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Freediving on the Great lakes
- Thread starteramihov
- Start date
Thread Status: Hello
, There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
Sure, I've been doing it for years.
Be prepared for cooler water than in most inland lakes, but the vis will more than make up for it. In the past 20 years the vis in Lake Michigan has gone from 5'-10' to 75' in the summer and well over 120' in the winter.
The main draw in the Great Lakes are the shipwrecks- it considered by many to be the BEST place in the world for wreck diving due to the pristine nature of the wrecks. The zebra, and quaga, mussles have taken their toll over the past couple of years, but they are still a pretty dramatic sight to see- at least the ones deeper than 60'.
There's some fish life to be found, but from what the scientists and commerical fisherman in the Milwaukee area have been telling us, is that it is quickly dying out. Again, the mussels that have cleaned up the vis so well have also taken out the base level of the food chain and it is working it's way upward with the comercial fisheries dying off first.
There are other things to see out there besides shipwrecks. There are some really wild clay mounds that have been reworked by the storm waves. Rock reefs that hide some species of fish. Unerwater forests that ar still standing in 50' as a remanent of the last ice age- they've been dated to be about 10,000 years old.
Water temps vary al over the place this time of year with highs in the mid 70's to lows in the high 30's. This all depends upon the direction fo the winde and the depth that you are diving to. You can have 75F degree water one day with 35' of vis and the wind can blow it to the other side of the lake two days later leaving you with 42F degree water- but 100' vis- in it's place.
Jon
Be prepared for cooler water than in most inland lakes, but the vis will more than make up for it. In the past 20 years the vis in Lake Michigan has gone from 5'-10' to 75' in the summer and well over 120' in the winter.
The main draw in the Great Lakes are the shipwrecks- it considered by many to be the BEST place in the world for wreck diving due to the pristine nature of the wrecks. The zebra, and quaga, mussles have taken their toll over the past couple of years, but they are still a pretty dramatic sight to see- at least the ones deeper than 60'.
There's some fish life to be found, but from what the scientists and commerical fisherman in the Milwaukee area have been telling us, is that it is quickly dying out. Again, the mussels that have cleaned up the vis so well have also taken out the base level of the food chain and it is working it's way upward with the comercial fisheries dying off first.
There are other things to see out there besides shipwrecks. There are some really wild clay mounds that have been reworked by the storm waves. Rock reefs that hide some species of fish. Unerwater forests that ar still standing in 50' as a remanent of the last ice age- they've been dated to be about 10,000 years old.
Water temps vary al over the place this time of year with highs in the mid 70's to lows in the high 30's. This all depends upon the direction fo the winde and the depth that you are diving to. You can have 75F degree water one day with 35' of vis and the wind can blow it to the other side of the lake two days later leaving you with 42F degree water- but 100' vis- in it's place.
Jon
