Lake Wazee Dive Report

[CheddarChick]

Woohoo, finally got a chance to use the SP-350 in water not the consistancy of pea soup. We drove to Black River Falls in WI on Thursday and dove Fri and Sat. The lake is actually a reclaimed iron ore quarry that is noted as the deepest inland lake in WI. At over 300 feet deep it offers shore diving with wall, deep and shallow diving. The water is really clear, and there are no motor boats allowed so it is a diving heaven. The temps range from 68 at the surface with the thermocline at 30' with temps starting at 58* and dropping. I (being a wimp) stayed above 27' where it was a mild 60* The water is great when the lake is quiet, viz is 25', then the weekend comes and the viz drops accordingly, though even when it as packed at 1:00 pm on Saturday with about 6 different dive shops have classes there. Even at it's busiest we found clear water somewhere. The lake has a ton of platforms, fish cribs, and even wrecks in the deeper sections. So there is something for all. Wazee sports runs a great dive shop about 3 miles from the entrance to the park, air fills, gear, classes, top notch place. Keith is the owner, stop in and say Hi!
The fish there are big and plentiful, the fish cribs are where a lot of the bluegills hang and are very bold, and hungry....

We had a great time taking pictures with them I would have left happy at that point. Then we decided to follow the underwater forest around the weed bed. And at one point I turned to look at the trees and saw the biggest bass just following us around. I grabbed a rock to stop and gawk at him and when the rock moved he came in to see if there was anything under it to eat. They really love crawdads. We had about 6 big bass follow us like puppies for the rest of the dive.

Jeff's buddy

My pet

Walleye were also everywhere, and I saw the biggest walleye I have ever seen chomp a bluegill right in front of me and bury himself in the weeds so it couldn't get away
(not this one)

Not a great shot, but I was excited

So cool to see. So a great weekend, and I think I am getting the hang of the Oly. Though there are a ton of out of focus shots I won't share.

 

[do it easy]

Sounds like you had a good time. The picts turned out well.

 

[CheddarChick]

color is funky in the walleye one but I took the strobe off between dives..figures huh?

 

[Hoosier]

Thanks for sharing a report...

It used to be brrr place...

"even wrecks in the deeper sections"

What kind of wrecks at what depth?

 

[do it easy]

Last time I was there, they put in a wooden boat around 30', if I recall correctly. I think the boat is about 40' long, although it might be longer. It did seem pretty beamy, especially for it's size.

 

[Hoosier]

Huh...

It is in a shallow side, not in a deep side.....

 

[CheddarChick]

never saw it.....too many fish to play with

 

[O'Malley]

I hope to dive Wazee later this year, thanks for sharing!

 

[do it easy]

ooops, I forgot to mention that the wreck was on the northeast side of the lake. I want to say that it's straight out from the handicapped accessible fishing pier, just above Sherwood Forest.

 

[Paco]

The wreck is also marked with a buoy. I have found that my compass is worthless in this part of the lake. It must have more residual iron than other parts of the lake.