Monona Outlet

[ScubaDo]

One additional note about diving here, your equipment is going to stink if you don't rinse and treat it.

[MikeS]

How did the new drysuit work out for you?  What did you get?

[Chris H]

I dove at the outlet yesterday.  The pumps were on, vis was pretty good.  The visibility above the water may have been less than below due to the fog created by the temperature difference between the air and the water.  There were a few Musky, a lot of Bluegills, at least one Walleye, a carp, and Jon even managed to get a picture of a Muskrat.

I'm guessing the grates were put in place after some lawyer saw a Youtube video of a diver swimming through the pipes.  They are good for keeping the occasional diver out, but the fish aren't handling them well.

It wasn't great, but despite the sort of chilly weather, it was probably better than not diving.

Photos are Jon's.

[MikeS]

So, was that crappie really stuck?  Dead or alive?

[Chris H]

Yeah, I think it was stuck.  Jon freed one of them only to come back and find it stuck again.

[ScubaDo]

How did the new drysuit work out for you?  What did you get?

I have an Atlan neoprene drysuit it does the job well for me.  I wear only a shorty wetsuit underneath.  I tried a full 3mm wetsuit, but the wrist seals were too tight even with prestretching the seals.

A friend and I were at the outlet again today.  There were a few dead fish stuck in the grate.  The pumps were not on for us this time, but there was a very small current and water temp was 50 degrees close to the grate.  We went wondering around looking for junk and found ourselves surrounded by Tiger Muskies.  I looked at my buddy and saw one swimming parrallel to him within 8".  Later he told me he felt the fish bump into him.  I was a little mad at myself for leaving the camera in my van, I could have filled the memory easily with what all we saw.

Wednesday I leave to meet my friends down in the Keys for two weeks of solid diving.  One of my goals is to get some shark pics and video.

[FreediveWI]

A bunch of us freedivers and spearos have been hitting it all winter long.

Last weekend was the best dive I've had there in TWO years- water coming out of the pipe was 64F degrees! There were tons of fish and the air temp wasn't too bad either.

All winter long I've been working on trying to hand-feed those musky. I keep scaring them off when I stick my hand in their face with a fresh bluegill, so I decided to try and stick it on the end of a spear tip to try and be less of a menacing presence. So far nothing seems to work- or maybe they are just full from all fish hanging around. Maybe by the end of winter they'll be a little bit hungrier?

I see that someone has jacked up one of the gates to let the smaller fish go in and out. As soon as you shoot one carp they all go ducking in for cover. there aren't nearly as many dead fish hanging up in the gate as there were earlier in the winter- but there are still a few.

Another friend and I were out today for about 3 1/3 hours. Water was very clear but not as warm- about 52F. We had a temperature spike about 11:30, it hit 63F, but then it dropped back down after 15 minutes. Water away from the pipe was around 34f. This is also where the carp were today so we spent most of our time in the weed beds out there- with trips back to the pipe to warm up throughout the day.

Ice has been melted out past the wooden barriers and there's easy access to the inlet as well. The wind was really whipping today and there were plenty of waves and steam which made for reduced surface vis.

I just tried attaching some of the photos  I took, but I guess I've used up all my my memory for posting.  ??? 

Jon

[dfreeman]

Sounds like great diving.  I have the same problem with posting pictures.

Keep the commentary going.

Doug

[LKunze]

Jon and Doug, have you tried posting pictures to the photo gallery?

[dfreeman]

I had not posted in the gallery.  More interested in posting as part of a description of a trip.  Might be able to post in gallery and use in a discussion.  Will give that a try tomorrow.

Doug