Recent Lake Pleasant conditions/reports

[giladshay]

Saturday night (9.11.10), I went to dive the lake with my wife.
We dove from Beismar point.
This time it was not that fun at all :blinking:.
Vis was poor, with green weeds/alga all over.
The maximum depth was 10[m] (33[ft]), but at that depth you can't see anything, so we decided to ascent in order to improve the vis.
At the max depth we didn't get to the thermocline yet, but we actually didn't search for it as well.
the vis at depth of 10' is about 1'.
Water temp is slowly going down and was 27[c] (80.6[f]).
We saw some Crayfish and some Gailfish, and finished the dive after ~30min, since really nothing to see this time :depressed:.
Hopefully next time we'll have a better luck.
Cheers, Gilad.

 

[clockworkdiver]

Sunday morning shore dive Vista point
Air temp 90
Watertemp 79 degrees
max depth was 30ft
vis was surprisingly good 5-10ft :cool2:
We dint go deep because we where having a practice skills day my buddy was working on his nav and i worked on boyancy, besides who wants to get cold when your just working on skills.
Overal nice dive got my feet wet and my hair freezy
only negative my wallet joined us on our dive

 

[pdelannoy]

Dove Vista Point on Sunday. Things are cooling down and the water level is up a little. The water temp in the shallows was 74F and 61F in the deeps. Visibility was bad: 5-10 feet in the shallows but zero under 38 feet.

PD

 

[mfilosof]

Dove the Tech Island and Drop off last saturday with the Scubateers. Noticed that zebra mussels are dying everywhere.

Dive 1 - Tech Island (Southwest Wall):

Temp: Depth 0Ft - 45Ft = Temp 74F
Depth 45Ft - 85Ft = Temp 64F

Viz: Depth 0Ft - 35Ft = Viz 5Ft - 10Ft
Depth 36Ft - 65FT = Viz 0Ft - 3Ft
Depth 70Ft - 85Ft(Max) = Viz becomes Clear but dark, zero ambient light.

Note: Be patient when descending to the 60ft as viz is so poor sometimes zero to a foot of viz but once below the 65ft viz becomes clear but dark with zero ambient light from above not for the faint of heart.


Dive 2 - Drop Off Island (South Wall):

Temp: Depth 0Ft - 45Ft = Temp 74F
Depth 45Ft - 65Ft = Temp 60F

Viz: Depth 0Ft - 35Ft = Viz 5Ft - 10Ft
Depth 36Ft - 65FT = Viz 0Ft - 1Ft

Note: Viz from the surface to 35ft was 5-10ft but once you passed 35ft viz becomes bad to zero, had to come up to 40ft to enjoy the dive.

 

[AZ_Zoner]

We tried to dive Vista Point today and found that the water is just to far from the road to haul the equipment to. So we got our money back and went to the other side of the lake off Desert Tortoise. Drove to the intersection and turned south.

Good news is that it was a pleasant 74ish degrees so very comfortable in a 3mil. Bad new is vis was maybe 6' in the shallows but get below 25' and it drops down to 4'. Go much deeper and it is next to no vis. Hard to read a compass with a very bright light.


So we got wet and that is what we wanted. And the Burgers and beer are still incredible at the Wild Horse Bar! We'll give it a few more weeks and try again.

Craig

 

[ScubaSteve2000]

Dove Vista Point today. I'm playing with sidemount which has been pretty interesting. Today I did two dives with a steel 72 on my right side and a back mounted AL80. Somebody gave my steel a cave fill :0) so I started the dive with three grand in both tanks. The sidemount is working out pretty well. I've ordered some odds and ends that will make it better. Should be in next week. When the rest of my stuff comes in I'll have a tank on both sides.

Vis was less than 10 feet down to about 30 feet. Lower than that and you're braille diving for a bit. It opens up a little below 70 feet but not much. And forget it if there are carp in the area. Those bottom suckers churn it up something awfull. Temp at depth is 69 VT3 degrees. Surface temp is mid 70s.

