Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Estes on February 05, 2010, 09:22:10 PM
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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.
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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.
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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. :)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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I know alot of people dive out at Canyon Lake in TX. There's Old Sattler underneath it.
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Watch your altitude. We live a mile up. Back in the day it changed how long you could stay down for.
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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.
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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).
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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On the border of Wyoming And Idaho is a man made reservois that engulfed the old town on the border. You can dive there and actualy swim into the old buildings that are still standing .Its kinda cool ,but that is an isolated one. You will probably just get wet and bored ! Give it a try anyhow . :cheers:
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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.
The Guadalupe is the river that makes Canyon Lake. The lower Guadalupe is popular in the summer for tubing, kayaking, and rafting.
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The Guadalupe is the river that makes Canyon Lake. The lower Guadalupe is popular in the summer for tubing, kayaking, and rafting.
I used to live in Startzville until I moved to San Antonio 3 years ago. Actually, I lived in Turkey Cove. You from around there Shuffler?
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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'm letting my kid participate in scuba diving lessons this summer. I was hoping it was Lake Travis we'd take him to, but we'll see.
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Thanks for the replies guys, both bodies of water are in fact on private property. As ive never dove in, aside from the occassional swim or two I dont know exactly what the visibility would be like much deeper than that.
But id guess it wouldnt be terrible, its not crystal clear but not impossible to see through either. I would love to go diving in some of those lakes/rivers with submerged buildings.
Another quick question, as I havent done any diving in a number of years and im sure I would have to get re certed. Is that a PITA, or is it relatively painless?
I think ill hold off on doing any diving in the lakes here for now, however if anyone finds themselves this way it should definately be considered. :) Maybe we wont find a dragon, but who knows..We may find my old wedding ring I lost down there years ago. :)
Good fishing anyway, largest bass ive caught thus far was an eight pounder. Folks around this area im sure are aware of the much larger, lake Meredith. That would likely be a more eventful dive, as its rumored some murder victims may have been disposed of there (and who knows what else.)
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re- cert isnt that hard. scuba diving is like driving... you never forget but you do have to spend a week reading and re-familiarizing yourself with new equipment standards and diving procedures.
its easy to check visibility.. just buy a cheapo digital camera pocket sized that has a timer function of 1 minute, wrap it in a ziplock bag, hook it to your fishing line with a decent weight and cast it.
If the picture shows just brown or grey you may as well go snorkeling in your toilet. if its blue and you can make out shapes then its relatively clear.
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Tac, soon as this snow and overall cruddy weather blows away ill do what you suggest and post my findings here.
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http://www.mtstorm.com/
Its in WV. I personally have not dove it, but I have seen pictures of huge largemouth bass. From what I hear the water is usually clear and really warm from the power plant.
About 150 miles from Washington DC.
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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.
im in new braunfels, and i have my open water diving certificate, have to have a special permit for cave diving. its dangerous stuff, my dads best friend died cave diving
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im in new braunfels, and i have my open water diving certificate, have to have a special permit for cave diving. its dangerous stuff, my dads best friend died cave diving
Hey cool, I used to live on Landa next to the Landa Park. What's the name of that dive shop near Whataburger? I wanna say it's Kai something but I keep forgetting.
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there isnt one next to whataburger that i know of, but darbys is kind of like a dive shop closer to san antonio
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there isnt one next to whataburger that i know of, but darbys is kind of like a dive shop closer to san antonio
That little shopping center where the Whataburger is in. It's (or was) down at the end to the right as you're lookin at the Dollar General
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i never knew there was one there, ill look for it next time i go by
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To my knowledge, there is no requirement that you re-cert, except for your own sense of safety. If you act like you know what you're doing, most dive shops will just glance at your card and rent you whatever you ask for.
That said, a refresher course is never a bad idea even for experienced divers after an off season. A basic open water 1 cert doesn't mean much more than you have a general idea how to put your gear on and which way to turn the valve to get the air flowing, so either a refresher or an OW2 upgrade (or any other additional training) is never a bad idea. Some scuba instructors in my area offer refresher courses for around $50 plus rental, and you get pretty much one day's worth of instruction including a few hours classroom time and one dive. That's pretty cheap anti-stupidity insurance :)
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To my knowledge, there is no requirement that you re-cert, except for your own sense of safety. If you act like you know what you're doing, most dive shops will just glance at your card and rent you whatever you ask for.
That said, a refresher course is never a bad idea even for experienced divers after an off season. A basic open water 1 cert doesn't mean much more than you have a general idea how to put your gear on and which way to turn the valve to get the air flowing, so either a refresher or an OW2 upgrade (or any other additional training) is never a bad idea. Some scuba instructors in my area offer refresher courses for around $50 plus rental, and you get pretty much one day's worth of instruction including a few hours classroom time and one dive. That's pretty cheap anti-stupidity insurance :)
I can't get anti-stupidity insurance anymore, the company dropped my policy
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All you really need for most smaller lakes & ponds is a good set of flippers and a mask.
All the action is in the top 15 - 20 feet, which is easily reachable with snorkel gear.
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I used to be a diving instructor in my late teens to early 20's. (YMCA Instructor) Tac is right on the money. Very boring and can be dangerous. Especially when you have people who thing a dive flag is a marker for doing power slides on a jet ski. From my experience, lake dives can be interesting. Myself and several other volunteers assisted with some research on the red bellied turtle. These were ice dives in Worcester, Massachusetts ponds. http://www.jstor.org/pss/1565004 (http://www.jstor.org/pss/1565004)
If you are not sure of yourself, you can tie a safety line to your gear. BUT, I would recommend that you get acclimated in shallow water before doing this. Your safety line can be a hazard if you don't pay attention to what your doing. Safety line training was an additional class we used to teach. The most reliable safety precaution is a dive buddy. In low visibility, don't be afraid to hold hands.
In our classes we used to teach "Plan your dive and dive your plan." Re-certification isn't required, but there might be refresher courses available.
Good luck and have fun.
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I used to live in Startzville until I moved to San Antonio 3 years ago. Actually, I lived in Turkey Cove. You from around there Shuffler?
The Hill Country is our playground. I am east of Houston... Baytown area.
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We had a great dive flag set up for classes in the finger lakes. It was especially for those morons that like to run over dive flags. Large tube with a good size basket in it. Fill the basket with as many large rocks as you can without sinking it. Let your divemaster drag it along.
:bolt:
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I started scuba in spring creeks when I was 8. You didn't need certs back then to re-fill tanks. I did my first lake dive about 4 years later and it sucked when you got near the bottom. I couldn't see, sticks poking me and I was worried about getting caught in fishing line. The first scuba gear I used was the old double hose with the regulator on the tank. When you rolled over on your back, it was hard to breath. I got certified when I was 14, then went to Hawaii and had a blast. For some reason, I stopped diving when I was about 18.
Rash
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Watch your altitude. We live a mile up. Back in the day it changed how long you could stay down for.
Funny how we think alike First thing I thought of when I saw the post.
Yay for the bends...........
On a second note You cant believe what youll find right at the docks.......... Watchs, jewelry, lots of fishing lures, wallets. Helps to have a metal detector.
Or right at the bottom of the boat ramp. Have to have some one watch for ya though. All the stuff that falls out of the boats and trucks slides right to the end of the ramp. Just scoop it up with a net :banana: :banana: