I recently moved up to north Mississippi and have been trying to figure out where I'm going to dive on a regular basis. So, during the last couple of months, I've been bringing my boat to Bay Springs Lake and getting familar with the area. The surface water has been around 90 F with a vis of about 8 feet. I was kind of excited about diving the lake when I read a note on another website that said that the diving is good in the deeper coves and in the middle of the lake. So, having said that, I thought I'd bring my gear and give it a shot...
My daughter and her boyfriend came up to visit for the weekend (I figured I'd let them watch the boat), so we loaded the boat and headed out to the lake on Saturday morning. After launching the boat, I noticed that the surface water didn't look quite as clear as it had on my previous trips, and the ol' fishfinder said that the water temp was 83 F, but WTH, I was going to dive it any way. I'm not sure if recent rainfall had anthing to with the conditions or if it's normal for this lake during late summer, but I was hoping to find some clearer water on the bottom. Anyway, after running the length of the lake, we made our way to the south end (not too far from the lock) where I'd hoped to locate an old earthen dam. We dropped anchor in 65' of water and started gearing up. First thing off the bat, some of our lights were found to be inoperable, which left my wife and I with 1 small light each
... Then, after entering the water, my wife's inflator wasn't working correctly. Well, we decided to give it a try (even though she wasn't too excited about it) and started down the anchor line with me in the lead. Vis was about 5 feet and the temp seemed to be holding a nice warm 83. THEN, at about 30 feet we hit a vicious thermocline - felt like we were in ice water
! To top it off, it was pitch black below us and very little light above...and our little lights barely seemed to penetrate. That was a clear indication to me that this wasn't our day for diving so we aborted and started making our way back up.
Once back on board the boat, I decided that sometime in the future I'll give it another try, not sure when...but will definatly have better lights and more neoprene (we were both wearing 3 mm full suits), and the wife's inflator will be fixed! Hopefully the conditions will improve and I will find a place to spear some catfish.
