Anyone dive Mille Lacs? What are your thoughts? I understand it is a shallow lake...max depth around 40 ft. with the average depth being just 15 ft. How's the water clarity? Smith Diving offers a two tank dive there off a 55 ft. pontoon boat. They call it the "Anchor Dive". Dates for the event are May 5th and October 5th. Cost is $59.
I'll probably go to the Fall one, my father-in-law has a place up there so he see's them go in and come out every year with all kinds of stuff... Would be cool to see what's down there.
It's actually a great dive. We were on the east shore & had to boat out about 1/2 mile before we were up to 20 feet deep. Awesome vis. (40+ ft -- at least when we were there) A lot of anchors in the fishing spots & millions of crayfish & rocks covering the floor.
If you go up there I would highly recommend checking with the local DNR to see what type of regulations there are for grabbing the crayfish They are all over the place down there. At least 1 per square yard.
Wow 40 ft. viz. :o Awesome! Mille Lacs is still on my list to dive yet. Hope to get out there this summer. Anyone know of any contacts for boats? Can you rent pontoons there? Maybe we could get a group together and go in on a pontoon for a day?
A pontoon would be a cool idea. And all those crayfish...Cool (They are soooo cute!!!!)
Jean
and they taste good too
Fred
I was amazed last year at the number of crayfish on the tops of the rocks in Mille Lacs. It's not like they were trying to hide either. Come up on them and they rear back a looked pi$$ed. I was wondering then what the best way would be to net them and invite them to go swimming with some new potatoes and corn on the cob in a big pot.
I collected a bunch of reasonably expensive, a couple bucks each, walking weights for my dad for fishing. I passed up a bunch in the rocks because my hands were full.
JoelW
.....I was wondering then what the best way would be to net them ...
Joel, last year when I went with Tri-State diving to their annual crayfish roundup and feed what seemed to work the best was just to use your hands to grab them and then stuff them into one of those collapsible fish baskets, the ones with the spring loaded door at the top. Seems once they reared up and gave you the claw, you had 'em.
Fred
That's a good idea. I was thinking about a fairly large, fine mesh net. Get them from behind and then shove them in a bucket attached to the float. It might be considered unfair to use the net though.
Joel
This is what I found in the Minnesota DNR regs. about Crayfish.
Crayfish
⢠Licensed anglers and children under 16 may take and possess up to 25 pounds of crayfish for personal use.
⢠The crayfish season is April 1 through November 30.
⢠Crayfish cannot be sold as bait.
â¢Importing live crayfish or eggs is prohibited except with a DNR
permit*.
â¢Crayfish may be used as bait in the body of water where they are captured.
â¢Crayfish cannot be transferred from one body of water to another except with a DNR permit*.
⢠The commercial harvest of crayfish requires a DNR permit*.
â¢A permit is needed to sell crayfish for aquarium use.