Low vis lake diving

[ems_is_4_me]

I think it would be neat to see the aquatic life in the local ponds. Of my county I live in.

 

[noreastDIVER84]

I generally dive in low vis all the time. If I have 20' visibility that is a good day. I will say that when I was taking my open water class I was the only one in the class that was going to do my open water dives there, everyone else was going somewhere tropical. What I can say is that the instructor who is a cave/cavern diver suggested that if you can be comfortable diving in low vis, you would be more than comfortable diving in great vis. The best vis I have had was diving at Dutch Springs in October which was about 35' +. I personally can say that all the diving I have done in low vis has been great, I have a bridge that I dive at almost every weekend,and because of its proximity to the inlet there current rips through and you will see new things dragged in quite frequently. I am now in florida and am leaving for a cruise on Saturday where I will be diving for the first time in crystal clear water.

 

[Garth]

I have a bridge that I dive at almost every weekend,and because of its proximity to the inlet there current rips through and you will see new things dragged in quite frequently. .

wow, that sounds cool. I dive in a local quarry most of the time because its close to home. Sometimes 10' visability sometimes 60'. Always fun, but no current. would like to try some more low viz current dives though.

 

[boulderjohn]

When I started diving, I was strictly a warm water, great vis diver, and I would have laughed if you had suggested I would ever do otherwise. Living in Colorado, I could not even think of a local place where one might consider diving.

Then I became a Divemaster, and the shop with which I was associated sent me out to do cold water diving assisting instruction in a local reservoir. It was cold, and the bottom of fine reddish clay meant absolutely miserable visibility. If you go to Dive Training magazine and look at their review of Carter Lake, Colorado (unless they changed t), you will see an edited version of my review. I sent it in as a joke, and was stunned to see them actually print it, with only the worst comments excised.

To my absolute shock, I realized I was having fun. A lot of it.

Today I dive regularly in local reservoirs (mostly Chatfield and Aurora). Some of it is because I am doing instruction there, but I dive them for fun, too. And I am having fun. Why? I can't explain it. There really isn't much to see, and what there is can only be seen if you are right on top of it. Maybe it is the friendship with other like-minded people. Maybe it is just the sheer fun of diving in itself. I assure you that if I had better conditions, I would dive them in a heartbeat, but I dive what I have available to me, and I enjoy doing it.

 

[The Kraken]

"Having only dove in tropical waters with great vis (except for my OW cert where the vis was about 5 feet) I'm trying to understand the draw to freshwater low vis diving."

Well, when ya live 5 to 6 hours from the ocean it's either that or sit on the bottom of the neighbor's 7' deep swimming pool.

the K

 

[noreastDIVER84]

Well I do enjoy the dives there, and it is very little work. I do it as a drift dive every time. I can get about an hour down and end up exactly where I started without really doing any finning.

 

[Herk_Man]

For the most part, diving in a man made impound has all of the interest to me of eating card board instead of steak. Don't tell me card board is better than nothing, not really, it has no taste and no nutritional value, kind of like muck diving in man made mud holes. Quarries included. Save for the the GL and St Lawrence, Florida Springs and a few other exceptions, freshwater diving is not worth the effort.

N

LOL, we have a winner! I really started this thread to find the last honest person on earth. While I might be tempted to just jump in once a year in a lake to, I dunno, remind myself what cardboard tastes like, I still don't understand the draw.

I LOVE diving. I do not, however, enjoy sitting in my bathtub in muddy icewater, with the lights off.

I think that a cold water dive site that has some interesting feature like the mine dive up near St. Louis (I think that's right) would be a good thing to go do, but jumping in a lake just to suck air off a hose I don't think is my cup of tea.

But if it's your's, I do actually understand and I'm glad you enjoy it. Thanks for all the replies. It was actually pretty helpful.

 

[boulderjohn]

LOL, we have a winner! I really started this thread to find the last honest person on earth. While I might be tempted to just jump in once a year in a lake to, I dunno, remind myself what cardboard tastes like, I still don't understand the draw.

I LOVE diving. I do not, however, enjoy sitting in my bathtub in muddy icewater, with the lights off.

.

So everyone who does not agree with you is a liar?

Sorry I wasted my time posting.

 

[Herk_Man]

Greetings Herk and I love to dive my local waters. Having grown up fishing on these local lakes many hours. I always wondered just what was down there and what it looks like. As a fisherman you are always interested in structure and how the fish are hanging. So there are those of us who love are local fish as well. Just this past summer my buddies and I have had absolutely awesome fish dives. We have seen large pike, carp, bluegills, crappies, perch and many more. The crazy thing is how close and responsive these totally wild fish in a public lake were. It was spell binding and the visibility was 15 - 20 feet above 25'. It was around 5 - 10 below 25'.
We have found so many interesting things, boats old and new, canoes, tackle boxes, anchors, old buoys, bones, numerous old bottles, a DNR body hook drag, etc.
I am what you described as an avid diver and happy to dive local lakes, quarries, rivers, ponds, if it is wet it is good. I also enjoy warm water and the Great Lakes.
Lake Hurons wrecks are incredible fun and challenging to dive. There are varying levels or difficulty and depth. One of the greatest ways to train for these are the local lakes and quarries. Thus not only for training but I enjoy deep, dark, and yes cold water. Do I dislike warm water no just a lot easier to dive more frequently closer to home! I love to dive and try to dive every week end and week days when I can get away. It makes no difference what the body of water is or what the vis is like only that I am in the water. I recently lost the month of November to H1N1 bug, I nearly went out of my mind! I then dove every week end in December but January looks like it is going to freeze. Guess it is time for the Ice dive certification.
Have fun and try your local scene, you may find it interesting!
CamG Keep diving....keep training....keep learning!

Yep, if you can throw something interesting in there, I could certainly get into that. But 5 feet of vis in cold water and nothing but muck to look at, still not feeling it.

Even if it were nothing more than a trash haul dive, I might be tempted.

My wife always tells me, it doesn't matter what it is, if they make it into a competition, you'll go do it. She's pretty much right. I'm addicted to competition. Most collected cans and plastic bottles wins... I'm in!

 

[Herk_Man]

Personally, I enjoy low viz diving. The vast majority of my dives have been in the rivers near my home and a couple of lakes that are within easy driving distance. In low viz, every foot can be an adventure, something suddenly discovered that you didn't see the last time you were there. Navigable rivers (like the Ohio) hold centuries of artifacts lost overboard from canoes, flatboats, keelboats, steamers, etc. Tons of antiques just lying there to be picked up.

Summersville Lake is just a 90 minute drive from me and the water is clean and clear with up to 50 feet viz and depths form about 20 feet to over 200 ft.

I dived my first quarry this past summer and I thought it was quite interesting. Viz was about 4-5 feet. I just wandered around, seeing what I could stumble onto. School buses, an old flatbed, an airplane, boats, a mermaid...I found it quite satisfying for a day of just puttering about underwater with no particular goal in mind. And the fish were obnoxiously friendly; especially after I whipped out the ol' can of Cheez Whiz, then it was a mob scene consisting of bluegill, bass and this huge catfish with an insatiable appetite. I'm looking forward to spring so I can go back. This summer, I plan to visit a number of quarries in Ohio and Kentucky.

Ok, two things, A MERMAID! Were you just testing to see if anyone was reading?

Second thing, I could definitely get into the feeding the fish thing. If I could find a population that responded and had good variety, I'd definitely dig that.

Hadn't thought about the low vis surprise hunt. You're right. There's a lot of flotsam and jetsam on the bottoms of lakes. Who knows when you might find good ol' Jimmy Hoffa?