Bottom Time E-Mail News Archives
May 10, 2015

Lake temperatures are in the low to mid 50 degree readings so it should not be long before we can start doing checkout dives.  Lakes are low this year and seem to be clearer than in the past springs.  Our next open water class will start June 2 nd at the Detroit Lakes High school pool at 6PM and run for 4 Monday nights.  Suckers should be running in the lakes within the next week

Jim Grier asked if I could post this in the newsletter
Greetings,
For your interest and also if you wouldn't mind passing the word and link on to others who might be interested, I just posted a thread on scubadiving.com about the upcoming 50th anniversary of jetfins and an auction of an original, first-version pair of them from Beuchat that I'm running on eBay.
http://forums.scubadiving.com/showthread.php?103299-50th-anniversary-of-Jetfins-on-May-18th-and-an-auction-of-an-original-pair 

Many thanks.
Jim

Ken Johnson is running a spear fishing trip to SD and here is the information on it.
Pierre, South Dakota – August 21-23, 2015
We travel to South Dakota for great spear fishing and good times. South Dakota does not disappoint! We’ve been planning trips to South Dakota for most of a decade and this experience means a quality time for travelers.
Trips are scheduled to take full advantage of a long weekend by departing early Friday morning and returning late on Sunday night. We do a one tank dive on Friday afternoon from a shore location and the next two days we’re on the lake boat diving. If you haven’t been wet for some time, the Friday afternoon dive is an opportunity to acclimate to the water world and dust off your gun. We generally shoot a few fish on the opening dive.
Caleb at Steamboat, Inc. sets the standard for quality of service and professionalism. Our time on the boat begins Saturday morning with a ride to the dive site. Last trip we charted new territory north of the Cheyanne River. Diving is usually at depths from 10 to 30 feet. Often times you’ll see your first fish when you enter the water. We had great diving and good luck finding bass along with a beautiful day on the water.
Lunch is served on the boat promptly at about lunch time; then it is back to the water to resume the hunt. Dives vary in length and depth so there is no preset number of dives. Two to three tanks of air are provided on the boat and you are responsible for managing your air and your dive profile. Always dive within your limits.
At the end of the day we disembark, move tanks and gear, and head to the fish cleaning station to clean the catch. We usually detour along the way for a picture or two displaying our catch. After cleaning, the fish are stored on ice and we head to dinner. There is a great steakhouse outside of Pierre or we can have our fish prepared at Spring Creek.
Travel to and from Pierre is generally by carpool. By sharing transportation cost we reduce the cost per person and coordinate our activities easier. We meet at a predetermined location at a preset time for transportation and diving and it’s easier to make this work with fewer vehicles.
We’re staying at the River Lodge: double occupancy, clean and comfortable rooms. A continental breakfast is served in the lobby. The River Lodge is centrally located in Pierre, near the dive shop.
This may be the last year we can offer this trip. Price increases in recent years have increased trip costs dramatically and we need a minimum number of participants before Caleb will run the boat. We have held the cost of the trip down for good value but future price increases may make this impossible. If you’re interested in this trip, make your reservation now. Call St. Croix Scuba, put $100 down, and get on the trip roster.
The trip cost is $440.00. This pays for two nights at the motel, two days of boat diving, and air for the dive on Friday. You need to provide dive gear including a dive flag, spear gun, stringer, etc. Rental gear is available for the trip. July 1 is the due date for full payment.
I will call everyone signed up for the trip in July or early August to arrange carpooling and other trip specifics. Spearfishing is the greatest dive adventure – don’t miss it.
Questions: Email Ken Johnson at stu50guru@hotmail.com or phone 715-796-2508.

Our Super Spring Scuba Sale is set for May 30 th from 10 AM to 3PM.  All new merchandize will be 20% off for that one day only.  We will have door prizes and refreshments. There will also be discounts on some other items.

In the near future we will have a sign on a billboard in the Detroit Lakes area.  The first person that emails us with exact location will win a 10 fill air card.

Lionfish Putting a Dent in Florida’s Economy

The fish is a serious threat to Florida's saltwater fishing industry -- the second largest in the nation -- according to an economic commentary from the non-partisan research institute Florida TaxWatch. It reports that the invasive lionfish could be putting more than 109,000 recreational fishing jobs and more than 64,000 commercial fishing jobs at risk. What makes it a huge threat to the fisheries is that the exploding population is competing with native fish, including grouper, for the same food source. Rick O'Connor, agent for the Escambia County Sea Grant, told the Pensacola News Journal that scientists studying the stomach contents of lionfish in the Northern Gulf are finding them full of the same bait fish that snapper and grouper rely on. "A lot of divers are reporting juvenile Mingo snapper being consumed by lionfish, and we're watching them to see if their numbers drop," he said. How this translates to the volume of fish being caught by vacationers or commercial fishermen is unknown; O’Connor says he knows of no local or national studies measuring those impacts. "We need an economist involved."

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