There are days when what should be a pretty ordinary dive becomes something quite unusual. Today was one of them. It had been decided to make a trip out to the Cora Post. It's a site we hadn't visited for some time, so that seemed as good a reason as any. There was nothing extraordinary about the preparations, except perhaps noticing how low the water has become.
Anyway, first issue is the fact that we can't locate the guideline in the shallows. No problem, already agreed to drop to the 35' contour and follow it to the wreck. Of course, reaching 35' we pick up the line almost immediately, quite close to the wreck. At about the same time, both of us spot a large shape in the water, just off the bow. It turns out to be a very large Muskie, completely unimpressed with our presence. It swam gently across our path and exited the area.
With a water temperature of just 46℉ (6℃), we elected to spend just a few minutes on the wreck; long enough to notice though that the stern section is really broken down now. We follow the line back along the contour and discover that, where it used to turn NW to head for the shallows, it's broken. As we consider this, we spot, just to our left, in about 35' of water, a huge baitball of small fish. Almost perfectly cylindrical, with the fish circling briskly, it was about 20' high and 10-12' in diameter. The fish were about 2" long and short, with a silvery colour. Even after applying the exaggeration factor, there must have literally been thousands of them. I have never seen anything remotely like it in local waters - and only rarely in waters further south. A real treat. Just goes to show - it's always worth diving here - and every day has the potential to astonish and impress underwater.
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1 comment:
A Fish ball! That's very neat. It must have been that other big fish that did it.
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