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drysuitinia · 06-23-2005, 03:28 PM,

going to be vacationing at caribou lake in a few weeks, and wondering if anyone has experience diving it?? also possibly looking for a buddy while i am there.

lance

Maka · 06-23-2005, 03:53 PM,

Which Caribou Lake?

drysuitinia · 06-23-2005, 04:00 PM,

the one outside of marcell

Maka · 06-23-2005, 04:04 PM,

It has a max depth of 152ft. Visibilty probably 30+ ft. There is a Public access on the SW side of the lake. The Depths straight out from the PA get down to around 100 ft. Let us know how it goes.

drysuitinia · (This post was last modified: 06-23-2005, 05:37 PM by drysuitinia.)

any attractions?? going to be there the 10-15 of july if anyone wants to get wet. what is the closest dive shop?? also, what temps can i expect? trying to decide if i need to drag the drysuit along

AandA · 07-11-2005, 08:41 PM,

We've been diving Caribou for the last couple of years. It's one of the clearest natural lakes in the state. We normally dive from our boat and so
we have the full range of the entire lake to dive in. One of the better dives just happens to be right off of the public boat launch. Straight out from the boat launch is a nice rocky drop-off to about 70 feet. Diving along that drop-off to the north one encounters a whole lot of sunken logs, rocks, plants, fish, etc. The thermocline last week when we were there was at about 22 feet. We can pretty much guarantee you'll see several small mouth bass which will probably follow you quite closely-especially if you turn over a few rocks and feed them some crayfish! If you have a boat, there is one sunken rowboat I'm aware of in the lake. It is north of the access past the 1st cove almost directly in front of a large, very distinctive boulder in about 15 feet of water fairly close to shore.

Caribou is a great hidden gem!! ;D The nearest place to fill tanks is Grand Rapids Marine, right on highway 2 west of county road 38. Extreme warning--although we have used this place to fill tanks in the past and probably will again, please realize this is not a 'real' dive shop. The staff have absolutely no clue. The fills are all 'hot fills' so you're lucky to get 2700 psi in a tank. Each fill takes them about 1/2 an hour! LOL :o They also have 3, count them 3, tanks that they can rent. : Smile

Caribou is well worth the drive. The visibility and what you see in Caribou rivals any other pit lake we've been in, and this is a natural lake! :o

AandA · 07-11-2005, 08:48 PM,

By the way, we'd love to know how you found out about Caribou in the first place. We initially found out about it from the DNR citizen lake monitoring program of secci disk readings.

Also, there is a WONDERFUL resort on Caribou (the only one) called Buckhorn which we've always felt should try and cater to the diving crowd. We've stayed there twice in the past 2 years and it allows great access to the lake!

ghosch · 07-12-2005, 02:12 PM,

OK, I did a dive or two in the lake (it's not far from my in-laws cabin) and I'll admit the vis. was pretty good, but it was kind of like diving in a shallow bowl covered in silt, not a lot to look at or see (though I did find a dive flag on the bottom of the lake, which answered my question on whether or not anyone else had been diving in the lake). For my money I'd drive south a little and do Lake Mine (there's another name for it as well, Stubler I think?), which is just north of Grand Rapids.

I also did a dive in the lake right across the high way, it had decent vis as well, and just about as much to see.

LKunze · 07-12-2005, 04:48 PM,

Stubler is over by Buhl which is west of Virginia. I dove it a few years ago and it's only 40 feet max depth and the viz wasn't very good.

ghosch · 07-13-2005, 07:06 AM,

Oops.

What's the name of the one just north of Grand Rapids?

I know it's referred to as "Lake Mine" but I think it has a different name on some of the maps.