E Bauer Rd.
Black River Falls, WI 54615
United States

Lake Wazee (Wazee Lake) is the deepest lake in Wisconsin. It was created when the Jackson County Taconite Mine was closed, and the groundwater was allowed to refill the site. At its deepest, Wazee is 351′, well beyond recreational limits. There are platforms at 35′, 70′, and 90′ for recreational use.

There are several required fees to dive here:
Vehicles – $3.00 Daily pass, $25.00 Annual pass, $12.00 Annual pass – 2nd vehicle per address
Diving – $10.00 Daily pass, $75.00 Annual pass
Camping – $12.00 per night, per tent/camper, $7.00 reservation fee

Site details

At each dive site on the lake, there are paved parking areas with a long but gentle slope to the dive entry. Each dive usually is a short drive from our campsite to the dive site. Gear up out of your vehicle and walk down to the water.

There are many entry points like The Wall, Bluegill Alley, The Gardens, Prince Bay Landing, Sherwood Forest, and North Point. All of them are marked with excellent signs. Each site has a particular feature of the lake associated with it. For Advanced Training Weekend, the Deep Dive is at Prince Bay Landing (around the lake); Night Dive at the Wall; Search and Recovery at Sherwood Forest; and Navigation at Sherwood Forest.

Within the lake, there are several fish cribs, many submerged trees hence Sherwood Forest, quarry walls and roads hence The Wall, and even a sunken boat. All of these are in a very fragile environment. Caution should be used not to touch any of the trees (with an out-of-control fin) as they will not grow back. While this is a great place to train, a diver must have good buoyancy control to not crash into the bottom, walls, platforms, and trees.

There is usually 40′-100′ of viz with three thermoclines. The surface to 30′ is 55F in the early spring and near 75F in summer. The first thermocline is at 30′-40′ until 70′ or so with a water temp of 50F. At 70′, the final thermocline takes you to a balmy 39-41F.

Depths of your dives can be max 35′ at the bay at Sherwood Forest or Bluegill Alley with fish cribs in both locations. Prince Bay Landing has a 70′ platform and roadbed and a 110′ roadbed below. The Wall has a 40′ vertical wall starting at ten feet, going to 50′ with a slope to 65′. Trees start at 65′. Sherwood Forest over the bank starts at eight ′ and descends to over 200′.

Wetsuit – 7mm most of the time, 5mm in late July and August above the thermocline. Dry suits are popular.
Hood, gloves, boots – Boots, hood, gloves all of the time, unless you stay above the first thermocline.
Light – Yes, for seeing things in crevices of the walls.

Fish – In the bays, crappie, perch, smallmouth bass, rainbow, and brown trout. At the edge of the first thermocline, you can find walleye. Check out the bottom of the bays for several species of crayfish, including blue crayfish.

GPS

The Wall dive site entry coordinates for your GPS are:

44.292539, -90.728981
+44° 17′ 33.14″, -90° 43′ 44.33″