Manatee - Tidal Influence

[dshuman]

My buddy and I are heading up to Manatee soon. From what I have read, best time to dive (we'll be entering Catfish Hotel and heading upstream) is about an hour after high tide at the Suwannee River entrance.

How important is this? How dramatically different is the vis and the flow? Any tips?

Thanks,
Dave

[techdvr]

I have never noticed a difference in the system because of the tidal influence. The differences I have found are when the river rises and the flow reduces in the cave and the viz improves. You may see some reduction in viz around Sue and Friedman with the runoff. It is usually one of the last systems to flood out, so you should have a good dive.

[EGIB]

Went there today it was especially horrible. Not to say that means anything for the coming days/weeks.

[Corbett]

When the river is at it's normal to low level, the tide makes a big difference, the water
at the stair's in catfish will raise almost 2ft. compared to low tide. ( I dive this system
at least once a week, and low tide sucks twice as much as high ) If the river levels
move up to near flood stage and you hit it after high tide the flow dramatically drops
and (sometimes) the viz. increases a lot.

High tide today was about 11:30 a.m. I don't know when Elisha dove there today
but Noon I would think would have been the best time....

PM if you like Dave and my Buddy and I would be happy to show you the system.

Chris

[Serota]

Elisha,

How bad was it?

Went there today it was especially horrible. Not to say that means anything for the coming days/weeks.

[EGIB]

We did dive at 9:30 or so. The plan was to get a dive in and be ready for a second dive about an hour after high tide (like Chris has previously recommended to be good). The first dive just kicked our butts so much that noone wanted to make the effort of getting back in. Viz was about 20 feet, maybe less. At no point could we see both walls. One of my friends led and gave up at Sue's Sink...I probably could have made it past Sue's but not too much farther...I would have hit thirds long before Friedman. I was hoping someone would be in the system after us to report conditions after the high tide, but like I said, we didn't want to be the ones to test it out.