I will be moving to Milwaukee.

[chris_h]

Hello, I am from southern Indiana. Here, the water is too dirty for spearfishing, but I often catch bluegill, crappie and bass with a fishing rod.

I have spent four or five summers spearfishing in the Florida Keys. I usually freedive spearfish in shallow water, and scuba spearfish in water deeper than about twenty feet.

On Monday I was accepted to the Medical College of Wisconsin, so I plan on spending the next four years in Milwaukee studying medicine. Class does not start until August 2008, but I hope to find a job in Milwaukee and move there within a month or two.

I am not at all familar with Wisconsin. I was thrilled when I came across this forum and learned that the water is clear enough to spearfish. I have never speared in fresh water. I have a few questions.

1. Which lakes near Milwaukee are good for spearfishing? I would like to eat my catch, and would not be comfortable eating fish from polluted water such as Lake Michigan.

2. How fast do you all spear fish? Can you catch a dinner's worth in a few hours?

3. How helpful would a small boat, canoe, or kayak be? I could bring one, but I would have no where to put it...

4. Would anyone like to spearfish with me? I could use a dive/freedive budy to spear with and to show me around. I am also intersted in learning fly fishing (I have never fly fished) for trout and perhaps fishing for walleye.

 

[Jon]

Chris,

Welcome to DB and Milwaukee- I was just there yesterday. I am from here and now live in Madison- about 90 miles away. My in-laws own a salvage business, charter boat and dive shop in town and dive year round- one of the charter boater can break ice.

You'll find the waters off of Milwaukee to be much clearer and cleaner than your used to. When I started diving we never had more than about 10' of vis there and now we never seem to have less than 50'- unless we get some kind of wild storm, but even then it clears up in a couple days. Summertime vis ranges between 50'-100' and winter time vis goes 75'-150' depending upon the wreck. Wreck diving is king in Milwaukee with wrecks ranging from 20 years old to over 150. Depths go from 5' to as deep as you want to go- lots of trimix and rebreather divers around there these days.

You can spear perch off of Milwaukee, 5 a day limit, and there are plenty of places to shore dive. If you're not into the whole wreck diving thing you don't need much more than a dive kayak. If you want to dive the deep stuff a charter boat would be your easiest option- much cheaper than owning your own.

There are a bunch of lakes just to the west, Waukesha county, that are great for spearing. Summer time vis won't be anywhere near what Lake Michigan will be,but the bag limit is greater and the water is warmer.

There are plenty of people to spear with and the first one I would recommend is Tol- but he just got accepted to medial school in Florida so he won't be around much longer. :head

I don't get over there as much as I used to, but when i lived there, just two blocks off the lake, i could dive most every night after work. There are shallow wrecks and rock reefs that are easy to get to by kayak. I would suggest checking out Laycee and Joys on North Water street. They have kayaks for sale and rent as well as a huge selection of fly fishing gear. Since the took down some of the dams along the Milwaukee river a few years back there seems to be a resurgence of fly fishermen down there.

The Milwaukee river has certain hot spots for toxins- it's not ever where. North of the city will have cleaner water than south- because of the water coming out of the Milwaukee river. This is the reason a bunch of us got sick from Crypto about 15 years ago- we all lived on the South side and the people who lived on the north side of town were fine. Once you get out a few miles thing clean up quite a bit.

I hope that gives you a bit of info to get started with.

Jon

 

[Whopperhead]

Chris- Welcome! You'll love living near Lake Michigan! It's now probably my favorite spot to dive (freedive). In the Summer. The Perch in there are Enormous but they do have certain times you can shoot them and like JON said 5 per day double that for "possession" and you maybe 1/2 hour to 45mins from a multitude of great spearfishing lakes. I'm sure you'll have no trouble finding someone to dive with.

 

[ILDiver]

Dude welcome to the board, look forward to meeting up on one of our many upcoming outings!

 

[chris_h]

Thanks for the responses.

I was looking through some old photos, and it looks like I have not been spearfishing since the summer of 2005, which I spent in the Florida Keys until Hurricane Katrina shortened our trip. I attatched some pictures from the trip. One is me with a mackeral. Another is me with a big snapper, which is an interesting story; my spear bounced off the fish's skull, but it was stunned for just long enough for me to get my hands around it before it went crazy. The other is me in the wind.