I have a theory about the demise of the muscles. Back a few years ago the vis was super fantastic because of all those filter feeding muscles. The closest thing to a preditor to the muscles are crawdads. There would always be a bunch of crawdad burrows under and near every rock the muscles covered. Believe me some of those bugs approched small lobster sized dimensions. I have pics and videos. They got big and strong by munching on muscles. You are what you eat. Unfortunately the muscles made their way into the equipment used to divvy out the lake's water.

In an attempt to kill off the muscles them that controls the lake took the level down. Way down. Pushing the muscles down too. Then they filled the lake up. Way up. When the lake was at its highest, you didn't see muscles until you got down to about 45 - 50 feet-unless you dropped by my van during a surface interval. Just kidding. Anyway, the earstwhile well fed lake lobsters (crawdads for those keeping score at home) moved up with the water level leaving their main food source behind. Crawdads are stupid. Now here's where things get interesting.

Crawdads are a food source for our friendly neighborhood carp. You usually see bits and pieces of crawdad where carps are churning up the bottom. Usually. Problem was the crawdads were starving. On a night dive it isn't uncommon to see several crawdads feasting on something dead. This spring I was seeing crawdads in a virtual feeding frenzy during the day out in the open. Their easy pickings were no longer available. I would find dead crawdads on the bottom at 20 or 30 feet that looked emaciated. Nothing but shell. No sign of what or how they died. All the ones I came across were also good sized. Bigger than my hand. Pinchers longer than my forefinger. That's pretty big for a crawdad.

Now the lake is at the same level as this time last year. This is the lowest it got. The muscles should be all over everything even near the surface. Not so much this year though. Last year I rarely saw carp feeding on muscles. They weren't interested. Had a taste for a shrimp like substance. This year the carp are very interested. I've seen carp completely strip a large rock that was covered with muscles. And since the muscles covered everything the food source is abundant.

What about the crawdads? They're smaller these days. But they'll be back.

 

[giladshay]

Hi all,

I'd like to thank Bill (PhxSki) & steve (scubasteve2000) for letting me diving with them today (Oct 23rd 2010) at Vista Point.
I really had a great time, and vis was not too bad.
Temp was 21C (~70f) at depth of 16m (~52ft), and where we were- no thermocline felt.
There were about dozen more divers at V.P.
I had to leave after 1 dive, but Bill & Steve stayed for another dive.
Surely, Steve will bring a longer story as usual and he's always welcome to do that.

Again, thanks a lot for both of you. It was really me pleasure. You are awesome divers.

Gilad.

 

[ScubaSteve2000]

We had a great time diving with Bill and Gilad. The elevation of the lake as of this morning was 1660', only a foot higher than last Saturday. That being said, it is still quite a hike from the parking area to the shore.

The surface temp was still about 74 degrees. Vis was about 10' down to about 30 feet where it went south in a hurry. We descended to about 25 feet and swam north until the water turned black signifying we had reached the wall. Lights on and down we went. We turned to face the wall during our descent so we could maintain a visual referance in the murky water. At the bottom of the wall in the low vis we looked like shadows each accented by our dive lights.

The second dive was pretty much the same. We went over to the rail and headed down to fine the treasure box at 60'. I can't wait for the vis to improve. Oh well, I'm getting lots of compass time. Always a pleasure to dive with Bill and Gilad.

See ya at the lake.

 

[Jax]

We descended to about 25 feet and swam north until the water turned black signifying we had reached the wall. Lights on and down we went. We turned to face the wall during our descent so we could maintain a visual referance in the murky water. At the bottom of the wall in the low vis we looked like shadows each accented by our dive lights.

Is that a statement of the darkness of the wall looming out of the murk, or is the water really that dark due to the composition of the wall?

 

[Jax]

'nother question - is Vista point ground suitable for a dolly?