Anyone in the water in May yet?

[stick500]

I'm out of the Twin Cities area for awhile but will be coming up in June for a week or two.

Has anyone been snorkeling or diving any local lakes yet?

I would love to hear about visibility, weed growth, flooding, big carp sightings etc. It's killing me that I'm not in the water yet!

Hope to get a dive or two in with my pal Popolarbear when I'm in town.

Thanks in advance for any info.

[2airishuman]

Lac Lavon, bottom temps mid 40s, viz was 3-4' earlier in the month.  Was last there on 5/12 and the viz had improved to about 10' and there were more fish, many sunfish, some crappies and a couple of largemouth bass with the largest numbers near the bar that separates the bay we dive in from the main part of the lake.  Temps high 50s above the thermocline.  I have so far recovered a youth sized mask, a fishing reel, a large patio lounger cushion.  Also a knife and a bicycle at the request of kids at the fishing pier who they belonged to.  Saw a painted turtle on the bottom near shore on one dive.

Lake of the Woods, did one dive in the sioux narrows area while with some friends fishing for lake trout.  40', 46 degrees, lots of rocks and crayfish, viz 10', no fish to see on the dive except a couple of fingerlings of uncertain species.  Not strictly a local dive I guess

Cannon River in Faribault near the fairgrounds and ball fields, poked around under the railroad bridge, saw some pilings for an even older bridge that must date back to the 1800s, a couple of rusty bicycles, some cast-iron water valve covers (you know, the kind they put flush with the concrete or asphalt in the sidewalk or street), and other lesser cultural artifacts.  No fish except for some very recent hatchlings in the shallows that were barely large enough to be free swimming, less than the size of a pencil eraser.  Tried to swim downstream to the dam but the water was only 3' deep most of the way in between the bridge and the dam, so I decided to come back and do that some other time.  8' deep in the channel by the RR bridge, temps 40s, viz 2-3'.

Union Lake in Rice County, shallow, weedy, nothing to see except a half dead catfish, 3' viz, nosy neighbors came over to see what I was doing, maybe 8' max depth, not good for anything but a weight check.  Rumor has it that they used to put a junk car on the ice every year and have a betting pool on the day it would fall in.  The cars must be somewhere but I didn't see any

[stick500]

Awesome detailed report!

Thanks so much. Always wondered what it might be like to dive the Cannon River below the big dam just west of the town of Cannon River- there's usually all kinds of fish there, but vis might be sketchy.

[popolarbear]

vis kinda green this year. not sure why. tonkas doesn't seem to have as much weeds this year. almost no boat trafic till just recently. and moss growing on everything in shallows. hopefully the boat traffic picks up, and waves push the moss out deep, that should help vis for what i want to see. below thermocline its fairly clear 15ft or so. ...
carp are spawning hard today(friday) and lots of small yearling carp piled behind the grays dam. although the road is closed and tore up now. we had 6 muskies side by side two weekends ago.average sized muskies, nothing monsterous, but not common to see 6 at once.enjoy..popo

[aknelsonone]

I live actually on the south side of the Union Lake. The above is normal the Union Lake is a slue because of the runoff we are getting from the Chemlawns the runoffs from Webster and runoffs from a 2000 unit Holden Schwine Farm (Forest Township) on the south side of the state land. In Summer time the south section has 10 acres of millfoil weed. One of my kids made a water clarity accessment this spring and just confirmed the facts.  To the lake most of the areas are 8-12 ft deep there and average viz is less than 2-3 ft. in summertime down to zero. Just green and Brown. There is a deeper portion between the two lake sections only accessible from land. The Junk story above is news to me and yes the lake is full of carp and a few good size snapping Turtel.