Mendota Walleyes

This is one of my favorite underwater videos. I found this metal framework on the 2nd Point Bar in Lake Mendota. There's a smallmouth bass swimming around it, and as I approach I see three walleyes inside the frame. The second sequence is another Walleye in a familiar position, laying tight up against a rock. As mentioned many times before, these fish have no fear of divers. You can see how close I got to it's head (no zooming done on the camera), and it still wouldn't move.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R28Gb1zAgLw

You may be aware of what the structure is and I will add my 2 cents in case you don't. I belive it's the weather recording devises foundation that was in that area back in the 60's.

Ever since I found it that's exactly what I thought it was (I followed the cables out to the bar. They stopped short of the foundation but could have been pulled back by someone hooking them or with their anchor). There's a tripod tower section about 100' north of the foundation. I couldn't figure out why they'd pull the tower section that far, and leave it upright. Recently though a guy writing a book on Lake Mendota sent me some photos of the station and it doesn't look like it was part of the project. I contacted the UW people that were involved in the project and they didn't know much about it either. To add to the "mystery" another person that was mapping the area with his side scan unit found another similar object. I haven't dove on it yet, but will and will get some photos to compare the two. I also seem to recall some concrete footings in the area that I ran across while diving. But I may have dreamt that one! :) I am going to look for them again regardless.

Thanks much for addding your thoughts on this. I purposely have been make the videos a bit longer then necessary with the hope someone might see an object at the right angle and remember what it is, and hopefully shares it with me so I stop driving myself nuts trying to figure out what some of this stuff is! Thanks again, Rick

I saw a boat pull a rather large cable up in that area with their anchor last year come to think of it. Thought that was pretty strange at the time. Now it's making some sense.

On a somewhat related note, I'm not exactly sure where it is by land, but there's a little beach right about in the middle of THIS MAP where I often see divers. This past Friday, maybe around 5:30pm, I saw 3 or 4 divers diving under a small inner tube without a divers flag on it. I was fishing in the area. When I first saw it, I though someone had lost it off of their boat or from shore. Later, I saw divers surface. I do believe it is law that divers must display a diver flag, not just an inner tube-like device, correct?

Yes, you must have a dive flag and surface within 50' of the flag (except in an emergency) and boats running any sort of motor cannot get within 100' of the flag. I did have it happen to me once though when I had the 4 gallon milk case inside my innertube full of anchors and it tipped over (little bit too much weight) and I lost my flag (and all the anchors). The area you're referring to I believe is off that little parking lot off Lake Mendota Drive, which is a popular shore dive location. I can only assume that if they went to the trouble of pulling an innertube they probably had a flag when they started. Your observation though is a good reminder to boaters if they see something like this to stay away from the floating device, at least until you're sure there's not divers below. I've had boaters motor right up to my flag before, wondering what it was (my wife was in our boat, and could hear them talking, trying to figure out what it meant), and I've had one idiot never even see it and run it over at high speed. Rick

One problem with the flags might be, when there is a bit of chop, which is almost always occuring on Mendota, it's difficult to see the flags. They seem kind of small. The group diving on Shorewood Beach has not had a flag a couple of times I've seen them. When there was a good perch population 25 years ago, and a good Ciscos population, the Cisco would spawn on those rock bars and the perch would feed on the eggs. AHH, swimming at Shorewood Beach and diving off the 2 story high dive and selling night crawlers near there 50 years ago. Fishing near the weather station memories came to mind with your post, thank you!

I would tend to agree, the flags can be difficult to see. Since I almost always dive from my boat I also put a flag on it. I don't know who the divers are that aren't using flags, but I'll email the local SCUBA club and ask them to mention it in their newsletter. Thanks everyone for the interest and input! Rick

It's not a matter of me not seeing their flag. There was no flag. I was anchored and fishing, and observing that inner tube long enough to notice that that there was no flag. I've seen divers in that area enough times to assume that that the tube I saw was divers. The point is there there are a lot of boats that pass through that area that might have not recognized that tube as a diver marker. The flag was not up, nor was was it present on that inner tube. Next time I see that, I'll just call the Sheriff and have them a pay a visit. When I saw the divers surface, I could hear their conversation clear as day and they weren't talking about their flag that wasn't visible any longer.

Yes, I understand that in your case they didn't have a flag at all, just the tube. I was agreeing with the previous post that mentioned the flags can be hard to see when there's a chop. Because I do agree with trying to make your precense as visible as possible I personally use a truck innertube with the flag on a three foot "mast". I've seen some innertubes with a covering over it that looks like a dive flag. In WI this isn't legal, the flag must be at least 12" X 15". Rick