Pearl Lake
This weekend we decided to dive Pearl Lake, which is about an hour's drive south of us just over the Wisconsin border into Illinois. We have visited this lake several times before; we even completed our Advanced Open Water and Rescue certifications here. There are multiple pavilions with picnic tables which are a convenient place to gear up as well as complete surface intervals. The dive entry is very smooth and easily accessible, and there are lots of sunken objects to explore, including a submarine, an airplane, a school bus, and lots of boats. The downside to diving here is that it is quite expensive compared to other locations. The entry fee for diving is $30 per diver: One day of diving at Pearl Lake costs us $60, whereas one day at Lake Wazee only costs us $15!
The visibility is usually quite good; however, it can depend on how many divers are present. Eric dove in Pearl Lake in the beginning of May as part of his rebreather class and had 30-40 feet of visibility, whereas we were not so lucky this time. There were lots of other divers and multiple training groups, leading to a visibility of only 5-10 feet. This was a definite bummer. It can be quite disorienting when you can't see more than a few feet in any direction, and we had to keep a close eye on each other so as not to lose sight of our buddy. On the other hand, it was kind of spooky and cool for a sunken boat to appear in front of us seemingly out of nowhere.
My goal for this day of diving was to finally find this sunken submarine I had heard so much about previously. Right after we geared up and entered the water, Eric's mask strap broke as he was putting on his mask. Fortunately, he had a spare mask strap packed in our "Save-a-Dive" kit. Good thinking on his part! It pays to be prepared. I have to give him all the credit for this.
During the first dive we found the airplane, which I found super cool. We also saw lots of fish, mainly bass, bluegill, and sunfish, as well as several of these "sucker" type fish that reminded me of goatfish or catfish.
When we began the second dive, it started to rain. That didn't bother us; after all, we would be underwater anyway. 😊 About 25 minutes into the second dive, Eric's mask strap broke yet again. To be fair, on this dive he tried re-using the same broken mask strap from before the first dive. (I'm not sure why, you'll have to ask him...) The strap broke on the other side this time, however. He signaled to me to end the dive, and he used it as a good opportunity to practice bailing out. We surfaced quite a ways from our dive entry, and a long surface swim in all our gear is not ideal. Eric tried to fix his mask strap, and he was able to just barely make it work, although it was very tight around his face. We descended again and found ourselves right next to the submarine! You can tell it has been down there a long time, as it is completely covered in a thick layer of growth. We kept this last dive (really a continuation of the second dive) nice and shallow at 20 feet. Swimming underwater is so much better than a surface swim!
Site Overview
Location: South Beloit, IllinoisFish Observed: Panfish, Bass, Walleye, White SuckersMax Lake Depth: 85 feet (26 meters)Average Lake Depth: 30-40 feet (9-12 meters)Fee: [$30 per day per diver]
Dive Log