I wanted to share some pretty cool photos with everyone on here. Earlier today, my group and I did a dive in the Wolf River in Shiocton, WI. We do the dive once or twice a year about this time, as this time of year is the only time that the river gets good visibility - good being a relative term, as the viz topped out around 5 feet or so. We dive a little bend in the river that gets 30' deep - in this hole rest HUNDREDS of carp and sturgeon. It's literally a carpet of fish - you are able to nestle down among these huge carp. Usually you can see a lot of sturgeon as well - this is an extremely rare opportunity to be able to dive with these fish. In addition we usually find old antique bottles, there are a couple of old, old, old cars in that section of the river and a few farm implements. It's a really cool dive.
I've been in some threads on here where people talk about how cold of water they have dove in. Well, for freshwater, this dive is as cold as it gets. The water temperature was barely above 32 degrees fahrenheit (0 celsius). My computer read 33, others read 32. Last year the temp on all of ours read 31. The water is moving at a good clip so it doesn't freeze even when that cold. Another cool thing about this is that anchor ice forms. Anchor ice is ice crystals that form on objects underwater. They are a very beautiful thing - very neat, one of those treasures that really make you glad to be able to see the underwater world. It makes a cool tinkling sound when you grab onto a log that has the ice forming on it.
It may be a neat dive, but it's not an easy one. Ridiculously cold. It's dark, the viz is poor (1-5 feet), and it's an entanglement nightmare - logs, machinery remnants, ropes from anchors, fishing line, and strong current. But coming face to face with a sturgeon makes it all worth it.
Anyway! I'm posting a link to my "home forum", WIScuba. My dive partner posted some pictures of our regs after the dive. It was pretty cool, the whole 1st stage encased in this clear layer of ice. Not something you see every day, so I figured that I would share the photos. Let me know what you think - and if you can't see them, lemme know and I can post the pictures directly.
http://www.wiscuba.com/yabbse/index.php?board=6;action=display;threadid=487
I've been in some threads on here where people talk about how cold of water they have dove in. Well, for freshwater, this dive is as cold as it gets. The water temperature was barely above 32 degrees fahrenheit (0 celsius). My computer read 33, others read 32. Last year the temp on all of ours read 31. The water is moving at a good clip so it doesn't freeze even when that cold. Another cool thing about this is that anchor ice forms. Anchor ice is ice crystals that form on objects underwater. They are a very beautiful thing - very neat, one of those treasures that really make you glad to be able to see the underwater world. It makes a cool tinkling sound when you grab onto a log that has the ice forming on it.
It may be a neat dive, but it's not an easy one. Ridiculously cold. It's dark, the viz is poor (1-5 feet), and it's an entanglement nightmare - logs, machinery remnants, ropes from anchors, fishing line, and strong current. But coming face to face with a sturgeon makes it all worth it.
Anyway! I'm posting a link to my "home forum", WIScuba. My dive partner posted some pictures of our regs after the dive. It was pretty cool, the whole 1st stage encased in this clear layer of ice. Not something you see every day, so I figured that I would share the photos. Let me know what you think - and if you can't see them, lemme know and I can post the pictures directly.
http://www.wiscuba.com/yabbse/index.php?board=6;action=display;threadid=487
I can usually only go for about a half hour on those dives.
