Dive Condition Reports

[Earl Grey]

Sunday 1/26/2014

Mammoth Lake - Lake Jackson, TX

Though I think it has been reopened for a while, this was my first trip back to Mammoth since the previous dive shop closed. Gear rentals, air fills and the like are available. Air temp ~69F, bottom temp @ 37' was a very chilly 55F. Viz was decent at ~ 10 feet. Glad that the lake remains a viable dive location for SE Texas divers.

 

[Bill Parker]

January 25, 2014. San Marcos, TX. Drifting down the San Marcos river once again. I've been here January 2013 and June 2013. On my first visit I was on a trash cleanup and I didn't even think of bringing a camera so no photos or video that trip. But I did realize it might be a good place to take some video. On my second trip I tried to take some video but I screwed up setting up my camera and it fogged and messed everything up. The third time was a charm. I was on another trash cleanup with the Diving Rebels club but I managed to beat them into the water by a few minutes before they started stirring up the silt while picking up trash. Conditions were perfect. It was winter so I had the river to myself. It was a little after 1pm with no clouds so there was plenty of natural light for the camera. The visibility was good throughout the dive but the very best at the beginning. Water temps were 70sF as they are year round. I entered at the steps just below Aquarena Dr and exited just before the pedestrian bridge at Rio Vista Park. My bottom time was around 45 minutes. I turned the camera on before I even entered the water and kept it on the whole dive. There's only a few small gaps where it shutoff after 30 minutes or so of not pressing any buttons and a few places where I edited out extreme jumpiness because I had to drop the camera while briefly attending to other tasks. As much as possible I let the river sweep me naturally down the river. I kicked minimally and only to keep my from being pushed into a shallow area where I'd start stirring up silt or to keep from being smashed into a rock or wall. I recorded pretty much everything I saw. There were many fish and some turtles observed. I think I got the video I wanted. A mostly complete record of being swept down a river.

[video=youtube_share;X7d8IYyUyKw]http://youtu.be/X7d8IYyUyKw[/video]

 

[Bill Parker]

Lake Murray (Oklahoma). February 1, 2014. We entered between the metal tower and
cabin cruiser near the swimmer's jumping cliff on the south side and exited at
the point nearest the cabin cruiser. We got as deep as 79 feet and the vis was
great at all depths. No living marine animals were observed at all. (I found
one large, dead bass.) Last summer the cabin cruiser area was covered thickly in
bright green floating grass. Now the grass lays on the bottom in heaps and is
brownish-green now. At 39F the water was BRUTALLY cold.

 

[Tony387]

Canyon Lake (Holiday Lodge, Boat ramp 1) today was 44° below thermocline, visibility 3-5 ft. Cold and dark, but a nice dive.

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[Sushi Boy]

Smith Lake, Vidor, 8 Feb. Water temp: 50 degrees, viz: 7-10'.

 

[driftwood]

Spring Lake, San Marcos, February 20

Temp, same
Vis, 50'+
Spring Flow, 149cfs

The Training Area has the ramp, with rails, installed. Almost all of the coontail has been removed. All three of the platforms are clean and the silt has been moved away from them. We pulled out what trash/debris we could without lift bags.

Ended the dive cleaning up Cream of Wheat. The upper portion has all the algae removed and springs cleaned out.

The TA should be reopened to dive shops very soon. The initial thinking is to limit access to shops in the Austin are so that all the problems that develop can be addressed.

 

[Pyrotrons]

This isn't much of a report, I'm out camping and haven't had a chance to check my computer log yet.

Canyon Lake:
---------------------------
Vis is definitely better than 10 feet at the Southwest end of the dam, from Sfc. down to 50'. At 50' the vis. might have been starting to deteriorate, however this could have just been lack of light. It was cold enough to give me the shivers, in a drysuit, with 2 layers of undergarments, after 30 minutes.

San Marcos River (3 places)
---------------------------
* Falls just downstream of Spring Lake: Normal (great...40') visibility, hardly any tubers. Hang out in the big concrete tunnel just to the left of the falls, when you're facing the falls. Water level: Doesn't quite touch the deepest concrete step.

* City Park: Vis 10-20', current strong in between huge mats of Hydrilla overgrowth, no-one there. Hydrilla is a terrible plant around these parts, but it's fun to get "lost" in at night in the shallow water, with big schools of minnows chasing your light. Big Plecostamus catfish.

* Rio Vista Park: Immediately under and downstream of the railroad track is an excellent place to see structure, plants, and fish in an area that is deeper than the rest of the river in this area. I'm no expert and it was my first time at this location but it was fairly amazing. Think like a fish; get behind big mats of Hydrilla to get out of the current.

Comal River at Hinman Park & Upstream:
--------------------------------------
Vis 5-10', depth: Mostly less than 7', but I found 12' immediately off of the steps at the park. Current slow enough to make good progress when swimming against it. This dive would be incredibly picturesque with direct sunlight. Saw many 16"+ black bass, one big Pleco, tons of different perch/sunfish/sun bream/bream/bluegill LOL. It was a great dive starting at dusk and ending about 1.5 hours later. I was looking the entire time, I never found the threatened Fountain Darter, although I have seen them in the San Marcos Rvr.

 

[driftwood]

Spring Lake, San Marcos 3-6-14

Vis 50'+
Temp same (mostly)
Spring Flow 140cfs

We were assigned to clean up the north end of Deep Hole this morning. The only unusual thing is that the shallow low pressure springs were more active than normal (you hit pockets of much colder water).

The good news is that they have reopened the Training Area for classes. Right now, the staff is conducting "mini" DFS cert classes for area instructors. They are limiting access to the 4 shops in Austin till they get all the bugs worked out of the system. This morning there was an instructor with one student and they were allowed to park in the middle of the bus turn around. That cuts down on the amount of walking everyone has to do. The biggest negative change is that they are requiring all the students to fill out another liability release.

 

[Sushi Boy]

Valhalla Missile Silo, Abilene - 8 March

58 degrees. They've made some nice upgrades to the facility and have more to come. If you haven't been there in a few years, it's worth a repeat visit. Talk to your club or LDS about arranging a trip.

 

[Tony387]

Canyon Lake, Boat ramp 1:

Water temp: 51°
Visibility: 5-8 ft at 45 ffw
15-20 at 65 ffw.

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