Monona Outlet

[FreediveWI]

A bunch of us freedivers and spearos have been hitting it all winter long.

Last weekend was the best dive I've had there in TWO years- water coming out of the pipe was 64F degrees! There were tons of fish and the air temp wasn't too bad either.

All winter long I've been working on trying to hand-feed those musky. I keep scaring them off when I stick my hand in their face with a fresh bluegill, so I decided to try and stick it on the end of a spear tip to try and be less of a menacing presence. So far nothing seems to work- or maybe they are just full from all fish hanging around. Maybe by the end of winter they'll be a little bit hungrier?

I see that someone has jacked up one of the gates to let the smaller fish go in and out. As soon as you shoot one carp they all go ducking in for cover. there aren't nearly as many dead fish hanging up in the gate as there were earlier in the winter- but there are still a few.

Another friend and I were out today for about 3 1/3 hours. Water was very clear but not as warm- about 52F. We had a temperature spike about 11:30, it hit 63F, but then it dropped back down after 15 minutes. Water away from the pipe was around 34f. This is also where the carp were today so we spent most of our time in the weed beds out there- with trips back to the pipe to warm up throughout the day.

Ice has been melted out past the wooden barriers and there's easy access to the inlet as well. The wind was really whipping today and there were plenty of waves and steam which made for reduced surface vis.

I just tried attaching some of the photos  I took, but I guess I've used up all my my memory for posting.  ??? 

Jon