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Lakes you Freedive or Spear - Wisconsin

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I believe that's about the most expensive lake to live on in the whole state- lots of CEO's have a house on there. I've taught some private scuba courses to residents there and the whole place is reeking of money.

The lake itself is pretty nice. There is a lot of relief and bottom structure with some really steep drop offs in places. They only got a public boat launch, with actual parking spots, a few years ago.

I was told that their police department receives no state aid- all locally funded to make sure their law's get enforced the way they want them to. I am not sure how much truth there is to that as it might just be an old fisherman's tale.

If you have a dive kayak, canoe, or are up for a bit of a swim, I would suggest Beaver Lake- which is right across the street from Pine. Ted and I have taken a lot of nice crappie, and even a few carp, out of that lake.

Jon
 
Does'nt say ANYthing about polespears!!! I actually went there last year a few times and polespeared some nice gills, a few jumbo rockbass, and some smallish carp. I also met a cop at Pine on my way out of the lake! I was carrying and had on snorkeling gear, a stringer of fish, a diveflag and a polespear -No boat, kayak, or canoe may I add!

I did pay the launch fee and had the numbered stub displayed in my window... At first I got a little nervous when he (the cop) was approaching me...He was in an UNMARKED police type car...I thought at first it was a game warden actually - not that I did anything wrong...but I thought maybe he was gonna hassle me or ticket me for "swimming" off of the boat launch - which I beleive is not allowed. :naughty There anyways.

I'm not swimming or possessing/using a speargun I thought...I'm freediving and POLESPEAR fishing :inlove . Swimmers don't have all kinds of gear in the water like dive floats/flags & other related gear. They also don't swim for 5 or 6 hours at a time. And a POLESPEAR is NOT a speargun by any definition:naughty . I was mentally and quickly preparing my arguments:martial !

Turns out the cop was or is the son of an old friend of mine. I guess he had recognized me & just wanted to check out what I was doing. He got a job as a policeman for Chenequa. He thought it was really cool and was thouroughly impressed that I had POLESPEARED out some rough fish (small carp) and got myself a nice meal of panfish. He never once questioned the legality of what I was doing. I did however, later in our conversation, point out to him my above mentioned "mentally and quickly" prepared argument. The arguments I was coming up with as he was approaching me at the boat launch! He had "no qualms what-so-ever" about me "polespearing and diving" he said. He added that it was a good thing I paid the launch fee or he'd of most likely slapped a ticket on my windshield! He also knew I did'nt have a boat or a canoe there.

Anyways we sat there and chewed the fat about "the good days" for about 15 minutes or so & then he got a call & had to go!

Sooooo, as far as I know it's o.k. to spear fish, and freedive..You just gotta put away your spearguns for the day & try polespearing thats all!
 
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Jon,

Is Beaver Lake part of the Chenequa community? If so, I believe the no speargun regulation would apply there as well.

Gene
 
Gene,

It's right across the street and in the same area.

Having said that I have never seen, or heard, of anything like that in any of the Wisconsin spearing regulations. I know that in places, like the Bahamas, they have specific rules on spearing while breath hold and using only a pole spear or Hawaiian sling, but in Wisconsin if the rules say you can spearfish in a lake then you can do it with a gun and with a tank on your back.

Maybe Unirdna or Landshark can pipe in on this since they both know more about the state fishing rules than i do, but I have never heard of separate regulations for the type of gear sued while in Wisconsin.

Of course in Chenquea anything goes when you have your own enforcement. I remember, before they put the new launch in, on Pine lake when you had to put in through this mud ditch and then park your car a mile away in the next town ship. In the winter time locals used to spread roofing nails out on the ice to keep the ice fisherman from driving out there. Over in Beaver lake they decided to make their boat launch a flight of stairs to comply with the DNR rules but still be pricks to the rest of us who don't have as much money as they do.:rcard

Here's a shot of the boat launch on Beaver Lake.

