theskull
May 28th, 2007, 11:43 PM
The advance reports were true! The visibility at Table Rock Lake was 30 ft. at all depths in almost all areas, and it had to be 40 ft. viz below 100 ft. depth.
We started the weekend with a deep dive off the State Park Marina dive boat at Poverty Point on Saturday morning, with a swim through the trees at the bottom of the bluff, and got treated to a school of bluegill hanging out in the holes of a huge tree stump during the safety stop portion of our dive. Then over to the wreck of the General Zebulon Pike in the afternoon. I have dived the Zeb before, but have never “seen” it before this weekend! Viz is typically terrible in that silty cove, but this weekend it was glorious, allowing us to swim through every portion of the wreck and practice a bit with running a wreck reel.
Sunday morning found us on Duck Island, where we did a navigation dive staying a little shallower to see more fish, and found a lost anchor, which we retrieved with a lift bag and reel and towed it around for the rest of the dive. The afternoon dive was at Spoonbill Bluff, where we had another great dive through an underwater forest. Sunday night was a night dive at the dam, accompanied by a large number of crawfish scampering all over the flats in the shallow water—and we surfaced at the end of the dive to a fireworks display being shot off by the Chateau on the Lake for a great evening topper.
Monday morning we were back at Poverty Point for another deep dive, this time turning North instead of South at the base of the bluff to spend most of the dive swimming along the wall exploring holes rather than going through the trees; once we got back up to a depth of 40 ft., we found dozens of large bass swarming around the tree tops. And the afternoon dive was back at Duck Island again, this time for a deep dive and circumnavigation of the island, with the clearest viz yet and a couple sightings of a very large Buffalo fish.
Water temps at this time are 75 F at the surface and 65 F down to 22 ft. depth. Temp dropped there to 55 F and then again at the 40 ft. thermocline to about 46 F. A beautiful weekend, and a great time was had by all—well, except for SLIM, who missed today’s dives to work on the Marina’s submerged water pump in 12 ft. of water under the dock.
theskull
We started the weekend with a deep dive off the State Park Marina dive boat at Poverty Point on Saturday morning, with a swim through the trees at the bottom of the bluff, and got treated to a school of bluegill hanging out in the holes of a huge tree stump during the safety stop portion of our dive. Then over to the wreck of the General Zebulon Pike in the afternoon. I have dived the Zeb before, but have never “seen” it before this weekend! Viz is typically terrible in that silty cove, but this weekend it was glorious, allowing us to swim through every portion of the wreck and practice a bit with running a wreck reel.
Sunday morning found us on Duck Island, where we did a navigation dive staying a little shallower to see more fish, and found a lost anchor, which we retrieved with a lift bag and reel and towed it around for the rest of the dive. The afternoon dive was at Spoonbill Bluff, where we had another great dive through an underwater forest. Sunday night was a night dive at the dam, accompanied by a large number of crawfish scampering all over the flats in the shallow water—and we surfaced at the end of the dive to a fireworks display being shot off by the Chateau on the Lake for a great evening topper.
Monday morning we were back at Poverty Point for another deep dive, this time turning North instead of South at the base of the bluff to spend most of the dive swimming along the wall exploring holes rather than going through the trees; once we got back up to a depth of 40 ft., we found dozens of large bass swarming around the tree tops. And the afternoon dive was back at Duck Island again, this time for a deep dive and circumnavigation of the island, with the clearest viz yet and a couple sightings of a very large Buffalo fish.
Water temps at this time are 75 F at the surface and 65 F down to 22 ft. depth. Temp dropped there to 55 F and then again at the 40 ft. thermocline to about 46 F. A beautiful weekend, and a great time was had by all—well, except for SLIM, who missed today’s dives to work on the Marina’s submerged water pump in 12 ft. of water under the dock.
theskull