Dive Condition Reports

[Sushi Boy]

Went out on the Fling for the final FG trip of the season and was rewarded with an absolutely stunning weekend. Air temps in the low 80's. Water temps 79-81. Almost no currents at depth and flat seas. Lots of fish, esp on HI-376A, silky sharks, and a big sea turtle. Cloudless skies and some of the best sunrises and sunsets I've seen in my 15+ years of diving out there. Gotta love trips like that!

 

[Sushi Boy]

Anybody here have first-hand knowledge of the BL water temps over the Oct 27/28 weekend?

 

[Sushi Boy]

288 Lake, 10 Nov. Water temp 70 degrees. Viz...well, let's just say we were thankful for cave lines on the bottom to follow...

 

[driftwood]

Spring Lake San Marcos,

Water temp: same (72 degrees)
Spring Flow: 220cfs (100cfs is normal for this time of year)

Shawn O'Shea and I were assigned the Cream of Wheat to Catfish Hotel run with instructions to just clean up large masses of Coontail. There were very few clumps to clean up due to the high flow rates over the last month. Great shallow dive (22' max) with 60'+ vis.

 

[Sushi Boy]

We were hoping to hit Twin Lakes this past Saturday for a slight change of scenery, but called first and were told that the viz is still essentially zero from the Harvey-related muck.

Redirected to 288 Lake, where we got a foot or two of viz and 62 degree water. Nice 35 minute dive following lines around the bottom.

And with that, another year of DAM CHUMmers is in the books - 6 years and counting for me.

 

[Addicted2H2O]

Made a dive @ Scuba Ranch at Clear Springs in Terrell, TX on Sunday and aside from being a very "refreshing" 58F @ 25 ft, the vis was quite good at about 12-15 ft. Four of my fellow DM classmates and I, along with our instructor, were the only ones in the water, which meant nothing had been stirred around at depth so that definitely helped with vis. And our training platform that's normally around 20 ft had a hard deck of about 26 ft, so the lake is definitely up quite a bit. I got down to 32 ft max depth and didn't notice a thermocline so it's must've been somewhere around the 40 ft mark. I was perfectly comfortable in a 5mm wetsuit with a 6/7mm semidry hood (SeaSoft for use with a ffm), 5mm booties and 3mm gloves. My hands did get cold near the end of the dive and my feet got cold about halfway through due to having drain holes drilled in the soles of my booties but I was never uncomfortable at any point during the dive. Looking forward to the OW class I'll be helping with in mid-January.

 

[Sushi Boy]

Lake Longhorn (gig 'em...), 6 Jan. 57 degree water, 2-3' of viz. Enjoyed a nice leisurely 30 min dive following nav lines around to the various things to see underwater there (boats, outboard motor, big plastic tubes to swim through). The lines are well-labeled and easy to follow. Gotta say though, the shooting range there was PACKED that day. Definitely not a place to dive if gunshots make you jumpy, lol.

If you're coming from Houston, I'd also recommend a stop at Island Flavorz on the way home for a rum punch and some delicious Caribbean cuisine.

 

[Addicted2H2O]

Forgot to update this until just now.

Scuba Ranch @ Clear Springs in Terrell, TX
1/12/19-1/13/19
Lake level extremely high with some marker buoys submerged
Water Temp @ 50F with roughly 10' (max) of vis and no thermocline
Short dives just long enough to complete skills for an OW class

 

[pepperbelly]

No thermocline? So the surface is the same tenp as the silo?
Brrr!!

 

[Addicted2H2O]

No thermocline? So the surface is the same tenp as the silo?
Brrr!!

That's my understanding. I didn't have the gumption to drop down in it with new students. But I can tell it wasn't any different on the bottom @ 43 FT.