chucksaul
Contributor
Gotta do an equipment check before head to the Oriskany and was thinking Tyler State park... Anyone been there lately and/or anyone interested in a Saturday or Sunday outing....
Tyler State Park This Weekend
- Thread starter chucksaul
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Trout
Contributor
I have not been out there but I am interested diving there on Sunday.
tk trekers
Contributor
My wife and I were thinking about heading out there tomorrow for the first time. We've camped there and have ridden the mountain bike trail but never swam or dove there. What part of the lake do you dive in?
thevalkyry
Queen of the Turtles
Hey Chuck - any progress on getting a compressor on the boat?? 
Have fun in Tyler! This girl is getting on a plane to Coz on Friday...
Have fun in Tyler! This girl is getting on a plane to Coz on Friday...
TK-- There is no "scuba park" as such... Just to the left of the swim area is a picnic area called Browns Point. We usually put in there, pick a point across the lake and go fish watching... Let me know if you will be there Saturday...
Val... Geez... What can I say... Us poor folks will still be here when you get back... How many people use FG as a warm up dive... No good word on compressor but we are still working on it... Have a great trip in COZ... Try the gelato... its worth it...
Charlie
Val... Geez... What can I say... Us poor folks will still be here when you get back... How many people use FG as a warm up dive... No good word on compressor but we are still working on it... Have a great trip in COZ... Try the gelato... its worth it...
Charlie
tk trekers
Contributor
We are going try and head out there today or tomorrow depending on what the weather does, it just stopped raining here in Plano a short time ago. Saturday isn't possible, my wife has to work unfortunately.
Thanks for the info, I'll post up if we make it out there.
When you arrive at the picnic area, follow the curve to the left, not the right hand parking lot. Then keep moving straight through the lot, until it begins to curve right, then park at the next set of parking spots, you are there! Walk down the steps (only a few, not near as bad as the swimming area, whew!) and there is at least one picnic table down there in a nice shady area. You can tell where the opening to the water is.
After you step in the water, gaze across the lake, and get a compass heading on the pier that is to the right. Go that direction when you begin your dive, and you will find the famous "brush pile." This is the highlight of TSP diving to me, actually. There are many fish that hang out there, including big Bubba Bass, but rumor has it that a fisherman may have pulled him out, I need to go see for myself. One of my most memorable dives was at TSP with Timeliner (it was a cool/cold water day!) just hovering and hanging out at the brushpile for like an hour or so. We became one with the fish, it was just a really cool dive.
There is a good metal platform also, about 20' deep. You stand at the shore entry, go perpindicular to the shore line, following the gravel at first. It is not very far out, sorry to be so vague! There have been ongoing plans to really do some more things for scuba divers out there, but so far I think the economy is keeping that from happening. You can always explore the lake bottom, I think the deepest I've found is around 45'? The swimming area looks like a tempting treasure hunt, and if you're very, very good at braille, it probably is... it will be a total silt-out if there is even one swimmer over there, but I think everyone has to try it at least once...
We've tried only one other area, directly across from Browns point. It was pretty cold that day too, and FooMan broke a fin strap at the beginning of the dive (fortunately Foo is prepared with a sav-a-dive kit won at this very lake!) and the vis was pretty poor, and we couldn't seem to stay out of the grass, got kinda freaky after a while. I would like to try the other end of the lake, possibly the dam area also, but haven't heard any great reports from anyone about any other sites there. For $3 entry fee, it's a nice little dive, but there's not a lot of other things to see besides the platform and brush pile.
Remember, no air fills there, so go prepared. Very nice hot shower house at the swimming area, though!
After you step in the water, gaze across the lake, and get a compass heading on the pier that is to the right. Go that direction when you begin your dive, and you will find the famous "brush pile." This is the highlight of TSP diving to me, actually. There are many fish that hang out there, including big Bubba Bass, but rumor has it that a fisherman may have pulled him out, I need to go see for myself. One of my most memorable dives was at TSP with Timeliner (it was a cool/cold water day!) just hovering and hanging out at the brushpile for like an hour or so. We became one with the fish, it was just a really cool dive.
There is a good metal platform also, about 20' deep. You stand at the shore entry, go perpindicular to the shore line, following the gravel at first. It is not very far out, sorry to be so vague! There have been ongoing plans to really do some more things for scuba divers out there, but so far I think the economy is keeping that from happening. You can always explore the lake bottom, I think the deepest I've found is around 45'? The swimming area looks like a tempting treasure hunt, and if you're very, very good at braille, it probably is... it will be a total silt-out if there is even one swimmer over there, but I think everyone has to try it at least once...
We've tried only one other area, directly across from Browns point. It was pretty cold that day too, and FooMan broke a fin strap at the beginning of the dive (fortunately Foo is prepared with a sav-a-dive kit won at this very lake!) and the vis was pretty poor, and we couldn't seem to stay out of the grass, got kinda freaky after a while. I would like to try the other end of the lake, possibly the dam area also, but haven't heard any great reports from anyone about any other sites there. For $3 entry fee, it's a nice little dive, but there's not a lot of other things to see besides the platform and brush pile.
Remember, no air fills there, so go prepared. Very nice hot shower house at the swimming area, though!
tk trekers
Contributor
Foo,
Thanks for the info. I have a Texas State Parks pass so entry is free and we'll have plenty of tanks for the two of us. Appreciate the descriptions of where to go. I just want to dive someplace different than CSSP and we had planned to try and make it to Mammoth this week but with the kid's schedules that fell through.
Thanks for the info. I have a Texas State Parks pass so entry is free and we'll have plenty of tanks for the two of us. Appreciate the descriptions of where to go. I just want to dive someplace different than CSSP and we had planned to try and make it to Mammoth this week but with the kid's schedules that fell through.
Oh yes, it's obviously been worth it to me before to go to TSP instead of other locations, I understand. How did it go? Did you go today?
tk trekers
Contributor
Yes, we went out there today. The water was pretty warm at the surface, 88-89 degrees, thermocline at 14' dropped it to the upper 70's low 80's depending on depth. The viz was pretty bad, about 3' in most places (if I stuck my hand out in front of me with my arm stretched my fingers were blurry) and you could really see the sediment blowing through the water.
I'm not sure if I found the brush pile or not, I did find an area where a bunch of logs had been piled together and I wasn't sure if this was what you were referring to or not? There was a 4-5 lb catfish there and a bunch of bluegill. I didn't see any bass over 2 pounds in this area so if there was a really big one, she wasn't there today.
About 25' straight out from the entry point, there are about 7 or 8 bluegill on the beds in one area. One of those bluegill is probably one of the largest I have ever seen. There were a couple of more nests to the east of that group and there were 2 bass cruising the area, one was about 4 pounds, the other 1.5 to 2 pounds and the bluegill were going crazy chasing them around. I did enjoy hovering through there and watching them.
My wife did not care for the hydrilla and grass at all, it freaked her out to have that stuff touching her face, arms and legs to the point that her computer showed a "surface interval" of 10 minutes at one point because she was only submerged about 2' to stay out of it.
Does the viz get better later in the year? It wasn't bad from about 4' in to the bank but just never really cleared up anywhere we went.
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