New member question square lake or not

[Coheed]

Novice diver and new member here in rochester. My buddy and i got certified last year and we are up to around 12 local dives or so. We learned at wazee through mdc sports. Weve done wazee several times, i just did bad medicine a couple weeks ago. My folks have a place on mille lacs so we dove that this year (i dont recommend this- crap vis, no fish, and millions of zebra mussels). I grew up fishing there so at least i can say i did it.

We were wondering what we should try next. I cant do any tropical dives for a couple years- to many family/kid obligations. We hear about square lake frequently and it is close to home. Is it worth trying or should we just hit wazee again for the last dive of the year?
Thanks for the opinions

[Hydro]

if wazee is on the table, thats better than square any day... and if wazee on the table (distance ok) you could just as easy check out the mines in crosby..,. same distance and you dont need a boat if you can handle dirt trails...
sometimes decent is calhoun, harriet, perch, and elmo.

[jamesecg]

It's a bit of a haul for you, coming from Rochester, but I really enjoyed the dives I did at Lake Ore-B-Gon, in Gilbert, MN. About an hour past Duluth. The lake is an old open pit mine, so with little vegetation, water clarity is pretty good. There's a lot to see - perhaps a dozen manmade objects (helicopter, rail car, etc.) plus the remains of an old forrest that was flooded when the water level rose. A decent number of fish in the shallows.

If you like beer, Fitgers in Duluth is a great place to stop for lunch or dinner.

James

[DetectorGuy]

I would say if its the last dive of the year... Square lake would not be a great choice as the viz is not as good as it was several years ago and the items on the bottom are kinda boring. Diving there would leave you both in a deep depression all winter long. I would say Crosby/Ironton area mine pits would be a good choice, but if you don't know the area, the rough dirt roads back in there can be like a maze. Then finding the good spots to dive in each of the several pits can be a challenge as things aren't placed here for divers to see... and the few vehicles that are there are spread out too far to hit more than one on a single dive. There are lots of fish in the shallows though and some great wall dives. I think the GLSPS is doing some fun dives there on Saturday the 14th and it would be good to tag along with them to learn some of the area.

I would say if you want to hit a really nice lake with 30' viz and lots of man made items to see, Ore Be Gone is the one to dive. It is 60 miles North of Duluth, but they have two helicopters, two planes, two rail speeders, a rail truck, a short bus, a jeep, a boat, a car and some other misc stuff. These can all be dove from shore although one of the helicopters, one of the planes, and the car are on the other side of the lake and you can drive around the lake to get shore access to these. They have buoys on most of these items but I have a map showing where most of them are if you want.

[popolarbear]

cohead.. are you looking for fish or good vis? also what type of exposure wet suit are you diving? this time of year there might be some shore diving on lake superior if your looking for good vis. lake sylvia anandale area sterns county is a nice balance of vis and fish but you would need a boat.
I personally like minnetonka as it is in the top 20 largest lakes in the state and made up of many smaller bays that all have very different conditions.you need a boat to do it right. two weeks ago we were diving it with around 10ft vis and found 20-25ft on the same bay just different spot! really not that far away from the main dive spot! big difference.

[jasondbaker]

You're probably a little inexperienced to be heading out to Superior at this point. I'll echo others and recommend Ore-be-gone. You can combine Ore-be-gone with Lake Mine and St. James for a nice weekend of diving.

I visit Square Lake for the first dives of the spring simply to test all of my dive and photography equipment. Otherwise I avoid it during the "real" diving for the rest of the year.

[arcFlash]

If you made it all the way to mille lacs just go to Crosby. Read what you can online and then ask us for some navigation help. I agree the 'roads' are a mess but my minivan can do it. I've jumped almost every site there and could probably draw a map to most of them. The best part is to jump a site and discover something, if that's your thing.

[DiverQueen]

Portsmouth State Park in Crosby /Ironton has a "Swimming Beach" that makes for an easy shore dive with a training platform, steel culverts, numerous trees and fish! Look out for the fishing lures caught in the trees! Just don't get run over by mountain bikers on the trail when you walk back up the hill to your vehicle! Safe Dives!

[Terry]

Hey Coheed, (I think we'll dub you conehead, no offense intended my friend, just not sure from your profile, and its lack of information about you, exactly what you are,,,, male, female, 24 or 64 yo, in shape, out of shape, I'll guess,,, no boat, probably wetsuit, but the last dive of the year (here in MN anyway) isn't until late December. OK, now that we're done messing with you, on to the important stuff.
If you've dove Millacs and Wazee, your already beyond anything that Square has to offer, other then platforms tied with ropes to guide a blind diver from site to site, to see the same reason that 90% of the divers that get certified today, are not consistantly diving, a year from now.
There's good info from all the previous posters and you can trust them to know what their typing about, except,,, that you CAN hit two cars, in Section 6 mine at the tail end of the Cayuna Range (on a single dive) a 4 door Renault in 50' and a 78 Monte Carle in 12', sorry John, its been too long and I couldn't resist
If I had to go out on a limb about lake diving in the midwest,,,, I'd say there are probably more "divable" lakes (better vis.) in Sconnie then there are in MN, even with fewer lakes, I think due to more sand and gravel bottom there and more black dirt, clay bottom here.
If you've drove to Millacs from Roch., in the summer, SKIP Millacs,,,, go to Crooked Lake, Serpent Lake, the mines in Crosby. Do Millacs thru the ice.
In the cities, do Minnetonka, or Medicine (with a boat) or from shore, do Harriet, or Calhoun, or Perch (free of gas powered boats) or Elmo (deepest lake in the 7 county metro area) but as two guppies NEVER venture deeper then you and your buddy have been together/separate, without someone one who has much more diving time at depth guiding you.
Your area, southern MN, doesn't have its fair share of the 10,000, so you'll need to plan to travel north most of the time.
Now, on to Superior, this is the time of year, warmest/calmest water, LOTS of shore dives, the State is by far the largest land owner on the No. Shore, the Madiera, and Hesper can both be done from shore in calm weather, but in a wetsuit its going to get pretty cool, keep that in mind. But (for true adventure) if Superior skunks you due to wind and waves, head inland from the north shore and dive lakes that don't typically see divers. Otherwise come jump thru the ice with us, and realize that the season in MN NEVER ends. TRINITY