MNScuba.com

anyone been to the lake lately, looking for vis. update

Thanks  ???

I was out at Golden Acres last Wed (8/23) vis was pretty marginal at 5-8 ft.  It had just rained the night before, but it was about what I've seen most of the summer at Square this year.  I'll be out at Square tomorrow night (8/30), so I can give another update late tomorrow.

Jeff

I was at Golden Acres on Friday (8/25).  Viz was about 8' to 10' but there were a lot of divers in the water.  Even so, it's been pretty consistent this year - right around 10'.  I'll be out there tomorrow 8/31 and will post an update...

Square was pretty bad on Thursday.  8' or less at the platforms.  There were a few other divers out there, but not enough to really churn it up. 

I went out on the county side today.  Vis was near 10 ft along the lines and at the platforms and upwards of 15 at 15 ft.  You could actually see the wooden platform from the line leading from the entrance cable to the big metal platform!

The bad news is that the yellow entrance cable has been broken.  Looks like it rusted pretty good at one of the turns, and maybe someone hooked an anchor on it.  I did some simple repair, just tying the cable to the post where the rope is attached.  Both lines lead out to the end posts, but there is a gap of about 10 ft right now from the right cable (as your heading out). You can follow a couple of old lines between the end posts that are near the bottom.  I think some repair with some cable clamps should do the trick.  I may have to try that next time out.

Vis out at 30 ft dropped to about 2 ft, it seems all of the silt just sits at that thermocline.  Vis was pretty good up at 15-20 ft with lots of sunfish and a few smallmouth bass hanging around for feeding at the fallen platform with the little boat/speeder.  I spent right at 100 min just hanging out and relaxing.

I guess since I couldn't get to 100 ft, 100 min was a decent alternative...

Jeff

Cable is fixed.  Used a couple of cable clamps.

Lots of fish around, swam through several large groups of sunfish, maybe 20-30 in each group.  Vis was 10 ft or so.

Jeff

I was at square lake on a night dive on 10/20.  The vis was alright at first, 6-10, but the group was huge and everyone  started kicking up the silt.

Yeah, I was out there yesterday and it was pretty stirred up.  Viz was about 8 feet.

Yeah, that was me.  Hope you didn't mind.

Actually, it was a pretty huge group -- they told me about 60 people when I called.  It was a fun dive, though.  (For those who weren't there, Air Down There had a Trick-or-Treat night dive at Square Lake on Friday night.)

I did a dive this evening on the County Park side.  Vis was disappointing at 10-12 ft, sort of hazy.  Temperature was right at 42 degrees.

I decided to go out to see how deep I could get.  I ran a reel out from one of the platforms, just so I wouldn't get lost out on the mud flats.  I went out about 300 ft, and hit just over 41 ft.  Nothing to see but mud bottom.

Jeff