions through Ossified Forrest are very overgrown and you need a good feel to find the optimal path. Be careful and watch your depth. Use the "left enter and right exit" in Ossified Forrest and love the weeds/mud.

 

[rakpix]

December 5, 2010
Winy Point Park
Austin, TX
No real thermocline. Sun warmed water at the surface, 64 F all the way down to 59 FT
Visibility 10 FT.
Longhorn Scuba OW checkout dives. Running morning and afternoon sessions. Great weather (better than Sunday anyway!) Pretty good viz until the students mucked it up. Saw two real, live turtles clinging to a rock in the shallows, a first for me in Lake Travis! Lots of white particulate from 20 - 60 FT. Richard is working on his 1/2 scale F4 phantom, planning to sink it in the next couple of weeks!

 

[carlislere]

Mansfield Park Dive Area
Max Depth: 120 Bottom Time: 50 minutes
Water Temp: 63 degrees
Visibility: 8 feet down to 115 feet depth, 3 feet or less below 115 feet depth
Dove towards the dam. Would swim through clouds of muck, then came up on two large carp who were trashing out the area. Once past them, vis was nice down to 115 feet depth toward the dam. Found a small dive light off the stairs at the end of my deco.

 

[scubashawn123]

Trip Report December 11, 2010 - Small Devil's Cove and Oasis Wall

Today we visited Small Devil's Cove at the request of Shawn to seek out treasures while exploring another new location. I have to admit that I didn't think the dive would be very good, visibility would be poor and nothing worthwhile would be found. I couldn't have been more wrong.

We split the divers into two groups with one on each side of the cove. John joined us from Louisiana for his first dive in Lake Travis so he buddied with Jennifer, our DM, and Anthony.

Both groups reported very good visibility, ranging from 8' - 15'. This allowed the teams to recover four anchors, sunglasses, mask, fin, frisbee, shoe, and two fishing poles. Plenty of items remain to be recovered on future dives.

After a surface interval at a dock in the cove, we moved to Oasis Wall for a dive to the grottoes. Winds picked up while we were in Small Devil's Cove, creating 1-2 foot swells and whitecaps on the lake. The group reported lower visibility at Oasis Wall but they were able to explore the grottoes.

After completing his first dive in our lake, John was issued a official Texas Swamp Diver card by Jennifer.

Written by Robert Weiss of Lake Travis Scuba

 

[driftwood]

Vis 30-40 (there was another group of divers working earlier)
Temp Same

Bogrady, Scubashawn, Lake Travis Scuba and me did a cleanup of Kettleman on the first dive. The site was very overgrown.

The second dive was a fish survey (sight seeing dive) from Diversion down to Catfish Hotel. Lot of salamanders, one medium black bullhead catfish under the largest boulder in Catfish Hotel. Worth noting that the spotted gars are starting to school. I ran into one group of 5-7 at Kettleman and Robert saw a group of 10+ on the west bank just above Catfish Hotel.

 

[scubashawn123]

Outside temperature - cold to start - warmed up to a hot 55 degrees with sunshine all day

Lake Travis temp 59 degrees -surface down to 68 feet in the cove


Lots and lots of items to find this week:

squirt guns
squirt fish face
more anchors - anchors are many
boat lights
construction sign lights
many many many like 20 plus sunglasses
fold up texas outdoor chair
ladder for boat
front light for boat
good condition mask
good condition snorkel
one ear ring
racket and bolt (tool very rusted)
more fishing poles
2 hats
and much more

I saw one nice size perch and several darters on the silt bottom with a small baby catfish hiding out in the rock wall

Great awesome fantastic motivated group of divers joined me in another Texas Swamp dive

Roberts dive boat operation is the best. He is so GOOD to us and just makes adds to the fun on the lake.

Oh yeah visibility was about 10 to 15 feet again average in that little cove

We did 2 tanks in the same area

 

[scubashawn123]

Spectacular

No rain until after we completed the diving only a little wind and overcast this morning.

I was able to find scoreboard again, what a feat I thought since it had been years and lake levels were a lot different then.

The top of Scoreboard is at 87 feet

95 feet temperature 59 degrees (in my 5 mil no problem) and viz was around 10 feet

The big grotto scoreboard sits under looks like things have really fallen apart since I was there last.

I could not find the fenders to hold it up and make it horizontal, it is tied off to the line and resting below the big grotto like a fallen hero on the bottom.

Lots of silt on it and all the lines that I traversed with our divers today. Very interesting changes since I was there last.

Saw nice tilapia, perch and some minnows this trip.

Thanks to my dive buddies Jack, Matt and Anthony

Until next weekend when more diving is had by all for the first of the year

merry Christmas to all and to all a good night