Spearing/Clarity reports - S.E. Wisconsin

[Jon]

I finally got around to get a few photos together from Saturday- diving only, none form the bar.:friday

There's a bunch of Jeremy playing in the ice so that he can show his buddies back in Texas that he really did jump in the water.

Jon

 

[Jon]

Here's a few more above water shots of our lovely dive area.

Jon

 

[unirdna]

No, thank you.

 

[cdavis]

Hey Jon,

Looks like some great stuff is coming your way. The high temp is now -20 degrees not far west of you. Enjoy.

When you going to break down and join me for some cruddy conditions in the Bahamas?

Connor

 

[Jon]

When I dropped my daughter off at school this morning it was -2F without the windchill and -20F with the windchill. The craziest thing of all was that it was close to 50F here yesterday at this time!

You should see the nice bump I have on my head from swimming full speed into the edge of the ice sheet- never even saw it comming!:blackeye

I'll get down there as soon as I start making some money again.

Jon

 

[WreckRunner]

Thanks for the pics Jon.......those are cool.

 

[dotey]

do those guys from texas still not belive you LOL thats funny

 

[Jon]

Sad news for the lakes around here- the are all frozen solid!:head

There's even ice covering the outlet. I knew that they wave been talking about shutitng the power plant down, it's said to be the dirtest air wise in the southern part of the state, but i didn't know it would be this year. Not only is there a solid layer of ice over it, but there's a good 4" of snow on top of that.

The only way to get out diving around here is with chain saws and ropes until spring hits. For that we need a group of at least 2-3 people.

The only other option is Lake michgian- but that hasn't beent he best lately with the high winds and waves.

Jon

 

[Jon]

Just got back from my bike ride (studded tires rock!) and the Outlet is frozen solid. It even had a half dozen ice-fishing holes drilled into that that have since refrozen.

That's the bad news. The good news is that the river that connects Mendota to Monona is wide open and crystal clear. It is less than 10' deep and there seems to b a pretty good current running in it right now, but at least you don't need a chain saw to dive- I'm looking at this as a glass half-full kind of deal.

I think I'm going to try and jump in today or tomorrow.

Jon

 

[fleshy]

You should see the nice bump I have on my head from swimming full speed into the edge of the ice sheet- never even saw it comming!:blackeye

I'll get down there as soon as I start making some money again.

Jon

Had a similar incident about two months ago. We were having a sunday football practice in the swimming pool, got there late, and had to do the warm up laps by myself. I swam straight into the side of the pool, broke my nose, and still finnished the workout. Its the fourth time ive broken my nose!

 

[Jon]

I got out on my father-in-law's charter boat for a little freediving on the shipwrecks off of Milwaukee yesterday. Pretty nice day with flat calm seas and a small group over scuba divers- only 7.

The sad part was all of the rain that we've gotten in the last week. It created a brown layer of warm water, and limited visibility, almost 40' thick. Temps in that layer were 60F, but the vis was less than 5' and filled with all kinds of floating garbage- even 5 miles out! I kept hitting sticks and other thing on my ascents. Luckily, I never hit any of the floating logs that were passing by!

Once you broke through that layer the lake really opened up with vis over 60' and water temps in the low 40's. I got a little cold scootering around in that stuff wearing only a 3mm (still waiting on my new suit) so I put away the scooter and put on the monofin to play around- and warm up! This was lots of fun, but a little confusing as I never knew just where I would land on the wreck due to the crappy surface vis. The new monofin worked great with 5mm socks on and I even saw some, small, perch- at 75'.

The surface conditions were rather odd. Out on the lake it was hot and sunny. When we motored back to shore it got foggy, rainy, and cold. Once on shore and driving wets it got hot and sunny once again. There was a pretty good layer of haze along the lake.

