SoCal Lake Diving

[ScubaStan]

I have been here sitting at work thinking about what lies at the bottom of lakes in the SoCal area, ie. Pyramid Lake, Lake Elsinore, Lake Piru, Cataic Lake, Lake Mathews, Lake Perris, etc.

Knowing that we have Lake Pacific in our backyard (for some of us) and awesome diving at times, one can't help but wonder what mysteries other bodies of water might hold.

Anyone been in any divable and publicly accessible lake? Was it worth diving, temp, etc.

Edit:
Please refrain from posting responses that include, but not limited to water wells, cattle tanks, golf course water hazards, city/county park fountains/ponds and the like. Thanks!

 

[Jake]

I've wondered the same thing, but don't know anyone who's dived any of these. My experience with some of the lakes you mention is that it might be pretty darn dangerous given all the boat traffic. I also wouldn't want to spend much time in some of them either (e.g. Lake "Smell-some-more").

I know there's an inland empire dive group somewhere on the internet. Maybe here too? They could probably help you out with that.

 

[tc]

I'm been on the Riverside Sheriff's Dive Team for 19 years so I've been in most/nearly all of the lakes/ponds/rivers/canals in Riverside County and several in San Bernardino County.

Lake Perris is the only inland lake that normally allows divers. They can go in the swim areas so the boat traffic is LESS of a concern. (I've seen many boats over the years wander into the swim areas so a float of some type is still a good idea) Visibility there might get up to 10 or 15 feet during the winter but is usually 5 feet or less during the warmer months. Max depth would be about 40' in the swim areas but now they've drained it down about 30' so unless they've moved the boundries out you won't get too deep. It's primarily a mud bottom with some sandy areas and during the summer you get a lot of the long grass growing off the beach at lot 1.

Other than the fresh water fish species there isn't a whole lot to see. Some of the inland dive shops use Perris for the initial open water dives for their courses and others use it to teach limited visibility/navigation.

Some of the differences in diving the lakes- VERY pronounced thermoclines and it gets very dark as you get deeper. Good bouyancy control is important, if you land on the bottom the vis will go down to a few inches if it's a muddy/silty bottom.

Ref the comment about Lake Elsinore- The problem that Elsinore has had is the algae blooms during the warm months causing fish die offs. While the visibility there is usually measured in inches rather than feet it is one of the "Cleanest" lakes out here if you consider bacteria counts rather than visibility. Perris can get very high bacteria levels during the summer.

Hope this answers a few of your questions, if you have any specific questions let me know.

Tom Carr

 

[mccabejc]

We did Castaic Lake (actually it was the lower lagoon) with our LA County ADP class last year. Viz was about 5ft as I recall, and there were a lot of ducks and stuff dirtying the water. Not a place I'd want to go back to.

 

[saintsfan]

I dove lake perris 2 years ago just to check it out,it was mid january and it was the coldest dive I can remember,the vis was at least 15' but honestly there was nothing to see.There is supposed to be some submerged pipes you can swim through but I didnt find them, didnt look real hard though so its not really a dive I would recommend

 

[MissyP]

I dove lake perris 2 years ago just to check it out,it was mid january and it was the coldest dive I can remember,the vis was at least 15' but honestly there was nothing to see.There is supposed to be some submerged pipes you can swim through but I didnt find them, didnt look real hard though so its not really a dive I would recommend

There are several large culverts to swim through, and a "freshwater" shark to see (it's a wooden cut-out, probably put there by a diver with a sense of humor)... but not much else... Trash, few fish hanging around the culverts, and that's about it to see..
Don't silt up the bottom because your vis will go to zero in a heartbeat...

 

[Mr Carcharodon]

I dove lake Castaic with macabejc last summer. I remember the vis as being pretty good initially. Maybe 15-20 feet. But there was a silty bottom. So it did not take too many misplaced fin kicks to drop the visibility to almost zero. The water was warm compared to the ocean and we needed about 5 pound less weight than in salt water. Only little fish to see and smallish aquatic plants. It might be worth it if there were a series of storms that mucked up the ocean. But in general the ocean offers a lot more to see.

 

[radinator]

Usually you aren't allowed to dive Castaic. We did it (I was with macabejc and Mr Carcharodon last summer as well) because we were part of the LA County ADP program, and had special permission.

I have to echo what they said. There's isn't much to see.

I do know that deep tech divers occasionally help the sheriff's dept pull drowning victims out of there because it gets to be several hundred feet deep.

I grew up near a bunch of fresh water lakes in Michigan, and wanted to dive those as a kid. I didn't learn to dive until living here in SoCal, but I'm tempted to go back at some point. After the local experience I don't expect there to be anything to see though...just want to live out the childhood aspiration.

 

[Lake Muroc Diver]

Pyramid is a big "NO" for diving. I asked a Sheriff's deputy who is also a diver. The Instructor at Edward's AFB was looking for a closer place to take his student divers.
Kind of off track but, who dove recovery in Castaic Lake when the HTM boat sank and killed the 3 men aboard? 250 feet deep I heard. My depth sounder goes to 200 feet and it is off scale in Castaic and Pyramid as soon as you get in the channel.

 

[sharkbaitDAN]

I know some divers who go crawdadding in a lake, thought I can't remember which one. I think it was four hours or so out of LA. They go camping for a weekend in August, but I don't know if they are still going every year or not.