Lake Lucerne

[Omicron]

We did a little ice diving trip up to Lake Lucerne this weekend.  It's turning into an annual trip - head up to a friends cabin for the weekend, do a little ice diving, and do a little of everything else.

Lucerne was good - the lake usually has good viz, and under the ice it is great.  We had 40+ feet of viz, and had some good diving.  I got in two dives, so it was pretty cool.  We didn't have a lot of fish life to see unfortunately.  I spotted one really nice bullhead, but other than that, there wasn't much for life to see.  It was just cool to enjoy such great viz.  I love the sight of an endless sheet of ice up above my head - it is such a cool sight that so few people get to enjoy...I love staring up at it and just enjoying the view.

After our diving at Lucerne, we did what comes naturally when a bunch of people are in a northwoods cabin.  We had brought an armory's worth pistols and ammnunition w/ us, so we proceeded to put a lot of holes in a lot of targets.  I got to get re-acquainted with a chromed Desert Eagle .44 magnum , so that was definitely fun.  My girlfriend and I put a few pounds of ammo through my .45, and there were a lot of other good noisemakers.  A highlight was trying to replay a scene from countless action flicks.  My friend has the same .45 that I do, so I loaded them both up and took both of them out on the deck.  A pistol in each hand and empty shells flying everywhere is a heck of a lot of fun, but you really can't hit a thing - it's strangely satisfying though The nights were filled w/ good beer and cards (and occasionally more noise - it's fun to shoot pistols at night...the flames flying out the ends of the barrels are easier to see *grin*). 

It was a really relaxing weekend overall - how was the diving out at Wazee??

[Chris H]

Wazee was really nice.  The weather was great and Kieth does a great job with the food and set up of the whole thing.  There was maybe 10 divers.  Did two dives, vis was much better on the first than the second.  I did get to try my argon and new insulation.  They seemed to work well.  The water was 39 top to bottom.

[matt t.]

Wazee was great , but Chris wouldn't let me bring any guns.  ;D Maybe next time. Where else do you dive up there? My dad has a spot in a campground on Rollingstone (off of Hwy 55). Never been diving in the area.

[Chris H]

The problem isn't so much the guns, but the fact that you try to shoot things while you're driving.... ;D

[Omicron]

Hehe.  I have a hard time aiming when the driver is contsantly hitting the potholes

Last year we went ice diving in Lake Metonga, which is also really nice along the shoreline.  There are more fish active in that lake in the winter it seems.  We had great viz there too, in the 40 foot range.  Other than that, I haven't dove much else up there, but it's a promising area.

It sounds like Wazee was a little warmer than Lucerne.  For some reason, the water temp as a solid 35 degrees.  Maybe it's just a perception....35 degrees seems "dang near freezing", while 39 is "almost 40 and toasty"...but it just seemed to be really cold.  It was GREAT on the surface though!

[FreediveWI]

Brian and I jumped into Monona on Saturday. Temps in the pipe hovered around 59 degrees, but out in the lake, where the good vis was, they dropped down to 36.

Jon

[FreediveWI]

We saw lots of really big carp and buffalo, but left the (spear)guns in the car.

Jon

[FreediveWI]

Brian did try his hand at hand-catching some musky- they are slippery! ;D

Also saw some nice sized northern swimming about.

Jon

[FreediveWI]

Ended up finding 4 anchors, 2 musky lures and a fishing arrow.  Also found a couple of dead ducks on the bottom.

Lucerne and Metonga are both nice lakes to dive in. My grandparent's owned a cottage up that way when I was growing up and dove in a bunch of places around there. Boot and Bass lake are also pretty nice, but no spearfishing allowed in either one.

Jon

[Omicron]

What's with the dead ducks????  Trapped under the ice or something, or just natural causes???