Jon

 

[Whopperhead]

Unirdna, Wreckrunner and myself headed to Lake Michigan On Monday June 29th. It started out to be a really nice day with some wind. Water Temp was 51 degrees and there were lots of Big Perch to be hunted. The small perch (10" and smaller) are the easiest to get, anyone with a speargun and a scubamax suit should be able to limit out on those. The limit by the way is 5. In about 3 hours of Spearing all three of us limited out. Ted had the nicest Stringer of Perch. All 13" - 14.25".

I lost my dive flag as the USS SHARDANA had capsized in the 1 foot waves. But on my return trip I was lucky enough to find it. Spearfishing for these perch is the best- cause you have to TRY in order to get the big ones. You have to be able to dive to 25-30 feet and sit there for a min or two not to mention, slowly crawl around the rocks and STALK the perch.

It was a great day and the Perch will taste even better cause of the effort put in to get them.

Oh- and one of my Ice Fin Blades broke 20 mins into the day. I will not be replacing them with another Ice Blade. I will go with something a little more Reliable. This is the 3rd time this has happened in the last 2 years. It felt like Jeremy had shot my fin with a speargun. Which wasn't the case, cause that was the first thing I looked for- Jeremy and the distance between us: Safe.

 

[slimsteve]

Good afternoon
I am heading to the dive palooza July 23 and would like to know what species you are allow to spear. The video showed some nice trout and I think they were crappy/calaco bass at the fish pens. I was under the impresion that you could spear game fish to creel limits but from what you said in your clarity post about not being able to spear walleye I am thinking I may have been miss informed.
Slimsteve

 

[ILDiver]

anyone with a speargun and a scubamax suit should be able to limit out on those

rofl :blackeye :head :martial :crutch :t :naughty :naughty :friday :inlove


Steve, no game fish in WI. There was talk of hitting a lake that was to be drained and they would allow it, but I never heard of anyone making it to that place. I think much spearing is done at Palooza. I'm sure some will happen, but I think the major focus is the freediving.

 

[Whopperhead]

Slimsteve- You can shoot in MOST Wisconsin Waters: Rough fish (Carp, Suckers, Dogfish, Burbot, Gar, Rock Bass) and PAN FISH (Bluegills, Sunfish, Crappie, and Perch)

That is it. No LARGE MOUTH, SMALL MOUTH BASS, NO PIKE, NO GAME FISH. Everyone that spears or wants to spear- should learn to identify the fish- I've been planning on posting pics of the fish that are Spearable in Wisconsin.

I really wish your username was "Slim Shady" you'd immediately be COOL. lol.

 

[slimsteve]

Thank you for letting me know about your concerns at Haigh Quarry I will keep with the tourist disguise.
I see that you spear perch. I the guess I am not 100% sure what the midwest classifies as "game fish".
I will not be overly disappointed that the paloooza is more about free diving as I would very much like to pick the brains of those who have been doing this a lot longer then I have. I have been trying to learn pretty much on my own and would definetly appreciate learning better technique and training methods from experinced free divers.

 

[unirdna]

Without the db network, I would still be in the stone-ages of diving (if not dead from a blackout). Coming to palloza, and picking the brains of experienced divers will benefit beginners more than they would think possible.

 

[Whopperhead]

Went to Lake Michigan - Today with KevinCook. The vis was pretty bad- about 6-10 feet. Which oddly enough I think helped. The fish had to be a lot closer to see me- which is too late for them. We both got our limit of Perch- In about 2.5 hours. It was a good day for spearing - minus the poor vis.

 

[unirdna]

Nice work, guys. Looks like there are still lots of big one to go around.

 

[nostres]

Howdy Soggy Bottom Boys! i am on my way back home and i read about your monday hunt. wow i wish i was there! I didnt have easy hunt in ct, i was after fluke there was lots of winter flounder but season is over. Summer flounder was smaller than 19 inch limit and was too fast anyway maybe 0.5 sec to see it.. Anyway thanx dr jeremy for a gun and i hope u goin huntin again soon
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