Greg,
I wouldn't bother to snorkel in the swim area as you can walk across it. It's all sand and not much else. I've taught lots of scuba classes in there over the years and there's lots of stuff to play on, but the owner is stuck in the past and won't let you in without a tank on.
Beaver lake has a simple flight of stairs and I think the boat launch only costs a couple of dollars to use. The lake iteself is surrounded by multi-million dollar houses. If they want to plant fish in the lake they need to have a public access, per DNR rules, so they got around it by putting in a flight of stairs as their "boat" accesss. The only time fisherman hit it is in winter when they can walk out on it. Right across the street is Pine Lake- the pricest place in the state. They had something similar but finaly broke down and made a new boat launch a few years ago for a limited number of boat trailers. In the past we would have to drop the boat off, using a 4x4 truck, and then park in the next township. while one guy waited with the boat I would run, or roller blade, the mile+ back to the boat launch. It was even rougher for the ice fisherman since some locals would spread nails across the acces point to take out the tires on their trucks and cars.
It's still a nice lake to dive in with lots of stuff to be found and fish to be speared.
If you look at the map that Nick posted you can see across the two bays that you need to swim. You can do it, I have, with freediving gear on, but a tank would drag you down into the mud and make things really slow going.
Which dive shop owner did you talk to?
Other nice lakes to try in the next month would be Lake Nagawicka, Pleasent lake, Upper and lower Nehmabin, Rock Lake, and anything in Waushura county- by Red granite quarry.
We used to dive in Moose lake, which was really nice, but the only access point was bought out 10 years ago by a condo developer and I don't know of any way to get on there right now. It was a really good lake with lots of fish, not a lot of boats, and easy enough to swim around in a little over an hour. It also had some nice sloping bottoms that maxed out at 55' and even a shipwreck- left over from a 1930's CCC project.
Here's some shots of a couple of the lakes and our haul from the last time we went out spearing on Mendota. When she clears up she's one of the nicer lakes to spearfish on.
Jon
