Calling all scuba divers..

[Estes]

Ive posted this in my squad board, but thought I would widen my search and ask all of you guys as well.

I have done my share of scuba diving a few years back. Nothing really exciting, just your standard run of the mill training dives and whatnot.

We live on a fairly large ranch that has two (for lack of a better phrase) small lakes. Ive always wanted to dive in and check em out, but at the same time afraid ill find a dragon, or atlantis or something.

So, my question is to the far more experienced guys than myself. Have you ever done any diving in lakes? Whats it like? Also would be interested in hearing cool stories etc.

Thanks in advance.

[SIK1]

Most likely it will bore you to tears. Given your location the most excitement you get would be running into a water moccasin.

It would give you the opportunity to scout out the bass holes, from a bass' perspective.

[Estes]

I hear ya sik, but if it wasnt for bad luck id have no luck at all. And the last thing I want to do is awaken some water dragon from hibernation, and scurry away while he breathes radiation fire at me.

[ImADot]

I did a couple of dives in the flooded pit mines in central Minnesota.  In the summertime, water temp was something like 38-45F as they are cold water spring-fed.  My buddy wore his drysuit, I think I wore 6mm wetsuit (cuz I was just starting out and never used a drysuit).  Found carcasses of snowmobiles, pickup trucks and a couple of fishing boats.  Viz was about 20-30'.  I did my basic open-water certs in a local lake with about 15' viz.

I haven't been wet for a number of years, but also had a blast diving off the island of Kauai and out of Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii.

There are many whole towns across America that are underwater as the result of dams, etc.  Google search will find lots of options.

[kilo2]

I did a couple of dives in the flooded pit mines in central Minnesota.  In the summertime, water temp was something like 38-45F as they are cold water spring-fed.  My buddy wore his drysuit, I think I wore 6mm wetsuit (cuz I was just starting out and never used a drysuit).  Found carcasses of snowmobiles, pickup trucks and a couple of fishing boats.  Viz was about 20-30'.  I did my basic open-water certs in a local lake with about 15' viz.

I haven't been wet for a number of years, but also had a blast diving off the island of Kauai and out of Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii.

There are many whole towns across America that are underwater as the result of dams, etc.  Google search will find lots of options.

Yeah there is one submerged in the lake here. Beaver Lake Arkansas. The towns name was Monte Ne. There is cars shops all kinds of stuff intact under the water.

[Buzzard7]

Well I have done plenty of freshwater dives. Most of them were in the finger lakes of New York. Once you get down past 30 feet or so you are going to see a whole lot of mud. You might run across some small boats in a small lake. Biggest wreck in the finger lakes was a coal barge and grape barge in Seneca. Coal barge was at 65-70 feet. Dark even at noon and about 38 degrees. Did night dives on the same barge which was spooky with the navy doing SONAR testing on their platform about 15 miles north. Never saw any really big maneating fish though. I am sure there are some large fish in that lake given its max depth of 650-700 feet in areas.

I doubt your ponds are very deep. Try and scout out the edges of the weed areas for logs and other hideouts for fish all along the shore. If there is some depth to them scout out the deep side of the weeds and watch for predator fish like pike. They usually hang out near the weeds and wait for some poor sunfish to pop through the weeds. If they are really on private property and you have permission you might get away with spear fishing. Public lakes it is a NO NO.

Be wary of diving in some lakes with towns in them. Some of those places are off limilts. They are however really cool dives.

[Golfer]

Is there a good resource for finding lakes that have towns at the bottom?  I'd like to find a map because that sounds like a good way to pass the time and get some dives in certain parts of the country.

[MadHatter]

I know alot of people dive out at Canyon Lake in TX. There's Old Sattler underneath it.

[FireDrgn]

Watch your altitude. We live a mile up. Back in the day it changed how long you could stay down for.

[Tac]

lake diving is boring, annoying and it can be dangerous.

boring because normally you dont see anything. Most lakes are murky and filled with silt and mud at the bottom.

annoying ... the water ... lets just say some lakes (even big ones) tend to have slimy-ish water and you dont notice it until you're out of the water and drying up and then.. the stickyness. ugh.

dangerous because lakes are generally more likely to have lots of lost fishing lines, junk you can snag in, idiots on jetskis above and due to the murkiness of the water and poor visibility you can get lost very easily (even with a compass and training it can be disorienting).

depends on the lake though, I hope your local lake is crystal clear and is the preffered swimming spot for the playboy bunnies.

[eagl]

I've made one lake dive and one deep "hole" dive (blue hole nevada).  The lake dive sucked.  Cold water, 2 ft visibility, nothing but trash on the bottom.  The Blue Hole dive was pretty fun, 80 ft of crystal clear water, perfect for my open water checkout dive.

I don't get anything out of regular lake diving, so I avoid it.  But if you really want to see what is in those lakes/ponds, by all means go ahead and take a look.  Just make darn sure you follow all the usual dive rules and don't ever ever ever enter any caves or restricted spaces without proper training, equipment, and a buddy (or two).

[DREDIOCK]

I've never done any more then the occasional snorkling. But if your going to dive fresh water. You might want to check out rivers. Particularly those where there are alot of folks who go canoeing or tubing  I've known a few who dove in the upper Delaware river and once the novelty of swimming with the fish wears off. They come across all kinds of stuff. From entire coolers full of booze to entire tackle boxes loaded with gear fishing rods and jewelry.

Not all sunken treasure is at sea LOL

[Shuffler]

I know alot of people dive out at Canyon Lake in TX. There's Old Sattler underneath it.

Canyon Lake is supposed to be a great dive from what I have heard. You will see some very large fish. Another Texas lake to dive is Lake Travis at Austin. Lake Travis is one of the clearest lakes in Texas and is well known to the diving community.

[MadHatter]

Canyon Lake is supposed to be a great dive from what I have heard. You will see some very large fish. Another Texas lake to dive is Lake Travis at Austin. Lake Travis is one of the clearest lakes in Texas and is well known to the diving community.

I've heard that. Personally the only thing I've done is fishing at Travis. Always wanted to dive, (used to work for a painter who also owned a dive shop out in New Braunfels) never had time/money for training. Another place they used to talk about was Guadalupe River. Apparently there's some caves to hit too.

[SIK1]

We have two submerged towns in my area. One is Whiskeytown in Whiskeytown N.R.A. Normally a little deep for your average sport diver, iirc it's about 180 ft. Because Whiskeytown is a national recreation area the lake is kept full in the summer, and only allowed to drop in the winter when dive conditions are very poor.

The other one is a mining town complete with an old locomotive in Shasta Lake. Again very deep under normal conditions.

I've dove both lakes, but not on either of the towns. Both were pretty boring with Whiskeytown having the better visibility. Shasta Lake does have some huge sturgeon in it. Which would scare the bajebus out of you if you ran into one on the bottom.