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FreediveWI · (This post was last modified: 08-08-2004, 08:54 PM by FreediveWI.)

Things are pretty green in the Lakes around Madison right now, so it's raod trip time to some nice spearfishing lakes just an hour, or so, to the north.

We first checked out Wood Lake and Pleasant Lake, but, then decided to try and get onto Crystal lake after seeing how green the other two were.

Crystal lake is very secluded as you can see from the only 'public boat launch' on the lake. It's really just a foot path through the woods with big boulders put across the road about a 100 yards from the 'launch'. Wink

Jon

FreediveWI · 08-08-2004, 08:56 PM,

We decided to run down to the water to see if it would be worth the effort. After taking one look at the spring clear water we decided it was! ;D

Since this is, basically, a private lake it was nice to see that there were no gas motors allowed on the whole lake. This made for much better visability and not as much to worry about- the major boat traffic consisted of electric pontoon boats and small sail boats. This is my kind of lake!

Jon

FreediveWI · 08-08-2004, 08:58 PM,

Next, it was time to suit up and start the hike down to the water. The lake itself is close to 70' deep and even has some trout planted in it- but we didn't see any.

Jon

FreediveWI · 08-08-2004, 09:00 PM,

Did I mention that it was a 'long' walk through the woods? Wink

Once we got to the water we had to swim out through a shallow bay to get to the deeper stuff. It was easy enough to do it in freediving gear, but I wouldn't want to try and tackle it in scuba gear.

Jon

FreediveWI · 08-08-2004, 09:01 PM,

Once we got in we were rewarded with 73 degree water and a good 20' of visability- not too shabby for this time of year!

Jon

FreediveWI · 08-08-2004, 09:06 PM,

Did I mention that there were also lots of fish?

We got some nice crappie and even a few good sized bluegill.

This was one of the dozens of bass that we saw- and since they are illeagal to spear I only have this picture of him. My camera is mounted onto my speargun so that's why you see the spear tip in the picture. I was NOT going to shoot a bass.

Vis crapped out at about 20', and since there were no fish below that point we didn't go below 20' much at all today. Instead we enjoyed the warm water and good vis, which made for lots of bottom time, in about 15' to 20' of water.

I can hardly wait to see what this lake looks like in October.

Jon

08-08-2004, 09:10 PM,

That's some pretty amazing viz for this time of year!!