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Niagara river underwater


Jim K

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Jim, How strong is the current drag towards your body when you were taking videos? Can you just swim without holding on to the rope? 

 

Is the current less stronger underneath compared to on the surface of the river?

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12 hours ago, fishfight said:

Jim, How strong is the current drag towards your body when you were taking videos? Can you just swim without holding on to the rope? 

 

Is the current less stronger underneath compared to on the surface of the river?

The current 0n the bottom is usually a good bit less than what it is in the middle of the water column, where it is the strongest. the terrain has a great impact on current speed though.

   Let me explain how this is done. Three of us head out for some diving. 2 dive at a time, and the third guy runs the boat. Everyone does two 30-35 minute dives, so you drive once and dive twice. We pick a drift with good terrain and roll in. The line you see goes up to a divers float and flag on the surface. It's just to mark where we are. It's actually a hinderance as the current tugs on it. 

 We descend in the water column by letting air out of our vests until we reach the river bottom. Once there, I do not try to achieve neutral buoyancy like most divers, but remain negative. I wear extra lead, in fact, to assure it. then we slowly let the current take us downstream headfirst. I push off the bottom with one hand holding the camera with the other. I go as slow as possible, only swimming to catch up to the guy with the float.  I want the fish to come to me, i don't chase them. it is ideal if I can stop by just sinking to the bottom. without silting out the shot. That, of course, doesn't always happen and I wind up drifting right into the fish i am trying to film. The river dictates almost everything. You can only work back upstream against it a couple of meters at best, with a lot of effort. I hope this answers your question.

    

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2 hours ago, NiagaraRiverFisher said:

Great dive films as always Jim K , any chance you ever dive the Lower river this year ?  

Thank you. I'm not very optimistic about that,  I always wanted to drift up the niagara bar, like a drift you would take while laker fishing. The weather this season has been particularly poor , not just for diving, but for boating in general. We did some walleye fishing today between the lake and Peace Bridge. We caught some, but took quite a beating from wind and wave. The visibility was poor, and will be worse after the winds forecast for the next few days. 

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7 hours ago, RyanTheRiverBoy said:

Nice video

have you ever dived In the wellend river (chippawa creek) ?

I dove what people called the "Chippewa cut"  We dove from the Niagara river in about half a mile.  That was before those guys died diving it. I'm not sure it's allowed these days. 

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16 hours ago, Spennyfish said:

Jim, very neat video. really enjoyed. How often to you see muskies while diving? 

Thank you.  The musky is the fish I like to film most. We seek drifts where we will contact them. We don't always see one, but more often than not.  Nobody was really filming them back when I first started. We had to learn how to get in close to them.   Some muskies are afraid, some curious, some friendly, some mean and aggressive. They are a moody creature. 

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