Dive Condition Reports

[tk trekers]

Well, thought we'd head to somewhere new today and kind of made a spur of the moment decision this morning on where to go. I think we made a mistake on this one.

Entered the water at Marietta's Landing in hopes of finding the platform and the other items supposedly there. There were a ton of boats idling around and tied off to each other, PWC, kayaks, people fishing on the bank and from boats. Did one dive, 16ft max depth, 81 degrees lowest temp recorded, surface still upper 80's. The visibility looked good from the bank but as soon as we submerged it dropped to 2' to 3' and never got any better. I imagine without all of the activity going on it could be pretty decent.

Tried weaving the maze through all of the boats while towing my dive flag which did not go to well, managed to get my dive flag caught up in an anchor line which the owner let me know by giving my reel line a couple of good tugs. I surfaced, realized that the wind had pushed my flag over into the line, apologized and moved further away. There just wasn't anywhere to go in the congested area so we called the dive after 30 minutes.

Went and checked a few other areas near campground #3 but the coves there had a few more boats and people swimming. The tower area had a boat parked on it pulling some tubers but they were just hanging out there. My wife didn't think she wanted to try the climb down the rocky slope with gear so we decided to call it a day.

At least it was a nice drive up, the weather was really nice and I did get one short dive in.

Next time, I'll post up because I want to hit it again at on off-peak time with someone who has been there before.

 

[paulw]

9-02-09 6:30PM
Windy Point Public (about 150 yards down from the Port-O-Potty's)
Divers - carrielsal - paulw
Dive time - 57 min
Air Temp 95
Water Temp @ Surface 87
Water Temp @ 73' 79
Vis to 30 - 3 to 5'
Vis 30 to 60 - 5 to 8'
Vis 60 to 73 - 10 to 15'

We went in about 150 yards south of Port-O-Potty cove and the first 10-15' was pea soup but opened up a little after that. Found the missing blue Port-O-Potty at 35' and dropped down to 73' in the trees. We headed south in the trees with vis about 15' and ran into a "cloud" and vis went to 0. Went up to 50 on the turn and found several large grotto's some had air trapped in the dome so others had visited recently. carrielsal had agreed to demo "Darkfin gloves" kind of different so after trying those out we ended the dive but that is another report.

 

[tk trekers]

Decided to take the plunge in Lake Texoma today. The surface temp was around 83-84 degrees and the lowest temp I recorded was 76 at 34' which was my max depth today. The viz was about 3' at the surface to about 4' and then dropped to 2' and never got any better. About 16-17' it got dark quick and required the use of a dive light. I was comfortable in a 3/2 shorty but my wife was a touch cold in her 3 full. True swamper green!

There have been reports of some zebra mussels beginning to show up, I wonder if they do spread if this lake will experience what Lake Erie did and have the viz really improve?

 

[ianr33]

Jungle Gym, Travis Arroyo.

Tied off a reel at the entrance to the cove and headed left (facing out) at around 50 feet. Was pleased to see that the orange line is still in place.Followed this down to the Gym. Sign in slate was at 71 feet. Bottom at 77. (Add 50 feet to these depths for a full lake)
Thermocline was around 75 feet so the viz at the Gym was not the best. Viz getting there was junk. Running a reel makes it much easier for buddies to stay,more or less,together.

Surface 84F ,bottom 76. Air temperature more than enough.

My buddy has been doing some research into the Shaker Plant. His initial opinion was the Gym is probably NOT the remains of one of the towers used for the aerial runway. Apart from being in the wrong place the timbers are not substantial enough.

 

[tlt]

Windy Point (public)
Date: 8/06/09 2pm - 5pm
Location: Windy Point (Public)
Surface Temp: 90+
Water Temp: 83F @ 60ft dive 1 45
Water Temp: 83F @ 50ft dive 2 33

Visibility: what's that... 1-2 @ 30ft, 2-3ft is a stretch @ 50ft actually vis was all over the place.. except good. With the bloom overheard it might as well be a night dive with no light.
Comments: scoreboard is at 40' +- If you are looking for it, drop down from shore 20-30' to the left of the warning buoy near shore. Look for the 3/8" cable that runs between the scoreboard and the large tree. 1 3' catfish hanging out underneath the scoreboard. Dive 2, scoreboard recon and inspecting various grottos.

map
Windy Point Park
park
Bob Wentz Park, Travis County, Texas

 

[psiborg1812]

Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir-9/7/08

It was a great day of diving, worked all weekend, played all day Monday!

Viz- Wasn't bad, wasn't the best i've seen there. Starts out 4-5 feet between 0-40 feet, then opens up to 7-8 feet after the 2nd thermocline @ 40 feet.
Water Temp- Varied from nice n warm to dang that's cold, surface was 80, thermoclines at 15, 40, and 50 feet, eventually droping to 61 degrees. Even i got a little cold in my 3 mil long.
Stuff- Checked out the water plant, the boats, and explored along the riverbed.

Boat traffic was heavy, because of Labor Day, and most drivers did not know what my flag meant, so exits and descents were all at the shore, not the flag. Found a lady's phone under the marina along with a niiiice fishing rod n reel. Also found many older bottles, i'm beginning to have quite a collection. Also, one of the highlights of the day was that i tried out my rebuilt DW Stream Air, and it breathed like a champ down to 40 feet! It was odd not diving with all the hoses, and i'm gonna dive with it a lot more now.

All in all a grrrreat day.

 

[James R]

9/12
comal river
In one word, horrible. Brown water from all the rain runoff. Could not see even 12 inches I don't think. Was about what we expected. I would pass until rain stops and it clears up. I used less than 200psi lol

9/13
something I ate or something else got me. Missed the lake cleanup early. Headed to windy pt private at 11am to finish working with an aow class. Was much better than I had expected. Vis was 6 to 15 or so. Max depth 63. Temp surface 81 & 77 or so at depth iirc. Good dives today.

 

[heavyjeffd]

Yeah, the Comal is like that every time it rains good. It's the run off from the banks all around it for the most part. The rain will cloud it up pretty good but if it's dirty/silty, it's runoff.

 

[GaryBDavis]

Hey Jeff, I was thinking about hitting Comal this coming Friday. How long does it usualy take to clear up from a rain?

 

[heavyjeffd]

Just a few days, it should be clear now. It's just the runoff from the banks all around it, fills it up with mud. Generally takes a day or two depending on how heavy the rain is.