Red Granite...

[Chris H]

We had an enjoyable dive at Red Granite today.  The 53-55 degree surface temp felt balmy compared to Lake Michigan in its current state.  Visibility is horrible shallow, but clears up nicely in the 65-80ft range.  We took a little tour and the bottom almost had a lunar look to it.  The slime on the bottom has many interesting colors and textures.  Matt did some UW bowling and life was pretty good on a sunny Sunday morning.  The wind sucked up top, but you can't feel wind under water...at least not the wind we had today...

Top off a nice dive with a healthy, greasy, skillet breakfast and about 15 cups of coffee at the local diner...life is good!

[dfreeman]

Did some ice diving last Sunday at Red Granite.  Variable visibility conditions, but there was better than normal conditions at the third boat.  This craft is at 80 feet and normally is hard to find.  Got a picture of the boat as well as a walleye that was resting near the boat. 

Ice diving was great.  Just started snowing as we left.

Doug

[Dewit2it]

Stopped by on the April 6th.  From shore you could see 15-20ft down.  The fish have started comming up from the depths.  I saw a few bluegill and crappies in the southeast bay along the ridge.  I also saw two good sized carp hanging around the point.  Would have gone in snorkeling, but had no one to zip the drysuit. :'(

Has anyone else seen the Albino Oscar that someone dumped in there last year?  I met up with it last fall while snorkeling for freshwater jellies.  He's around 8" and I hope he survived the winter. ???

Here's a couple pics of the jellies I caught.

[matt t.]

So that's what they look like. Very cool!

[Dewit2it]

Stopped by yesterday and met dfreeman out there.  He said the top 3' is around 10 degrees warmer.  I didn't get the base temp, but the viz is GREAT!  The fish were going nuts on the surface.  Just hiking around the quarry I saw just about every kind of fish in there. (trout, bass, carp, bluegill, crappie, rockbass)

I put out a test sheet of waterproof inkjet paper to see if it will fade after a long immersion.  Please do not remove it.  It's behind the big rock at the entrance behind the pickle factory.  I'm hopeing to use it for direction cards on the gnome compass course that I'm going to set up.  That will give us some fun when the water gets murky.  I now have 5 of the little miners for markers.  Once I get them set, I'll drop off the info to the dive stores in Appleton, Green Bay, and Oshkosh.  My lift bag should be comming in this week so it won't be long. 

[dfreeman]

Conditions were pretty good at Red Granite.  Good 20-25 foot visibility from the surface to 30 feet.  Kind of cloudy down to 60 feet and then opens up nicely.  Could see the third boat from a distance, at least 20 feet and even some ability to see in the trough at 105 feet.  I understand that it was even better a couple of weeks ago.

I am sure that this will not last long, so go when you can.

A warming layer at the surface that was up to 51 degrees F.  But three feet down, its 40 degress and does not get better.

Lots of fish on the surface, I think they were feeding on a small fly that seemed to be out.

Get out and enjoy.

Doug

[Dewit2it]

Just got the first open water of the year.   I met up with a new fish in the quarry today.  A 36" MUSKIE!  I was snorkling by the pickel factory and testing a new fish food on the gills.  A small bass stopped to look at the food and was taken by the muskie.  That bass was only 2' away when he got gobbled. :o  It scared the piss out of me.(the warmth felt good ;D)  That boy is thicker than my arm.  He must have been hanging in the corner, as I didn't see him until he struck.  I also saw a monster bass.  The fish are still jumping.  The gills are still indiffernt to the food, so next time I will try salting it.

The water seemed the same temp all the way down.  It wasn't too bad in the 5mm Goldcore, but after about an hour, I started feeling like shivering.  I did a few dives to 20' and retrieved a few cans and bottles and found a golf ball which I left.  I saw tons of snails on the bottom.  I could easily see the boat and tv set from the surface.  I wish I could have gotten in sooner when it was still sunny.(started to rain)

I removed the waterproof inkjet paper test strip.  The black ink suffered the most.  The colors stayed in the paper pretty good.  The Sharpie writing didn't appear affected at all.  The paper did get a thin coat of scum growing on it after 5 days.  Looks like I'll be using a Sharpie on the heading cards for the gnome compass course.

[Dewit2it]

Stopped in for another snorkel yesterday.  Still great viz.  Could see the walls 30-35 feet away with the sun shining on them.  The trout were buzzing around near the surface.  Tried to get a pic but they're too quick.  I was kinda hoping to see the muskie again to get a pic of him but didn't see him.  I saw another large fish, maybe a sucker, but it wouldn't let me close enough to get a good ID.  It did seem that there was a slight thermocline at 18', as things felt a little colder when I'd get down deep enough to play with the bowling ball.(purple)  Might have been the wind pushing the warmer water into that end of the quarry.  The gills seemed to play with the salted food a little bit more than the unsalted stuff, but still no good feeding frenzie.  Wish the pics turned out better with those Kodak UW disposables.

There must be a creche around the rocks in the quarry.  I saw a fox snake and 3 garter snakes sunning themselves on the north side of the quarry.  Please leave them alone, you don't see many snakes anymore, and the fox snake takes care of mice.  The fox snake will rattle his tail in the leaves to bluff you into thinking he's a rattlesnake.

[Chris H]

Great Fox Snake Picture! And good advice regarding them.  If I remember correctly, Red Granite is one of the few areas in the state that has a population of them.  I remember several years ago finding several dead snakes in the quarry that the local idiots killed.

[Dewit2it]

Thanks Chris!

I used to have a fox snake, 2 garter snakes and 3 brown snakes as pets.  I had some disease kill them all in about a month. :'(  So this was like meeting old friends.