Ice Diving trip report 1-25-14 Mille Lacs Lake

[oneshotshooter]

This past weekend, my dive buddy detectorguy and I Had scheduled an ice dive. The pre-dive trip forecast had temperatures in the 20s with sunshine. We were heading to Lake Mille Lacs on the southern shore. As we got closer to the dive trip, the forecast had changed to subzero with wind chills at 35° below zero. We decided to go anyway. This made the set up a little more difficult. We banked 3 to 4 feet of snow on the windy side of our shelter. My buddy had done some research on a place called Hennepin Island, it is a rock pile about 2 1/2 miles offshore.Is supposedly the world's smallest national bird sanctuary. It is visible above water, and we figured it would've been drawing fishermen for hundreds of years to try their luck and lose things over the side. The zebra mussels have taken over in the last 3 to 5 years. We had awesome visibility with 40+ feet. Other divers at some point must've had the same idea because I found a bottle with the neck stuck into the sand. We found a couple of lures but not much else. Here are some pics of the dive and a YouTube link with some of the footage. The video footage really shows the great visibility, and how much light the rays that we plow light up the dive area.We are already planning our next trip to this lake. The best part about ice diving is the great visibility, and you always have flat seas regardless of the wind!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiivrhqNfts

 

[oneshotshooter]

This past weekend, my dive buddy scubapony and I Had scheduled an ice dive. The pre-dive trip forecast had temperatures in the 20s with sunshine. We were heading to Lake Mille Lacs on the southern shore. As we got closer to the dive trip, the forecast had changed to subzero with wind chills at 35° below zero. We decided to go anyway. This made the set up a little more difficult. We banked 3 to 4 feet of snow on the windy side of our shelter. My buddy had done some research on a place called Hennepin Island, it is a rock pile about 2 1/2 miles offshore.Is supposedly the world's smallest national bird sanctuary. It is visible above water, and we figured it would've been drawing fishermen for hundreds of years to try their luck and lose things over the side. The zebra mussels have taken over in the last 3 to 5 years. We had awesome visibility with 40+ feet. Other divers at some point must've had the same idea because I found a bottle with the neck stuck into the sand. We found a couple of lures but not much else. Here are some pics of the dive and a YouTube link with some of the footage. The video footage really shows the great visibility, and how much light the rays that we plow light up the dive area.We are already planning our next trip to this lake. The best part about ice diving is the great visibility, and you always have flat seas regardless of the wind!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiivrhqNfts

I stand corrected. The island is not a bird sanctuary, Its an IBA Important Bird Area. We are going to be cashing in on the good vis and clear ice this weekend if anybody wants to join us......

 

[TONY CHANEY]

That truly is very cool and I want to ice dive one day. How about some underwater shots.

 

[oneshotshooter]

That truly is very cool and I want to ice dive one day. How about some underwater shots.

Most of the underwater is video. If you click on the youtube links you can fast forward through to the diving portion. We hit Spirit Island on Sat. Lots of big structure (for around here) and some piled up ice pressure ridges.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbuR5xvXp_s

The diving starts at 1:39 The aerial footage is shot with a phantom 2 and a gopro 3. We decided the hard water was a good practice area. Once we have logged enough flight time, we want to fly over open water and get a birds eye view of dive operations from the boat.

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

The vis is awesome man. How did you take the aerial shots?

 

[oneshotshooter]

The vis is awesome man. How did you take the aerial shots?

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

What is that? Care to introduce your four legged friend?