Im looking for some good spots to dive and spearfish around the milwaukee area. Ill be going to summerfest (july 4) and id like to spearfish that day or the day after. I dont know much about lake michigan or the milwaukee area, so anything would help. ALSO if you would like to come with i would be more than happy to have someone to dive with, especially if they know the area.
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Anybody familiar with lake michigan, near milwaukee?
- Thread starterChuck Nasty
- Start date
Thread Status: Hello
, There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
I'm in Madison as well. Mendota isn't bad at about 40 ft with a 7mm suit. Saw some monster catfish off of maple bluff yesterday and today. I'd go to Milwaukee anytime.
If you use the "search" function on here you should.d find a ton of stuff.
My best suggestions would be to look up Atwater beach and Bayview first. Atwater has two shipwrecks sunk off of its shores and one of them is marked with a State bouy for most of the summer. There are usually schools of perch around it and the depths are all less than 25'. Bayview has easier access and also has a couple of shipwrecks sunk in less than 10' of water inside the break wall. If you stay inside the wall you should run Into plenty of rock bass in the weed beds close to shore. If you slip out through the relief gap and hit the outside of the wall you should find plenty of carp and an occasional perch to shoot.
Boat traffic will be pretty crazy that time of summer so make sure you have a a couple of big flags to mark your spot- and even then you need to be careful. All of the diving will be less than 20' deep and many times it will be so warm you can get away with a 3mm, or less, during the mid summer months. I've taught plenty of scuba classes there with water temps in the low 80's on the inside of the wall and the mid 70's just outside of the wall. Depending upon the wind the lake can be cold and have 100' vis or warm and be 74F degrees down to 125'. You get much more variability out there than you see in the inland lakes.
If you have a dive kayak I can point you to more shipwrecks and places to spear in about 40' of water. If you have a boat that end up even more wrecks, with perch, in the 60'- 100' range. Wrecks out deeper than that are in better shape, but usually only have burbot swimming around them. The perch all stay less than 100' and the carp are all less than 30'.
Hope that helps.
Jon
My best suggestions would be to look up Atwater beach and Bayview first. Atwater has two shipwrecks sunk off of its shores and one of them is marked with a State bouy for most of the summer. There are usually schools of perch around it and the depths are all less than 25'. Bayview has easier access and also has a couple of shipwrecks sunk in less than 10' of water inside the break wall. If you stay inside the wall you should run Into plenty of rock bass in the weed beds close to shore. If you slip out through the relief gap and hit the outside of the wall you should find plenty of carp and an occasional perch to shoot.
Boat traffic will be pretty crazy that time of summer so make sure you have a a couple of big flags to mark your spot- and even then you need to be careful. All of the diving will be less than 20' deep and many times it will be so warm you can get away with a 3mm, or less, during the mid summer months. I've taught plenty of scuba classes there with water temps in the low 80's on the inside of the wall and the mid 70's just outside of the wall. Depending upon the wind the lake can be cold and have 100' vis or warm and be 74F degrees down to 125'. You get much more variability out there than you see in the inland lakes.
If you have a dive kayak I can point you to more shipwrecks and places to spear in about 40' of water. If you have a boat that end up even more wrecks, with perch, in the 60'- 100' range. Wrecks out deeper than that are in better shape, but usually only have burbot swimming around them. The perch all stay less than 100' and the carp are all less than 30'.
Hope that helps.
Jon
thanks Jon! that was a huge help!
Waterman, if u wanna dive together we can definatly try to get something lined up. Im gonna be there on july 4 so i can check the water clarity, the wind direction, etc. and tell you if its clear on the 5th since thats the day i plan on diving/spearing. or you can just plan on being there and if the water isnt clear in lake michigan we can always try the patch of lakes in waukesha county, most likely one of them will be clear
AND for anybody else interested, lake michigan is a BIG LAKE so if anybody else wants to go just get a hold of me and the same deal applies
Waterman, if u wanna dive together we can definatly try to get something lined up. Im gonna be there on july 4 so i can check the water clarity, the wind direction, etc. and tell you if its clear on the 5th since thats the day i plan on diving/spearing. or you can just plan on being there and if the water isnt clear in lake michigan we can always try the patch of lakes in waukesha county, most likely one of them will be clear
AND for anybody else interested, lake michigan is a BIG LAKE so if anybody else wants to go just get a hold of me and the same deal applies
Sounds good. I'm a definite newbie to freediving but Milwaukee isn't far. Provided I'm not working that day, I'm in. Keep me in the loop.
does anybody know about the three sunken ships (Boston, Sebastopol, and Alleghany) off the coast of St. Francis, Milwakee. I found each of them separatly through research and they all seem to be close together but i would like to know for sure. Has anybody heard about them or even dived them? i would imagine that this would be a popular dive spot because of the close proximity of all three ships and the fact that they are close to shore.
There are two wrecks in that area (Sebastopol, Volunteer), but there's a little distance between them. The Sebastopol is straight out from the base of the wooden stairs in the park. There really isn't much there, but it used to be a fun dive when I was in high school because you could still keep artifacts back then. I spent many hours sifting through sand to find things. Now, it's really socked in with silt and weeds.
The larger wreck is the Volunteer. She sits off of the relief gap further down the wall. Most of her lies inside the wall, but you can find pieces of her on the outside of the wall as well. This in a nice spot to enter and spear carp.
The other two wrecks that you mentioned are not in the area- anywhere. There are some other shallow wrecks off of the break wall, but they all lie in 40' of water and you need at least a kayak to get to them.
If you jump in off of Atwater beach you can hit both sections of the Appomattox and what's left of the Josaphine. It's a pretty area with schools of perch that come in to the wreck sometimes.
Check out one of Chris Kohl's books for GPS numbers on all of these. He has about the most comprehensive list of dive sites out there. If you just want a book on wrecks, both found and unfounded, look for a copy of Brendon Balliod's new book that he came out with last year. He might those other two listed.
I've never heard of the other two being anywhere in the area, but there are rumored to be others. We've never seen any in all the diving and side scanning around there. I know at least one wreck now has the South Shore yacht club sitting on top of it! There was supposed to be another one sunk off of Texas Rock, but we've never found a hint of anything over there.
Hope that helps.
Jon
The larger wreck is the Volunteer. She sits off of the relief gap further down the wall. Most of her lies inside the wall, but you can find pieces of her on the outside of the wall as well. This in a nice spot to enter and spear carp.
The other two wrecks that you mentioned are not in the area- anywhere. There are some other shallow wrecks off of the break wall, but they all lie in 40' of water and you need at least a kayak to get to them.
If you jump in off of Atwater beach you can hit both sections of the Appomattox and what's left of the Josaphine. It's a pretty area with schools of perch that come in to the wreck sometimes.
Check out one of Chris Kohl's books for GPS numbers on all of these. He has about the most comprehensive list of dive sites out there. If you just want a book on wrecks, both found and unfounded, look for a copy of Brendon Balliod's new book that he came out with last year. He might those other two listed.
I've never heard of the other two being anywhere in the area, but there are rumored to be others. We've never seen any in all the diving and side scanning around there. I know at least one wreck now has the South Shore yacht club sitting on top of it! There was supposed to be another one sunk off of Texas Rock, but we've never found a hint of anything over there.
Hope that helps.
Jon