Wed's Scuba Dive

[John Jarosz]

The dive report sounds like some fishing reports: "We got nothing."

The muck was so deep at the Cargill that one diver stuck his arm into it up o his elbow, with no resistance. The silt is so fine we picked it up on Andy's fish finder when it was kicked up with their flippers. They saw no fish of any kind.

Bottom conditions at the Bell Slip was slightly better but it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Saw one decent largemouth

They want to try again. Visibility was about 5'. We all agreed that just because they didn't find them, doesn't mean they won't be found under better conditions.

You have to think though: if the silt is so fine & deep,did the receiver's concrete block sink in all the way? Which makes me wonder, what about the Union Ship, the City Ship & the Black Rock? We'll have to confirm, but I don't believe there were any detections there either. Might be due to bottom silt. 

[Stephen Glassic]

Was this dive for the purpose of finding receivers that could not be located yet?

If so, I wonder if the sonar can pick them up by adjusting settings to hopefully penetrate the silt to see them. Maybe a test object can be dropped through the silt to used as a target to find the right sonar settings that might work.

[John Jarosz]

Yes, Steve, that's what the dive was for. Last month Andy & I took a look around with his 'Bird & an Aqua View to determine if we could see it. The theory the whole time has been that someone's anchor dragged across the line & then boater then cut it when he got snagged. We saw something that looked like it might be a concrete block.  We had the divers go down to take a look.

Visibility was about 5' which is not good for trying to find something down there but the depth of the silt was a new twist. Now we're thinking that the receiver, its concrete anchor & lines are still attached but they're buried. To add to the mystery, Justin (DEC) told me today that to get one of the receivers snagged they ended up putting out a lot of grappling line (>100') & dragging it a ways along the bottom. Now we're thinking that we need to add some weight or an anchor chain to the grapple, wait 5 to 10 seconds for it to sink & then start dragging, like using a count-down Rapala before retrieving.

As far as sonar, Andy was playing around with his graph recorder as best as he could. The silt is so fine it might just absorb the signal.

The divers are chomping at the bit to go down again (these guys don't quit) & Justin is willing to try a weighted grappling hook. If another idea pops into your head, let us know!