Rob and Greg at Blue Springs on 9/29/11

[Greg Barlow]

Rob and I made two great dives on an a sunny, 77 degree day. Tomorrow's forecast is a high of 55... Anyway, the big thrill of the day was seeing paddlefish. Rob was taking some photographs of me looking at a freshwater jellyfish, when all of a sudden I see a 4' paddlefish swimming behind him. It is unusal for paddlefish to be observed by divers on scuba, as they normally shy away from the noise and bubbles.

My strobe has an effective range of around 4', so the pictures don't do justice to the beauty of the fish. I was not able to close the gap to any closer than 12' or so. Still, a big thrill for the two of us. There were at least two different fish, and they kept coming back every few minutes. My guess is that they were as curious about us, as we were about them.

I'm sure Rob will chime in about his "not so dry, dry suit".

[USdiver]

Long live William Baker and his great idea of sponsoring paddlefish at Blue Springs!!

Karl and Gary, is that your fish or mine?

One of the ultimate cool fishies of North America.

George

Now I'm really, really sorry to have missed yesterday's dives.

[Bryan]

Where I grew up there were tons of spoonbill in the rivers but there was no way in hell a diver could ever get near one....This could be a great drawing card for the quarry. Lets hope that all the divers are respectful of their space so they don't become afraid of people and hide as soon as they hear you enter the water...I bet it would be cool to photograph them under the ice when the water is super clear.

[swimjim]

I did a few dives at Mermet Springs and they have Spoonbills. They just seemed to do their own thing and were oblivious of the divers. They did keep their difference though. Interesting fish. Looks like a swimming dinosor.

Jim

[DaleC]

I am very envious of your abilities to swim with that species of fish. It must be a treat!

[1969ivan1]

Greg and I had one of our best days at Blue Springs I think. The air temp was nice and sunny and the water was about 62ish or so? I dived the newest regulator in The Scuba Museum's collection fresh from Poland; the rare early black label Kajman. It dived great and gave me plenty of air for the 1 hour 20 minute long dive. I used the Hydroglove dry suit as you can see in the pics that Greg posted and it leaked something fierce? I am not sure what happened, but I have never gotten so soaked in the suit before. I bet I poured out 1 cup of water out of each leg when I took the suit off, Arrrggg! We spent most of the 1st dive chasing the last of the freshwater jellyfish and trying to take some pics of them with Greg's auto focus camera so we probably missed the paddlefish because of that.
Since I was already wet I donned my 5mm wetsuit for the second dive. I also swapped out my reg for a nice gold label Healthways with new repro sillycone diaphragm. That reg may not be much to look at, but is it a great breather. I manage to do an hour in the water with it, but that is not the important part. While I was taking pics of Greg with the jellyfish by the wall at about 20 feet Greg suddenly screamed into his regulator like a little girl! I turned around expecting to see a quarry shark or honey badger coming right at us, but instead I saw the shadow of a 3 foot long or longer paddlefish dissapearing into the murk! I was excited, but bummed that I didnt get a great look at it, but I wasnt bummed for long.......For the next 30 minutes or so Greg and I were treated to a fantastic display of paddlefish shooting in towards us from the murk over and over again. We saw at least 2 at one time so we know that it was not just the same one over and over. We hovered at 25 feet and evey few minutes or so another spoonbill would come to within 10 to 15 feet of us just checking us out. They seemed very curious of of and not too skiddish really. This was so cool because I have been in a lot of places that alleged to have had them, but never had I seen one. I understand that to see them on scuba is rare and I feel very lucky to have encountered them.
I can't wait until the next winter ice dive in the clear water. I hope Greg's camera batteries are up to the challenge!

[Drado]

I was wondering what regulator that was with its cool mouthpiece... so it was a black label Kajman. Aside from the label, are there any mechanical differences in the red and black label? How did it breathe at higher tank pressures? I recall a discussion before which hinted that the Kajman might be a balanced single-stage regulator, so I was curious about that.

Did you ever figure out why your hydroglove leaked?

[1969ivan1]

The only real difference between the Black and Red is the colour. The Black were the first batch and are a little more rare. The reg was only on my triples and they are low pressure tanks and the reg performed very nicely on them. Check my webstite for action shots and more details.

I am not sure what happened with the hydro glove. I am guessing that I had the face seal buggered up, but I really don't know. I am guessing that I will simply have to dive it again to see. The hydroglove can be awesome sometimes and sometimes I get a little water in, but this was the worst by far. Since both feet where soaked and the only dry spot I could find on my body was a small volleyball sized patch on my back I am pretty sure the seal was the culprit and not a hole. I also have considered that since I have lost weight that the XXL may be too big on me. They are so cheap that buying an XL is not the end of the world.

[antique diver]

I have both a neck seal and a hooded version Hydroglove, and find that my neck seal suit is dryer. I think the hooded suit gets more water in, probaby during ascents when the air is exiting around my face. Maybe they should be called "damp suits". They still beat wet suits and most dry suits for comfort.

[SurfLung]

I read about Paddle Fish back in the early '70s when I was clam diving in Lake Pepin (a huge lake that's part of the Mississippi river). I was in a local museum I think. There were old black and white photos of them being commercially fished on the lake in the way early days. And, they were believed to be fished out. I sure never saw one but, the visibility was pretty much zero. What a thrill to see such a rare fish. Thanks for sharing your pictures and dive story.