Dive Condition Reports

[chrpai]

Saturday Aug 25, 2013
Giant Stride, Lake Travis Scuba

Dive #1 - Oasis Wall
57f @ 105' max total dive time 63 minutes
3'-5' vis at bottom of mooring line then improved to 10'-15' vis

See dive notes at:

Importance of Self Reliance

Dive #2 Starnes Island
81f at 37' max total dive time 68 minutes
10'-15' vis

Since I had already used some of my gas on a 45 minute dive earlier in the week at windy point and had just done a pretty deep dive, I decided to sweep the shallower portions of the deep side of Starnes Island for loot. I then came around to the shallow side and searched there also. Not much was to be found on this trip.

PS- I almost forgot. I found some really cool grottos on both gives. Big enough to get up inside of them and sing to myself in the air pockets.

 

[TwoBitTxn]

The vis at CSSP is finally totally crap. It has been for a couple weeks now, but the surface is in the upper 80's. Thermal is around 32'

The bass still hang out on the edge of your light when night diving and use you to help in the hunt.

 

[Seth Patterson]

Saturday, August 31st, 2013
Isla Blanca Park, South Padre Island, TX

My trip to South Padre Island Artificial Reef was canceled at the last minute this past Saturday (8-31-13) due to a broken water pump on our vessel. All loaded up with our scuba gear we decided we might as well try our luck in-shore on South Padre Island. We got out to the Brazos Santiago jetties in Isla Blanca Park around noon--not the best time as the tide was going out--but we were greeted with fairly favorable conditions. The channel side looked completely divable and the beach better yet. After donning our gear we walked out to mid-way (where the construction is going on) and dropped in on the beach side. The visibility was probably 5ft at this point but as we made our way down and closer to the "construction site" the viz plummeted to zero.

To elaborate a little on the construction, right now they are essentially rebuilding the jetties and are pulling up all of the old granite blocks, laying a new layer of smaller boulders, and then placing the granite back to help prevent sedimentation in the channel. Of course, the fine silt they are disturbing when pulling up these granite boulders, which have been sitting here for 60 years, is really nasty stuff. Once suspended in the water column it just consumes everything. I'm sure the tide going out is what stirred it all up and mucked up the beach side but I don't think we'll see any really spectacularly clear water until their construction is done (a year) and things have had time to settle.

After I realized the beach side was lost I hopped the jetties over to the channel side where visibility hovered between 3-5 ft. It wasn't spectacular but it was enough to get my gills wet. I dove down to about 32-35ft and explored the rocks. As there were a number of people with me and it was hard to keep track of buddies we called the dive fairly early, staying down only 30 minutes.

Temperature was 81-82° from surface to 35' (max depth). Visibility was on average 3-5ft.

 

[Bill Parker]

Various clips from diving the Frio River (Garner State Park) on August 31, 2013 and September 1, 2013. Vis was ok for fresh water. On 8/31 it was good. On 9/1 it declined due to the large crowd the day before. Water temps were in the 80sF generally, A few places there was cold water coming out of springs in the river. The river was very shallow. I don't think I got deeper than 15ft. There was no detectable current in the divable areas. There was lots of marine life to observe, I liked the park overall. Too bad it's a 5-6 hour drive for me. I think it would be better if there wasn't so many people out on a holiday weekend. I'd go back but only during the low season to avoid the crowds.

[video=youtube_share;BwqWL6XLYFE]http://youtu.be/BwqWL6XLYFE[/video]

Frio River (Garner State Park) August 31, 2013. I ran across something special I've never seen. It looks like the parents of a 1,000+ school of baby fish were following the school around. (Presumably to protect the babies from predators.) Normally the adults would shy away and not let me get too close. But these refused to leave the slow moving school of babies and let me observe them for as long as I wanted.

[video=youtube_share;rrOGCf75WkQ]http://youtu.be/rrOGCf75WkQ[/video]

 

[Bill Parker]

Lake Murray 9/8/13. Vis was as good as ever. Temps were in the 80sF above the thermocline at 30ft. We had a great time was feeding the fish. We gave them some fried chicken bones and skin. They went insane. It drew a crowd and they loved it. Forget the hot dogs. Bring throw away bones and other parts. We also found the old Studebaker truck.
[video=youtube_share;A3KEiunHytg]http://youtu.be/A3KEiunHytg[/video]

 

[Teknadv3x]

Lake Murray 9/8/13. Vis was as good as ever. Temps were in the 80sF above the thermocline at 30ft. We had a great time was feeding the fish. We gave them some fried chicken bones and skin. They went insane. It drew a crowd and they loved it. Forget the hot dogs. Bring throw away bones and other parts. We also found the old Studebaker truck.
[video=youtube_share;A3KEiunHytg]http://youtu.be/A3KEiunHytg[/video]

Do the shops do OW certs. in this area your feeding the fish ?

 

[Bill Parker]

Do the shops do OW certs. in this area your feeding the fish ?

Most of the time no. Occasionally there's a boat that brings OW students to
the cabin cruiser area or ties up to the steel tower. If they do that I just
go to an alternate site that has no crowd stirring up the silt.

 

[Bill Parker]

9/22/2013. Vis was quite variable as usual. Good in some spots and some places you could barely see your own fins. I'm 6'3"ft tall so you tell me what that means to you. The crab trap, steel tower, some wrecks (including the cabin cruiser of course), and other unnamed places along the south side stretching from the cabin cruiser to the dam visited. I saw a roll of chain link fence at the crab trap. Someone apparently has plans to install it when they can. Plenty of drum, bass, and perch sightings but curiously no buffalo carp observed. The thermocline was still ~30ft. The thing to note is the temps above the thermocline plunged from 82F on 9/15/2013 to 78F on 9/22/2013. I had to switch to my 5mm full suit. My point is Summer is over and Winter is coming. If you want to get some more dives in this year don't mess around it's getting cold fast.

 

[paulw]

Saturday 9-28-13

Lake Travis - Fiesta Haus & Starnes Island

Diving on the Giant Stride with Lake Travis Scuba

Divers – paulw - Danny Bryce - Rusty Maves - Brian Galow - Netza Gonzalez

Water Temp - 85 at surface, 67 at 80'

Max Depth - 80'

Vis - 6' to 10' above 60' and 15' at 80

Dive Time - 58 min

We had two really nice dives and the vis is finally opening up in deeper water, its cold and dark but clearing up. I took this playing around in the grottos under Fiesta Haus

[video=youtube_share;Sx-yLF9hXfk]http://youtu.be/Sx-yLF9hXfk[/video]

 

[Sushi Boy]

288 Lake - 28 Sep. Water temp 82 degrees. Viz 3'-5' to 7'-10', depending on where we were in the lake.