Jon
 
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Here's what I found in the regs, and nothing specifies anything different for Pine lake:

Underwater Spear Fishing: It is lawful to take the following
fish species with the use of spears and spear guns by
skin and scuba diving in all waters where spearing for
rough fish is permitted from sunrise to sunset during the
listed spearing seasons: white bass, yellow bass (striped),
rock bass, crappie, bluegill, perch, pumpkinseed (sunfish)
and bullheads provided that the season for these species is
also open on the same water. Daily bag limits and length
restrictions also apply.

Jon
 
The town or municipality can have its own LOCAL ordinances, especially when it comes to what they consider to be firearms. Some local ordinances consider a COMPOUND bow to be a firearm! The village of Chenequa probably has a local firearm ordinance that prohibits the use of spearguns. Sometimes spearguns are "lumped" in with the rest of the locally illegal weapons simply because they are called spear-GUNS. Plain and simply put....however ridiculous it may be...Its true. Maybe the manufactures should've called them something else. It seems the word GUN scares people nowadays. This lumping together of types of "guns" then allows the village to twist the ordinance to thier liking. The filthy rich village of Chenequa obviously does'nt want people to be using SPEARGUNS in PINE lake. It may be possible that you are'nt allowed to in Beaver either but it's maybe just not posted.

I'll go with my polespear like always though...And again....I've been confronted by a POLICEMAN there at Pine Lake before & I had NO PROBLEMS. I even asked him about the no speargun ordinance (as I explained in an earlier post) and he said that from how he understands it (the local ordinance) I AM NOT breaking the law. So......Again.......SpearGUNNING is NOT allowed but POLESPEARING IS.

There are LOTS of other lakes to go to around there that don't have a "no speargun ordinance" but if you want to try out Beaver or Pine just hang up your spearguns and GO PRIMITIVE!!!!!!!!! Its much more of a challenge anyways!

Good luck guys!
 
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Just got back from a great swim! kayaked across the lake and towed it back. everything was working right ex the vis went to 25 feet to test the bouancy on my shorty (84f surface temp) I was hoping the no wake thing might make things settle out a bit. but no luck only 4 ft of vis. the remakable thing its Labor day here and with the high water there is a no wake rule in effect! so its like a canoe and kayakers heaven out there! even got back into my yak without fins on today jon the pic was taken at 10am. note the tranquility
 
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I was out for about 3 hours on Saturday and it was just as you described. No wake is awesome and I was able to do things I never can otherwise for fear of death- like paddling right down the middle of the lake without worrying about being run down by a jetski.

The day I was out it was so peaceful I thought I was up north. I just laid back in my boat and let the wind drift me back to my launch point- Olbrich Garden's. I had all kinds of herons flying right over me and I could barely hear the belt line if I strained my ears. I wish they could make one of the lakes no-wake all year long.

I also took a quick paddle through the Bell Isle area to see how bad the water levels were- I'm glad I don't own a house there!

My wife was out paddling all day yesterday, she took a course through Rutabaga, and remarked at how warm the water was when she had to do her wet-exits. The vis isn't the best, but it seems to be better in the rivers than in the lake itself.

Jon
 
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Great Photos, guys!! I was wondering if the kayakers would take advantage. You'd never thought Mendota could look like that on Labor Day Weekend! Looks like Monona was "choppy" .
 
Hey guys I have not posted for awhile, I have been recovering from a pretty horrible accident. The doctor threw the kabash on me diving over the summer. But I can get out now... So my question to you is...

What lake is clear this time of year, I was thinking of camping out this weekend and spearing some carp and such!

Thanks again in advance.
 
Lakes up north are little bit clearer- Lake Michigan- Wazee (no carp, but some suckers) other lakes have limited vis- I was in Green Lake and had 5'-15' vis- it varied depending on how far out I went. the strong south winds killed Lake Mich for us today.
 
yeah I was planning on going up around the northern half of the state. Not to interested in Lake Michigan. I am still on the :crutchya know. I was looking for something calm with no boat traffic.

I saw the previous posts but they posted some time back and was wondering if anyone had been on them recently for vis reports.

thanks dude for your info!
 
Is there any good spearfishing down by beaver dam? My girlfriends dad lives down there, so regrettably I will have to drive there this summer. Any good places to hunt. She tells me beaver dam lake is nasty so that is out of the question I guess...
 


Are these lakes in Marquette County?
 
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