The boat is my father's 21 foot Boston Whaler. The prospect of 100+ feet of visibility tempts me to bring it with me if I can find somewhere affordable to store it.

I will post again once I get settled in, and hopefully we can get together to spear some fish sometime.

 

[Whopperhead]

Chris- those are some nice fish! and that is one Nice BOAT! I don't know if I would want the stress of hauling that thing here and I have no idea how much it cost to keep it in Milwaukee. Something to look into I guess- Plus does your dad want you taking his boat

 

[bgill]

NICE Snapper! Wish we had them here! Yum! We'll probably hook up in the spring or summer sooner or later. I'd say that probably over 90% of the guys that post in the "Wisconsin" section of Deepeblue know or have met each other. Good group of guys. It's always good to freedive or spear with a buddy...So we try to hook up with someone when we can.

If you don't already know - Here in Wisconsin some of us spearfish and freedive UNDER the ICE! Yup...I'm serious! :t

Anyways...Welcome to Wisconsin - And to Deeperblue!



P.S. - I like to take a few bigger bluegills home once in awhile (spearing pan-fish is legal here in Wisconsin). Some nice crappies to be had too! Lotsa nice clear lakes to dive/spear in S.E. Wisconsin - Lake Michigan is usually the clearest but oddly it is also the DIRTIEST. Lake Geneva also stays relatively clear all year around. In the spring...ALL the lakes around here are superclear!!!!

 

[Jon]

Chris,

My father-in-law runs a small marina on the Milwaukee river with slips and dry storage if you're interested. He also puts in moorings if you want to go that route. A spot on the river would be the easiest way to do it. Here's a quick list of the rates: River Marina - PC Survey & Salvage, Len-Der Charters

How much time are you going to have to run a boat while in the middle of medical school? With a boat like that there's a whole lot of places that you could dive out there. Most of the good spots will be one of the hundreds of shipwrecks, but there are rock reefs and even underwater forests to dive and spear in if that's your main thing. The water is clear, but cold most of the time. We do get out days in August with temps in the mid 70's that can go down over 100' if the wind is right.

Jon

 

[fleshy]

Hey Chris! The keys sure are great, my brother lives down there so Ive got some experience with it. Wisconsin does have an abundance of lakes, more in fact than Minnesota, which boasts to be "The Land of 10,000 Lakes". Not only that, but I find that half the fun is finding your dive locations. Buy yourself a Gazateer (bad spelling) and scout out some new places. Like it was mentioned earlier, most of us have met at least some of the people on the forum in person, so were a pretty close knit group, at least a couple of us would be more than interested to go exploring. When my buddies and I go spearfishing, we do prefer to use kayaks for several reasons. First off they act as floats like you would use in saltwater, obviously not for keeping the fish up, but for holding fish, and different spear tips ect. Secondly, they are quiet and small, and will not scare away our small targets. You will be surprised by the similarities between ocean diving and lake michigan. Great vis, deep water, and all the excitement. Happy hunting.

 

[Jon]

Fleshy is right about the lakes- I believe that Wisconsin actually has almost twice as many lakes as Minnesota.

As far as looking for places to dive, besides Lake Michigan, I really like this website: Wisconsin Lakes Trophic State Index

They show the water clarity levels of all the lakes in the state. I have been able to find some really nice ones in areas with dirty lakes surrounding them. It amazes me sometimes how two lakes within a mile of each other can have such different visibility levels.

Jon

 

[bglaeser]

chris,

welcome.... and consider yourself (and me) to be lucky to be living on "The lake" as those who live near Lake Michigan affectionately call it. It USED to be a polluted lake... now, as far as I am concerned it is the best spearfishing and eating in Wisconsin.

Jon's website is VERY helpful.

If you have concerns about the health considerations of eating fish from whatever lake in Wisconsin... here is the website to check out.... be sure to carefully read wisconsin's spearing regs too.

