08-05-2006, 08:54 PM
I just got back from a family vacation to the north woods. ;D This place has more lakes than you can count but every one is different. One lake can have zero vis while the next one over can have 40'. There are so many too choose from it really helps to talk to the locals or hit my favorite website, Lakesat.org, to find out how clear they are.
There is also a very nice dive shop up there, Timber Bay, that has Wednesday night dives throughout the summer. I hit a bunch of lakes on my own, but manged to meet up with them to dive Papoose lake during the week. they had at least a dozen divers out there so there where plenty of people to buddy up with. Timberbay has a very nice mixing sation and can set yuo up with whatever kind of gas you want.
I haven't found too much to look at below 25' so there's not much need for a full wetsuit. One night I overheated in my 3mm, freediving suit, and spent most of the week just diving in a 2mm vest. The water temps above the thermocline were about 78 degrees so nothing more than that was needed. If you want to hit 120' in Trout lake and look for Burbot you can certainly pull out your drysuit, but the good stuff, meaning big fish, was all much shallower.
Vis was all over the place with 3' being the worst and 35' being the best. I would post more pictures on here but the site says that I have reached my limit. :-\
All-in-all it was a nice way to add in a little diving to a, mainly, family vacation. I hit no less than 6 different lakes in this trip, and they were all different than the 6 other lakes I hit last time I was up there.
Jon
There is also a very nice dive shop up there, Timber Bay, that has Wednesday night dives throughout the summer. I hit a bunch of lakes on my own, but manged to meet up with them to dive Papoose lake during the week. they had at least a dozen divers out there so there where plenty of people to buddy up with. Timberbay has a very nice mixing sation and can set yuo up with whatever kind of gas you want.
I haven't found too much to look at below 25' so there's not much need for a full wetsuit. One night I overheated in my 3mm, freediving suit, and spent most of the week just diving in a 2mm vest. The water temps above the thermocline were about 78 degrees so nothing more than that was needed. If you want to hit 120' in Trout lake and look for Burbot you can certainly pull out your drysuit, but the good stuff, meaning big fish, was all much shallower.
Vis was all over the place with 3' being the worst and 35' being the best. I would post more pictures on here but the site says that I have reached my limit. :-\
All-in-all it was a nice way to add in a little diving to a, mainly, family vacation. I hit no less than 6 different lakes in this trip, and they were all different than the 6 other lakes I hit last time I was up there.
Jon
