Deeper Lakes Extended Metro or close to cities

[popolarbear]

what are the deeper lakes to dive in extended metro or within driving distance.

[popolarbear]

Lakes in the 100ft+ range
I know people are going to say Elmo. as it is the deepest lake in the metro.
its also dark and silty. DNR lake finder lists it as 140ft w 16ft clarity. ive never seen surface clarity anywhere close to 16ft! infact i doubt ive seen much more than 6ft clarity on surface of this lake!

how about Big Watab(Sterns county) max depth 120ft with surface clarity of 12ft and (HINT) stocked with trout! below thermo cline is clearer water, relatively bright, and hard bottom gravel in the few spots i dove last year.

minnetonka max depth 110ft(or so) surface clarity around 7ft. clearer in some areas with springs. upper lake is green year round due to farm run off.


Lakes in the 80ft range
White Bear max depth 83ft but lake is draining out due unknown causes. surface clarity 13ft

Calhoun 82ft surface clarity 12ft. but again i have never seen clarity beter than say 6ft

[Hydro]

i think green lake is spicer is near 100ft deep
as well as grindstone lake north by sandstone

grindstone is a neat lake to check out due to the tannins making the water red


infact id be game to revisit grindstone, last time Robert and i went in 8-28-2010
quick grainy video:

[popolarbear]

wow i can see fish in that one.

[scubafreek864]

That was a good time.  We need to head back up to Grindstone again.  ;D

[Chris H]

Define "Driving Distance".  Lake Wazee in Black River Falls, WI is manmade, but is around 350ft deep.  I think it is about 3.5hrs from the cities.    I guess that hardly counts as extended metro.

[jasondbaker]

Wazee is about 2.5 hours from the west side of the Twin Cities -- and probably more like 2 hours if you are closer to St. Paul and 94.

I don't think there are any worthwhile deep dives in the extended metro region. You can reach several good deep sites if you are willing to devote 10-12 hours to driving and diving. I would recommend: Lake Superior (Madeira), Biwabik (St. James), Wazee, and Crosby.

[arcFlash]

Hay Po, why the interest in deep?

I've had fantastic vis local. Pete and I jumped Harriet and had close to 40 feet sometime late October 2011/10? Perch was 50ft once in 05/06 but it was snowing at the time. Sure it's luck but it happens. T and I have had great vis in Big Carnelian(sp), White Bear, Elmo. By great I mean over 20ft at say, 30 feet deep. I don't go deep most of the time because it's just mud and sticks so I don't bother. The bottom of Elmo ~112ft to the silt and it was maybe 6 feet with a 10w HID. Looks like the moon so don't bother.

You want deep, go to Superior and see something worth looking at.

For drivable, I just drove to Glenn Canyon/Lake Powell in Arizona/Utah. Cost about $970 in fuel round trip.

[eddy]

Is that the St. James Mine you are referring to in Biwabik? Never been there...do you have any photos from there?

[jasondbaker]

St. James is near Biwabik. I've got a couple old pics from St. James. I attached one for you.