New Year's Dive

[Jon]

I just had to sart out the New Year with a dive in the outlet. Usually there is open water on this part of the lake from the warm water coming out of the power plant. It makes for a nice dive in the middle of the winter.

Today there was not much in the way of warm water. I actually had to break ice all the way from the beach to the outlet. The water coming out of the outlet was only about 45 degrees (F). Warm enough to keep ice from forming, but not enough to dive all day in.

I lasted about 2 1/2 hours before I had to call it quits.

Jon

 

[Jon]

Once I got past the ice, and the ice/slush mix, I had some nice vis, around 10'-15'. THe closer to the outlet that I was the closer to 45 degrees it was. THe further away I got, acutally swimming into the edge of the ice at one point, the closer to 39 degrees (F) it got.


Jon

 

[Jon]

There were plenty of fish to be found in the luke warm water. A huge shcool of carp sucked up close to the outlet. THere were some real fatties in there, but I wasn't interested in spearing any today.

Jon

 

[Jon]

Some of the musky were pretty big as well!

One guy kept following me around, probably looking to steal something off of my stringer. My batteries died before I could get a shot of the biggest one- over 4'.

Jon

 

[Jon]

This poor guy had already been caught once and was left with this nice body piercing to remember it by.

Jon

 

[Jon]

Eventually my camera batteries died, which makes me wonder how long other diver's batteries last in warmer water?

When the batteries gave out I put it back in the car and grabbed my speargun. There were fish everywhere, but only a few species that we can shoot, and taste good.

I finally decided on just working the crappies and had a pretty good time of it.

Jon

 

[Jon]

After burning off one or two calories, by divng for a few hours in 40 degree water, it sure is nice to put a few of them back on!

I hope the rest of you had a great New Year's as well.:friday

Jon

 

[Jon]

One last shot of the outlet just for Sven.:wave

 

[icarus pacific]

imagine... crappy near an outfall.

Beauty story, pics and wishes, Jon. Truly studly. :king
And I thought the viz was lousy in Tahoe last week!:yack

 

[tylerz]

Wow what an incredible amount of fish! That sounds like it was a great day. Was this at a river outlet to the ocean? Glad you enjoyed your New Year! Happy New Year to you and all!

I as well entered the New Year in style here in Tahsis, BC, Canada. January 1st brought black tights, white snowy background, crystal blue skies, and lots of water (some with ice)! Not very noticeable but that is ice covering the inlet salt-water in picture #3. You can see the edge where the frozen water meets the unfrozen wavy water at the left. But all that glassy reflective water is ice covering of a thin amount. Picture #5 is from under the ice looking towards the mountains. I was blowing some bubbles under the ice and suddenly realized I could blow bubble rings. Never been able to but suddenly it worked. Water temperature at the surface was 4 degrees celcius. I lasted for three hours, but most of the time was spent swimming.

I am not a spearfisherman but as you can see in pictures #1 & #2, I returned home with a nice sized flounder (sole). Caught with my bare... well gloved... hands! A seal taught me how to do this last winter. Oysters and flounder brought home on the 1st day of the year seems to be a good start. But I didn't want to let the fish go bad, so you can see in picture #1 by example that you should always keep your fish on ice!

Cheers all,

Tyler

 

[tylerz]

Just in case some of you are not too familiar with flounder, here is a close up of my catch!

 

[rcerdena]

Hey Jon:
very nice pictures! Im glad you had a nice diving day in that lake watching all those fishes and getting the chance to hunt some.

Tylerz: nice flounder, man they taste so good!

Cheers

Roberto

 

[flyboy748]

Wow,

Jon I really gotta find a way to get the company to ship me out there for a bit this winter! The sight of all that fish in the pan Not to mention swimming with all those fish! I imagine spearing the muskie must be a no-no in Wisc.?

Our "New Year's dive" was on the 3rd, 55F air temp that day! No ice of course with air that warm, but the water was cold, around 36F. Also got a chance to try out my new dive boat that I built over the holidays! and my new Picasso 3 finger mitts kept my hands nice and warm.

Tyler!
Great flounder! I didn't know you could grab them with your hands... If I ever get out there you'll have to show me how it's done!

Aaron

 

[Jon]

I got out again this weekend, but no fish- at least none that I would want to eat, so I didn't even shoot my gun. I did find a really nice Danforth anchor, the second in two weeks, so the day wasn't a total loss.

Since the walk to the water is a little bit hazardous in wetsuit socks I have taken to wearing my sandals over them. I just throw them into the mesh bag on my float when I dive. It's worked out pretty well so far, and I no longer have to worry about me feet.

Jon

 

[tylerz]

Since my previous post I have become the proud owner of a belly full of flounder!! Man what an awesome tasting fish! What a great way to enter the new year.

Flyboy - I was not quite sure if you could grab them with your hands either, but I thought it was worth a try! It was rather amusing actually when I took extra precaution not to startle it, slowly approaching from behind, careful to keep my hands as best out of view as possible, and then lunged to grab it on the front with one hand and the back with the other! ..... The thing didn't even move! :naughty Anyhow this was the same as the one I caught last year and let go after a seal picked it up off the bottom next to me in 3 feet of water. So this time I decided I had better not refuse the gifts of the sea gods when presented with them so blatantly. :t

Anyhow for sure get a hold of me if you get out this way, we would be happy to have you and introduce the wild west to ya.

Jon - I wear sandals usually as well. They work great as far as protection and provide temperature insulation from the ground as well. I walk over to the river some times to take me out to the inlet. I strap the sandals to my weight belt when I get in, using the velcro on them but if you do not have easy straps on sandals then could use one of those cheap watch velcro straps maybe. Then I leave them at shore as I go diving and swimming. So far I have not made it swimming up the river more than a few feet, so the sandals are handy for the 3 blocks walking home.

Cheers,

Tyler

 

[freedive Lisa]

Hi Jon, it's Lisa from England. Firstly, you're mental diving in water that cold. Secondly, can I come and join you?!!! I'm coming back out to Madison at the end of next month until the start of April and wouldn't mind a spot of ice diving!! Would be good to see you and Ted again, bye for now,
Lisa

 

[icarus pacific]

Lookit Jon go!!

aww, Jon, ya playah! :king

 

[Jon]

Lisa,

Glad to hear from ya'.

We have a bunch of ice dives planned for the beginning of next month, but we should be able to jump in the water somwhere.

If your here through March I know that we will have open water and have some really nice dives close to home. The spring time has the best vis in the lakes aorund town, and Ted will have access to the boats on the weekends. There is an underwater habitat, that was last used in the 70's, that makes for an interesting dive and we can always do a little spearfishing.

I picked up a new monofin that I am sure you'll want to try.

Hopefully we'll also get a chance to get out on Lake Michigan this time, no Harley Davidson birthday to get in the way this time.

Maybe you can make it back again the end of July. We have a little freedivng event going on up at Lake Wazee, called Freedive-a-palooza. The Sultan, Sven, has even promised to grace us with his presence at it.:king

Jon

 

[Jon]

I almost forgot.

We'll be playing underwater hockey every Monday night during that time period. I'd bet you'd have a blast.

Jon

 

[freedive Lisa]

excellent Jon, you've cheered me up no end. I thought I wasn't going to get a chance to get in the water at all. HOORRAAYYYYYYY!!! Would I be able to borrow a pair of fins while I'm out as I'm going to have problems bringing all of my stuff with me this time. Underwater hockey would be great too, I've never played, but I'm sure it would be brilliant!! YAY!!!!!! Thanks!