Lake Martin Alabama Dive Locations: Please Share

[squiresmj]

A 1945 - B-25 Crashes in Lake Martin, Near Dadeville


Location:

County
Tallapoosa County

State
Alabama

Latitude
32.80142

Longitude
-85.85197

 

[squiresmj]

Alcapulco Rock & Chimney Rock is a nice wall dive and or salvage dive. Thousands of visitors dive from this 60 ft rock. Many of them loose lots of jewlery, sunglasses, money and clothes. Easy dive down to about 60 ft. Visibility is often 20-30 ft at that depth. Lots of fish down there as well. Location is East by North East of Kowaliga Bridge (Hwy 63), and just past Dixie Sailing Club. Look for all of the boats tied up like a "Floating Trailer Park."

Best to dive in the AM before the parties get started. I have run into lots of divers here over the years.

 

[squiresmj]

Old Kowaliga Bridge. Since they built the new bridge on Highway 63, they tore down the old bridge that was about 200ft west of the new bridge. It was a key west, "7 mile type" bridge, very flat, mad of wood, with an asphalt top. We used to do a lot of fishing and diving from this pier and found lots of things to sell, as a teenager from this location. About 15 years ago, they destroyed the bridge, which still had about 500 ft connected to the south and north side of the lake, like 2 long fishing piers. It is still a nice dive, and you can still find some pretty neat stuff down there. This is a perfect shore dive, from either side of the lake. Lots of fish under those piles.

 

[squiresmj]

Old Crane Under North side of new Kowaliga Bridge in about 50 ft of water. Shore dive.

Hwy 63 north, park at the boat launch and dive from the east side of the bridge, as you are not allowed to dive within 200 ft ?? of the boat launch. This crane is on the West side of the bridge, about 300 ft from shore and is sitting on the floor just like it broke down there right before the lake filled up. Visibility is usually between 10-30 ft.

 

[squiresmj]

3 Small wooden boats between old Kowaliga Bridge and Kowaliga Marina/Sinclairs Restaurant.

In about 30 ft of water, sandy bottom with thin layer of silt, you will find 3 old wooden hulls, just barely visible. Park by beach at the marina and swim at about 60 degrees from shore. They are about 150 ft from shore. Makes you wonder how they got there together?

 

[squiresmj]

Weekend Salvage Dive...

For the last few years, Kowaliga Marina has a concert, with the stage facing the water, and you have to be in the water or on a boat to watch the concert.

The stage is set up on the beach, swimming areas are roped off and boats are tied up in an ampitheatre design. Every year, we pick up thousands of dollars in: sunglasses, cameras, jewlery, money, wallets, clothes, hats, unopened drinks(nothing like bringing a cold one up with you after a nice dive), masks, fins, snorkels etc.

This one is best done by spending the night on a boat the day before the concert, have a good time with the locals and visitors, enjoy the concert, and either dive, at night, a few hours after the concert, or be one of the first ones in the morning after. Last year, we pulled up in the boat at 7 am, by 8 am, 3 dive boats were in the water, about 6 people were coming in from shore and by 9 am there were about 20 divers in the water.

Most stuff is found in less than 20 ft of water by fanning out, but the best stuff is found out to about 40 ft where their teenager couldn't snorkel down to get it.

 

[scubafire]

Wow. I live in Bama and had no idea it was worth diving in Martin. Someone should draw a map and label the dive locations.....

Curious...my wife is rather skittish around animal life....are there any potentially dangerous things lurking in Martin? (I am used to Florida where when you see a body of water, you assume a gator is in it).

 

[scubafire]

A 1945 - B-25 Crashes in Lake Martin, Near Dadeville


Location:

County
Tallapoosa County

State
Alabama

Latitude
32.80142

Longitude
-85.85197

I just read an article about them trying to recover this plane. Is it still there? Are they still working at it?

 

[squiresmj]

Fresh Water Jellyfish?

Yep, believe it or not, there are a bunch of freshwater jellyfish, about the size of a dime, in Lake Martin. Usually see them down to about 20 ft, have to stay real still and look real hard, but they are there if you look hard enough.

Big Catfish over 80lbs

Look under some logs and rocks, in cracks and you mind see one staring back at you. See lots of them from 20-40 lbs

Striped bass over 60lbs and bass and crappie in the 2-6lb range all over the place.

Chimney Rock Area is a good place to see all of them in one location.

 

[squiresmj]

I have never seen any wild life in the lake to be scared of. My old High School coach, from 20 years ago, used to dive a lot and used to tell stories of monster catfish the size of a volkswagon. In light of recent findings in the Amazon( 200lb plus catfish).....I have fished Lake Martin extensively and on a good day may catch a 60-80 lb catfish, but usually in really deep water.

I have never seen nor heard of alligators in the lake. That would make headlines around here.

It would be nice to have a map.... this is the best I can do for now, is to give people general directions to some of the 'best' things to see on lake martin.