Last weekend I went out to my usual summer spot and it just didn't feel right, so I went to my alternate.
Fall is an awesome time of year to dive here. After labor day the tourists vanish abruptly, the weather changes and I share the bay with salmon fisherman and a few sailboats.
Saturday had a distinctly autumnal feel. Low, puffy clouds with grey bottoms clipping along in a brisk west wind. The alternate spot (elmwood for those in the know) is sheltered pretty well from everything but the rare east wind. Its an area with quite a few sailboat moorings and a large harbor, which makes it noisy and dangerous earlier during the summer.
I decided to head out along the breakwall. Typically I'll traverse the length of the first wall then either cross the harbor mouth to an area with a huge sand bar and steep dropoff, or hang a right and dive the edge of another dropoff. A couple of easy monofin sprints took me almost to the end of the first breakwall. As I surfaced and looked down at the usual school of interested smallmouth bass I saw the white telltail fin tips of a very large walleye. With no time to breatheup I did a quick drop on about 3/4 lungfull while the Walleye was still close enough to relate to me vertically - I've found once I get into a horizontal thing with them the rules change a bit, but as an object dropping vertically I'm pretty interesting. Plus I had the large rock breakwall to help minimize my profile. The Walleye spooked mildly then came in very close. I was short on air but waited until it moved off a bit before gently surfacing to get my camera.
For the next dive I left my float in the rocks and moved out into the open plain along the dropoff. I do it this way to avoid obstructing the channel with my float. The trick is to dive and surface right near the breakwall in order to avoid boats. A couple easy undulations down and then a 'ground-effect' glide out into the open space.
It was beautiful out there, with Freshwater Drum, Carp, Bass, Walleye and meter-long Salmon cruising ominously in the distance. Not a good day for photos but I got a few just to show whats down there.
Off the tip of the breakwall I spotted a carp feeding on the bottom and got right in close before it saw me, even then it was pretty casual. I like these long hangs in shallow water where you start to feel like part of the community.
Fall is an awesome time of year to dive here. After labor day the tourists vanish abruptly, the weather changes and I share the bay with salmon fisherman and a few sailboats.
Saturday had a distinctly autumnal feel. Low, puffy clouds with grey bottoms clipping along in a brisk west wind. The alternate spot (elmwood for those in the know) is sheltered pretty well from everything but the rare east wind. Its an area with quite a few sailboat moorings and a large harbor, which makes it noisy and dangerous earlier during the summer.
I decided to head out along the breakwall. Typically I'll traverse the length of the first wall then either cross the harbor mouth to an area with a huge sand bar and steep dropoff, or hang a right and dive the edge of another dropoff. A couple of easy monofin sprints took me almost to the end of the first breakwall. As I surfaced and looked down at the usual school of interested smallmouth bass I saw the white telltail fin tips of a very large walleye. With no time to breatheup I did a quick drop on about 3/4 lungfull while the Walleye was still close enough to relate to me vertically - I've found once I get into a horizontal thing with them the rules change a bit, but as an object dropping vertically I'm pretty interesting. Plus I had the large rock breakwall to help minimize my profile. The Walleye spooked mildly then came in very close. I was short on air but waited until it moved off a bit before gently surfacing to get my camera.
For the next dive I left my float in the rocks and moved out into the open plain along the dropoff. I do it this way to avoid obstructing the channel with my float. The trick is to dive and surface right near the breakwall in order to avoid boats. A couple easy undulations down and then a 'ground-effect' glide out into the open space.
It was beautiful out there, with Freshwater Drum, Carp, Bass, Walleye and meter-long Salmon cruising ominously in the distance. Not a good day for photos but I got a few just to show whats down there.
Off the tip of the breakwall I spotted a carp feeding on the bottom and got right in close before it saw me, even then it was pretty casual. I like these long hangs in shallow water where you start to feel like part of the community.
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