New to diving Amistad

[ScubaJustin]

Hello all,

Myself and dive buddy are taking our families to Amistad, on the weekend Of May 21-May 23, For a houseboat trip. We would both like to do several dives over the weekend, but need a little help and information from our fellow local divers!! We would like someone to help point us in the right direction. We both have our own equipment, and of course will have the ability to dive from the houseboat. I have been to lake Amistad several times and am fairly familiar with the area, but have never dived there. We would like to get a little information on some good dive sites that could be accessed from the houseboat. What kind of structures can we find to dive on, and how can we find them? What are the current conditions, ie. water temp, and visibility. What size wetsuits will we need to be comfortable. What are some good strategies for diving in the lake, for instance I saw that in an earlier post, someone said that diving on the cliff walls was nice. What cliffs are best? We want to make the most of our trip and dont want to just wander around aimlessly. Any recomendations on good locations? Any information provided would be great. Also I read on your website that you have will be having a monthly meeting on Thur. May 20. What time is your meeting? We will be arriving on this Thur afternoon/evening and this might be a great oportunity to meet some fellow divers and get some valueable information before our dives. Thanks in advance for your input, and looking forward to what everyone has to say.

-JH

[ScubaDog]

Justin, right now the water temps range 71 to 65, depending on how deep you go. Vis this past weekend was 30 feet. We were wearing 5mm full wetsuits and were comfortable shallow, but I'd go with 7mm full if you go deeper than 30ft for more than 20 minutes. Since I don't have a boat, most of my diving is shore diving, but past Castle Canyon, a short way up Evan's Creek, is a sunken ranch house. At the island (such as it is) just heading into Castle Canyon is an excellent wall dive with rock spires, etc. I've heard there are a couple of other sunken houses, but I have no idea of the coordinates. If walls are what you want to dive and you have a good bottom scanner you just look for quick drop offs, park the boat and jump in.

Amistad Aqua Adventures just started running a guided dive operation here, though I have no experience dealing with them. Allegedly, they have GPS coordinates for a number of points of interest, and I'm doubting they'll share.

Our club meetings are the third Thursday every month, 7pm. We usually meet at Rudy's Restaurant, by Walmart, but this time we decided to change it up a bit and meet at Buffalo Wings & Rings. You are more than welcome to join us!