We Want YOU, To Come Dive With Us! Lake
Jocassee, Rick Jacquot As a new diver, I wanted to get in some practice dives in between the fossil hunting trips to the Cooper River, S.C. and other rivers in Florida that I have been going on with Jerry. I had heard that Lake Jocassee in S.C. was a location frequented by divers from all over and that the water was very clear. I decided to head over there during the week while it was not so crowded. It is about an hour and fifteen minute drive from Asheville. My Dad rode to the site with me, we met John D. at the park. Basically there is an old dock that is set aside for divers to conduct walk in dives, I suited up and jumped in.
The first thing I met was a fish, staring at me. I swam around for a while and located the skeleton on a gurney that had been placed there at about 20 feet for the divers amusement.
A little farther down was a junk boat, fiberglass, about 20 feet long.
For the most part, there were just a lot of fish to look at, there is nothing to hunt in the lake. It is man made and the rocks are all granite rip-rap and not very pretty. I descended to 60 feet, the visibility was great, I had my new "Hand Cannon" HID dive light with me and never had to turn it on. At 60 feet I stopped and sat for a while, I did not want to venture further down without a dive partner.
Fish hiding under the boat hull.
Old sunken boat dock.
The lake is a great place for practice dives to hone your diving skills. You do not need a light unless you venture down to around the 100 foot level. For the most part, it was very boring to me, having been trained from the start by Jerry to fossil dive and find great stuff in rivers full of wildlife etc., this just did not do it for me. I will probably return just to brush up in between real dives for fossils and artifacts... |
