nagel
Contributor
Yesterday, SteveC and I traveled to Stockton Lake for the first time. Dark Wolf gave us some good information on dive sites and has said several times that Stockton is a good place to dive. So, we thought we would give it a try. Let me tell you, I really wasn't holding high hopes for this, but in a nutshell, I was very surprised when we got there.
We basically stayed around the bridge. We drove down to the entry point on the west side of the bridge, but you had to climb down a fairly steep cliff to get to the water. So, we decided to check out the other side of the bridge. The East side of the bridge was much better for an entry point. You could pull off the road and drive down to the water. Entry was much better several large rocks with ledges, but fairly easy entry.
Our first dive we suited up and took off. The water above the thermocline was very clear about 10' (maybe 15' in some spots) viz. At the TC around 20' it good real merky about 1' viz. We continued down to about 35' and the farther we went the darker and siltier it got. We turned around and went back up to the 20' range where it was clearer. We stayed along the bank and dove the rock shelves. Very nice dive. A tremendous amount of fish (big fish) who were very interested in us and swam around us the entire time. We did a 70 minutes dive and returned to the truck for a short SI.
On the second dive, we decided to ditch the wetsuits since we were both very warm on the previous dive and dove in shorts and t-shirts. Water temp above TC about 85 degrees. We traveled along the shore again the other direction toward the bridge staying above the TC. Again, very nice wall shelves and a tremendous amount of fish. We enjoyed looking unter the rocks and playing with the fish. Viz was bright and clear. After another 70 minute dive we returned to the truck.
All in all a great day of diving. No we didn't go deep because it did silt up at depth, but a great day. We are thinking about returning to this spot and doing a night dive sometime.
Thanks Dark Wolf for the information on diving Stockton Lake. It's definately worth the drive down (for me about 1.5 hour drive). From what I seen out of Table Rock and Bull Shoals this year, Stockton is in that catagory. On the way out, we checked out Stockton Lake State Park. Very nice camping. I can see a camping/diving trip in the near future.
Dark Wolf - Does the viz tend to open up a little more on the lake in the fall?
S. Nagel
We basically stayed around the bridge. We drove down to the entry point on the west side of the bridge, but you had to climb down a fairly steep cliff to get to the water. So, we decided to check out the other side of the bridge. The East side of the bridge was much better for an entry point. You could pull off the road and drive down to the water. Entry was much better several large rocks with ledges, but fairly easy entry.
Our first dive we suited up and took off. The water above the thermocline was very clear about 10' (maybe 15' in some spots) viz. At the TC around 20' it good real merky about 1' viz. We continued down to about 35' and the farther we went the darker and siltier it got. We turned around and went back up to the 20' range where it was clearer. We stayed along the bank and dove the rock shelves. Very nice dive. A tremendous amount of fish (big fish) who were very interested in us and swam around us the entire time. We did a 70 minutes dive and returned to the truck for a short SI.
On the second dive, we decided to ditch the wetsuits since we were both very warm on the previous dive and dove in shorts and t-shirts. Water temp above TC about 85 degrees. We traveled along the shore again the other direction toward the bridge staying above the TC. Again, very nice wall shelves and a tremendous amount of fish. We enjoyed looking unter the rocks and playing with the fish. Viz was bright and clear. After another 70 minute dive we returned to the truck.
All in all a great day of diving. No we didn't go deep because it did silt up at depth, but a great day. We are thinking about returning to this spot and doing a night dive sometime.
Thanks Dark Wolf for the information on diving Stockton Lake. It's definately worth the drive down (for me about 1.5 hour drive). From what I seen out of Table Rock and Bull Shoals this year, Stockton is in that catagory. On the way out, we checked out Stockton Lake State Park. Very nice camping. I can see a camping/diving trip in the near future.
Dark Wolf - Does the viz tend to open up a little more on the lake in the fall?
S. Nagel
