Lake Mendota

[Chris H]

Was part of a group that went out on Lake Mendota last night.  Calm water and warm weather made it a great night to be on the lake.  However, the visibility was poor, just a few feet above 25 ish feet and a few more feet below that. From what I've heard it will only get worse from here.

I also learned that Monofins are pretty cool, a really good wetsuit can be warm, and my ears don't agree with freediving :'(.

[pink_fins]

Oh rats....... will have to give up a weekend of diving for a wedding reception

I guess you are saying, me taking my gear to Mendota next weekend while we are down there at Marshall park would be silly 

gail

[MikeS]

Gail,

If you're down this way, try Devil's Lake.  The viz was 15' - 20' last weekend.
I'm sure that is better than Mendota and it's kinda on your way.

Mike

[gfmayhew]

Meh. Try the wall dive by Governor's Island. You can do it as a shore dive, but it's a bit of a swim. There are two walls, one about 200 yards south of shore, and one about 300 yards beyond that. The one furthest out drops from 30' to 60' and is typical of Mendota: gray and kinda dull. Some fish. I like the closer one, which is shallow. Bottom of the wall is ~20', and it gets to within 6' of the surface (at least when the water level is down). It's positively covered with fish life and makes Devils Lake look empty. Vis is usually pretty shoddy, maxing out around 5' in July, but probably a bit better right now. As long as you are diving during a sunny day, there is enough diffuse light to navigate by.

Although I've never seen them, I've been told that you can encounter lake sturgeon on that wall.

[FreediveWI]

We were diving on the wall.

Vis above 15' was very green and limited to around 5'. Down around the 25' area I would say vis was around 15'. When we got down to 50' it was black and we were freediving by brail. It might have been slightly better with a light, but the lakes are turning and it won't get good again until fall.  Diving this area in early spring we've had 20' of vis at 80', but now it's kind of late in the season for that.


There was some fish life on the top of the wall, in less than 20', but we saw a LOT more last week when diving the shallows ridges off of Maple Bluff- and that's where I've seen sturgeon in the past.

You might still luck out with a Dive in Mendota If you get a strong wind to blow all the crap to the other side of the lake from where your diving, but for vis I would look to Devil's Lake this time of year.

Jon