Devils Lake Report

[dfreeman]

Jason,

Lake Wazee action on Sunday would be good.

Doug

[mrclean]

Another dive today at Devils Lake with Dive buddy Ed and Dave.  The wind was blowing enough to make whitecaps on the water.  We dove I believe its called the south shore, over by the railroad tracks, etc.  Maybe we dove over the wrong area because we didn't see anything, except one bass and plenty of sandy, silty muck.  Visibility was all of 8 feet at best, but the bonus was water temp was a balmy 48 degrees at depth of 40 feet and in the low 50's near the surface.  We pretty much had the lake to ourselves.  30 minutes into the dive, I took my attention from the other divers and in just a few seconds we got separated due to the poor vis so I ended up surfacing a short time later as did the others.  In those few minutes we ended up being separated by a couple hundred feet.  So we surface swam back to shore and called it a day.

All in all a good dive, because it was better than working.

andy

[MikeS]

today at devil's lake:  viz from 6 to 12 ft. surface temp 61, bottom 58.

[moneysavr]

Thats the best it gets,been to it several times,and thats it 5'-15'-YUCK!

[fishchaser]

Me and the family will be camping at the park on June 24-26 (maybe earlier too).  I'm hoping a co-worker/diver will be joining us, as I'm the only diver in the family.

Wouldn't mind meeting and/or diving with anyone out there that weekend.

Also, where's the best dive sites and access?  It's my first time diving there.

Chad

[MikeS]

Just outside the entrance to the park on the north side (hwy 123) there is a dive shop called Three Little Devils.  Stop in there and pick up a free map of the lake.  The most popular site is on the northeast side.  There is a parking lot next to the lake and railroad tracks.  It is the furthest parking lot on the east side as you approach from the north.  You can also dive on the south shore and on the southwest short.  Expect visibility to be from six to twelve feet. You probably won't find anything deeper than 30 feet and that will be all silt.  Stay close to shore along the rocks and play with the smallmouth bass.  They're rather friendly there.  I do suggest you stop in the dive shop and have the guys there direct you. They're open 9-5, seven days a week. 

[fishchaser]

Had a nice dive on Saturday.  Vis was probably at least 15'.  We dove the East shore.  Geez, there was a ton of families fishing that shoreline, but most towards the Northern half (closest to the parking lot).  There was also about 15 OW students there.  We swam past them and decended.  Was pretty boring at first....plain bottom and no fish.  But then we came upon the boulders and tons of fish.  Lots of rock bass schools, a few bluegill, and plenty of largemouth and smallmouth bass.  As MikeS said, they are pretty friendly.  One bass followed me around for a bit, and came so close to my face that I couldn't take pictures even in macro mode!  Water was a toasty mid-70's, with the thermocline at 17'.  Not much to see below 17', so we stayed above the thermo.  Was nice to dive without a hood and gloves for a change.  Wanted to do a second dive yesterday, but I forgot my weightbelt in my buddy's car.  Darn.

[fishchaser]

Here's a few pics I took on Saturday.  My first ever WI underwater photos.  The originals were super green, but PS took care of that quickly.

[Weston]

not bad vis yesterday ---- nice water temp too 65.....

[Swimjim]

I'll be going to Devils Lake next weekend, sept 16-17.  Anybody been out there recently?  How's the viz?

Tanks

Jim