Great Dives in the Great North

[Fondueset]

Check out the look on this one. Makes ya glad they don't get a whole lot bigger.
And another artsy shot of a Goby.

[Ricochet]

Wow... the amount of fish in your last video is insane O.o
Your pics are great, too! As usual.

[Fondueset]

Shot some more yesterday. My dive times seem to be improving - shortest video is 1:07 I'll get some more up on my site as soon as I get them reduced. It's crazy-abundant right now. Suckers, Rock bass, smallmouth and perch in big schools - then lots of rainbow and brown trout in the 3-8inch range darting all around. Big carp cruising through now and again and the occassional big steelhead or salmon - usually moving fast near the surface.

[fleedermouse]

Are you using an external strobe in any of these shots? Great photos and video as usual. Keep 'em coming.

[Fondueset]

Thanks.

I don't use the flash at all. It is on my list of stuff to get however. Right now
it's really interesting under there visually. Thermalclines are variable and with sometimes dramatic changes in lighting and visibility. The surface has been covered with alot of Pollen because it has been quite dry here until recently. In the videos you can see the cloudy effect along the breakwall. Visibility is poorish by normal standards for this area - hazy in places, and with alot of suspended particles - but there are usually interesting layers where it will suddenly double or triple.

The water temp went up nearly 20F overnight a few days ago. One day my hands were getting cold in my 6.5mil gloves - the next my daughter was in without gloves or hood.

I've been working more at mid-depth along the breakwall - just taking half a lungfull of air to adjust buouancy. I've discovered if you really want to alienate the locals - blow bubbles! I put two more movies up last night - I have a third of my daughter emerging from the haze in the distance that I'll convert and upload this evening.

[Jon]

I was out in a local, inland, lake last night and we had 73 degree water down to 25'. Below that it dropped a bit, but the vis increased and I was more than toasty in my 3mm. I didn't bring my camera, or my speargun, which means that I saw a ton of fish!

I was suppossed to go to Milwaukee to do a salvage job and dive on the charter tonight, but the weather seems to have taken care of those options for me.

Maybe next week?

Jon

[fleedermouse]

I didn't bring my camera, or my speargun, which means that I saw a ton of fish!

That's funny. Reminds me of a time last summer I was diving the jetties in Tilamook, OR. Vis is like 2 feet as usual. I've got my crab gauge for like 25 minutes and don't see one crab. Then I grab the gun and see a nice borderline keeper size male crab so I go back up to get the gauge, come back down and see a nice cabezon but the crab is gone back up to get the gun and now I can't find the cabbie After deciding to take both gauge and gun I couldn't find either one.

[Erik]

Originally Posted by fleedermouse

That's funny. Reminds me of a time last summer I was diving the jetties in Tilamook, OR. Vis is like 2 feet as usual. I've got my crab gauge for like 25 minutes and don't see one crab. Then I grab the gun and see a nice borderline keeper size male crab so I go back up to get the gauge, come back down and see a nice cabezon but the crab is gone back up to get the gun and now I can't find the cabbie After deciding to take both gauge and gun I couldn't find either one.

LOL!

Erik Y.

[Jon]

Well,

The storm never hit us and I spent most of the day helping out the in-law's with raising a 26' cabin cruiser. I even had to, heaven forbid, put on a tank to do so. There was so much gasoline, and other stuff, floating around in the river as I hooked her up to the crane that I didn't want to go in without a drysuit- no way I was going to wear my new Elios in there!

I got to spend the rest of the evening out on one of our regular charters- which aren't so regular for me since I had kids.

Water temp was 57 on the surface and the thermocline was down around 25'-30'. Below that it was cold, but since the surface was so warm I was comfy in my 3mm. I also got to play around a bit with the new monofin and had a blast. I dive-bombed the divers and took a few shots while I was at it. The top of the wreck is 60' and the bottom is 93'. Vis on the bottom was at least 40' and seemed to approach 50' if you got to a spot before the scubies did. Waves were less than a foot and everyone on board had a great time.

Jon

[Fondueset]

Cool! The wreck looks awesome.

[trux]

Jon, are you sure you were raising the wreck? From the sequence of pictures you posted it looks more like you sunk it!

[khel]

Looks like fun

Do you get to keep the boat you salvage btw?

[Jon]

The boat was raised for an insurance company- plus the DNR will fine you thousands if you don't bring them up. The boat we brought up was 26' long the wreck I was diving on was 256' long.

Trux, the wreck is called the Prinz Willem V. It went down in 1954 and I think she's from your neck of the woods.

Got to play with the new monofin as well last night.


Jon

[Jon]

I got out freediving on the wrecks in Lake Michigan again today. The cold water has moved to this side of the lake so the bottom temps were in the low 40's; however, that also means that we had great vis today- like 70'!!

I didn't take any pictures because I was too busy with my scooter. There's nothing like flying along a wreck in 70' vis when you can see everything around you, even off in the distance.

It was a VERY good day.


Jon

[Fondueset]

It was cold here too - but the vis was lousy below 8-20 feet. I ran into my first living Bowfin - about 24 inches long - got some pictures and footage of the beast at the bottom of my site. First dive since telegraph cove. been waiting for all the Cherry Festival stuff to quit obstructing my access. I ended up doing alot of 'frc' dives - because the clear water was only down to 15 feet at most I had to adjust my ballast. Really relaxed, longish dives.