Fish Consumption Advisories - WDNR

~brian

 

[Tol]

Chris,

Diving:
As soon as you move let's hit the water! If you are doing an apartment scouting trip we should dive then too

Visiting:
I know the hassles of finding a place long distance (I'm doing it now). If you need a couch to crash on while apartment hunting, send me an email! You really would be welcome! There is no point in paying for a hotel. I work weekends but have a lot of time on weekdays. I'd be happy to show you around.

The Boat:
Consider the following facts:
Storing the Whaler is a hassle. (especially when you'll only use it for part of the year)
South FL and the Keys have great spearing/diving. (year round!)
You will want to get out of Dodge during your breaks in school.
I'll be in Fort Lauderdale for school.
I'm willing to store your boat.
....I think this decision is easy.....
Hell, I'm even willing to pay for the fuel I burn taking it out every weekend!

I'll PM my email and phone number.
T

 

[Pinggene]

Welcome to Wisconsin!

Be certain to have a nice open cell for Lake Michigan...gets a bit chilly unless you are out in August.

We'll see you around.

Gene

 

[chris_h]

Are panfish legal in Lake Michigan, or just perch? Are there fish to spear around the deeper wrecks? For some reason I cannot picture a swarm of bluegill in 80 ft.

The Boat:
Consider the following facts:
Storing the Whaler is a hassle. (especially when you'll only use it for part of the year)
South FL and the Keys have great spearing/diving. (year round!)
You will want to get out of Dodge during your breaks in school.
I'll be in Fort Lauderdale for school.
I'm willing to store your boat.
....I think this decision is easy.....
Hell, I'm even willing to pay for the fuel I burn taking it out every weekend!

I'll PM my email and phone number.
T

Ha ha. You will have fun in Florida, but barracuda, sharks, and jewfish will try to steal your catch. Be sure to check out the artificial reefs. The state of Florida posts a list by county with cordinates. In the Keys at least, some of these rubble piles are underfished and easy spearing.

 

[fleshy]

I was unfamiliar with that trophic level site. That is interesting a lot of good dark colors around where I live, some of which, (very few) I havent been in, but still what a GREAT TOOL! No more cross state trips for little shitty "crystal " lakes.

 

[bgill]

Fleshy -

I would'nt count on the "clear" lakes being clear just because this "Trophic" web site says so. I know the website you guys are talking about. In fact I have found great visibility in some of the lakes that it shows on "the website" to not be very clear...Go figure! :duh

I'm just glad that there are ALOT of lakes with good to fair vis all year around here. I can't wait 'til spring!

 

[fleshy]

What i was saying was that its nice to be a little bit more sure. I double checked it too, looked at some of my favorite lakes, and yea, they got low ratings. But sometimes visibility is A) Something you can adjust to, and B) a non factor for different people. there are lakes that I like that other people deem very dirty, and "undiveable". Guess sometimes its an opinion thing.

 

[Jon]

I'm sure Ted (unirdna) could give a more scientific answer on how that index was put together, but the way ti was explained to me is they used satellite imagery and had it double checked with spotters on the ground, using secchi disks, to confirm the results. They are not subjective opinions given by fisherman, but data that has been collected.

Given that info there are some very specific short comings to the data base. Mainly, if a lake is very shallow it could have a higher than normal rating because the visibility reaches all the way to the bottom- even though the lake isn't as clear as something deeper where the disk doesn't go all the way to the bottom.

Even with these short comings I've had very good luck with the system even using it to plan out vacations to lakes I've never been to before with excellent results.

Vis is something that varies quite a bit with divers- especially new ones. Since Lake Michigan has cleared up we get people out on the charter boat who complain that the vis was only 15' when I know it was over 40'- because I went down an measured it with a tape measure to be sure. I've also had scuba students move here from other states, like Florida, and demand their money back after the first dive of their AOW course because they can't believe that anyone actually dives in these conditions!roflroflrofl

Another factor that can mess up the database is time of year that the images were taken. I know from living in Madison that Lake Mendota will have 40' of vis in April, but less than 3' of vis in July. It's the same every year and it all depends upon when you decide to go diving.

BTW: I saw Ted's mug on the news this morning because he is one of the support crew for the UW limnology center and NASA is in town with their 2 ton underwater robot that they plan to send into space one day to dive the ice fields of some distant moon. Nice cameo slick.

Jon