Northwoods Dive Sites

[MNDiverDan]

Hello -

I am new to this board, and new to diving acually. I live in MN, but have a cabin in Manitowish Waters, WI. I was up there this past weekend and dove in Little Star Lake and Manitowish Lake. The visibility in Little Star was great, and fairly good in Manitowish. I would like to log some more dives up there and would like to hear any reviews of lakes in the Manitowish Waters/Minocqua area.

Thanks.

[Omicron]

I've dove Crystal lake, in Vilas county (the one in the star/sayner forest...). Good clarity but nothing to see.

A real gem is trout lake - it's pretty big - just pick a spot along the road and do a shore dive. Lots of fun structure to look at.

Check out this guide for some reviews of lakes in the state:

[dfreeman]

Be sure to talk to the people at the dive shop in Minocqua.



Doug

[FreediveWI]

I just got back from that area today. ;D

Timber Bay is an awesome diveshop- it cetainly beats anything in the Madison area and would give many shops in the Milwaukee ara a run for their money. Nice classrooms and a great fill station for your tech diving needs.

I went by Crystal, but didn't dive it because there is nothing in there.

I did dive Little Star quite a bit, because it was next to our rented cottage, and had pretty decent vis in there. I also dove Trout Lake which is huge and goes down to 120'. Vis is better there in the spring, but I still had a good 15'. The lake is so big and cold that it even has burbot in it.

Another interesting lake I dove was Sparkeling lake. It is a research lake for the UW and has lots of tagged fish and lab experiments sunk all over the place.

Another good lake up there that I dove about 20 years ago, while teaching some scuba courses to boy scouts, is Museklunge. It has decent vis, and you can reach depths of 65'.

Check out the local diveshop in Minacqua. They have local dive guides for sale and theey were most helpful.

[FreediveWI]

A few quick shots from some of the lakes I just mentioned.

Jon

[MNDiverDan]

Great Photos Freedive!

Thanks for the info. Our cabin is on Island Lake, which is a couple of lakes over from Little Star, so I will probably be heading back there as the vis is so good on LS.

Where did you dive in Little Star? I only dove there the one time and had a hard time finding much structure, just a lot of sand and crayfish. Are all those bass from Little Star?

[FreediveWI]

I went in off of the state park beach on the East shore.

We were going to use one of the boats that we brought up to hit other areas, but it was so cold, and rainy, that most of the other people wimped out and it was just easier to drive over there and swim it.

The bass are in there if you hit the left side of the bay and stick around 20'. I also saw one, small, muskey in the weed beds that line the right side of the bay. Vis was crap, and it was pretty cold, below 35' so I stayed shallow.

If your in the area I would certainly make the 10 mile drive down to where 51 and highway N cross. THere are a bunch of lakes right there that are all really good for diving- Trout, Sparkeling, Crystal and Muskelunge. Most of the rest of the Manitowish chain is tanic and vis is limited.

I also used lakesat.org to survey the lakes before I went. That way I kne that Little star was going to be my best bet before I ever set eyes on it. It's really an awesome website and I now base most of my diving off of it.

Jon

[FreediveWI]

Temps were a little on the cold side last week. Hopefully it will be warmer for you.

Jon