Anyone have any recent, local dives to report?

[Chris H]

Trying to decide where to dive tomorrow. Dove Nagawicka last weekend and it was less than exciting. We saw one tiny little fish in 45 minutes. I found a shoe, and there were cans and zebra mussels too. : Anyone have anything they can recommend within an hour or so of Milwaukee?

[FreediveWI]

In the last three weeks I've dove Nagawicka, Red Granite and Lake Monona. I almost jumped into Rock lake as it's looking pretty nice right now, but that won't last long. Monona looked pretty bad when I rode past it yesterday and you saw how Red Granite was.

Tomorrow's plan is to go spearfishing all day in LAke Mendota. She's clearing up, finally, and the weeds are still down- as is my fresh fish supply.

You could rent a couple of dive kayaks form Deep Blue and hit Beaver Lake for something new- there's a set of stairs to get down and a long shallow bay to cross before you can get to any kind of depth so a dive kayak is needed.

Lannon still stinks and Wazee only has 10' of vis right now. You could make a trip down to Pearl Lake, in South Beloit, but they won't allow freedivers in there so I haven't dove it in a few years now. Haven't been to Devil's Lake yet this year, but need to to take some more photos of the inlet, so if you go tell me how the vis is.

I think that the Len Der has a charter on Sunday and their regular Wednesday night charters start up on May 12th.

I haven't heard a thing about how Racine quarry has been lately, so if someone's dove it this year I'd like to hear a report.

Jon

[FreediveWI]

Just got out of Lake Mendota and it was pretty crappy. All of the rain we got late last night washed out all of the good vis, and scared away any fish that I hoped to see. :'(

We took a boat to check out at least 6 different spots around the lake and they were all pretty sad. We finally jumped in by the Limonolgy lab and scouted about for a bit. Saw the tail of two walleye, which you can't spear anyway, and nothing else. The highlight was fixing the pier for the lab, which was put in on top of a log. We had to hack saw off a branch so we could lift the end and pull the rest of the tree out and lay it back down level.

Water was 48 degrees, vis was less than 6' and, did I mention, there were NO fish. It was so discouraging we got out and went bike shopping for my dive buddy instead.

Jon

[Chris H]

We did Red Granite again with similar conditions as last week.

The visibility in the 60-80ft range was 30-40 feet which makes for an interesting, lunar looking, landscape. Above that vis was maybe 10ft. I found the bowling ball that I messed with earlier in the year ice diving and we found a couple of crappy masks and one fin. There was a lone trout and a few other fish. We had almost 1hr bottom time. Pretty good dive overall.

I tried Todd's Apeks ATX 200 and his Weezle Extreme insulation. Thanks for letting me use that stuff Todd. The reg was pretty nice, and the insulation wasn't any warmer than the stuff I currently use which is 10yr old USIA fleece. I was hoping to be warmer than I was.

[Vtach]

No problem there mang. I figure if I can't be out there diving with you, I might as well give you the best gear to dive with. ;D I seem to agree with you about the Weezle though. It is pretty comfy stuff but on the last dive I did not really feel "significantly" warmer than using my 200g thinsulate. At the same time, I did not layer either. I pretty much just wore my skivvies. I'll give more than just one dive to make a final judgement.

[Chris H]

<shudder>
;D

[dfreeman]

Did two dives in Lake Wazee on Saturday. Visibility is coming around to the point where these dives were very enjoyable (15-20 feet). I was surprised as I had thought the rain would have messed it up. Over the last 3 weekends, the visibility has steadily improved, looking forward to the great conditions that can occur in May. Have not been below 70 feet. I expect that the visibility may be very good down below.

No pictures guys. These were pure relaxtion dives.

The fish have not moved up yet, so I have only seen a few smallmoouth bass and minnows. Fish cribs are still empty. Will be looking forward to the change in fish conditions as the spring progresses.

Doug

Chris, for a better image of Todd in his skivvies, check the last ice dive CD that I sent you. I will not post such a picture here as it may cause people to swear off diving.

[Vtach]

I was even frightened by those pictures, I can just imagine the psychological trauma suffered by other viewers of such hedonistic filth. War on drugs? We need to start an all out assault on ass crack!!

[Omicron]

I had blocked that memory out of my mind...now it came back in all it's horrifying glory.

I'm hiding under a table as I type.

That may have something to do with the fact that I haven't slept for around 40 hours.

Mmmmm...trivia.

[Vtach]

Ahhhh yes, the UWSP Trivia Contest. That brings back some memories. I never played myself but I remember all the ruckus, not to mention all the freaky people running around......Shut up Chris ;D Ok, I'll stop now, really stretching this thread into uncharted territory.