Let's be clear - A snorkel is a great learning tool

For getting to know your lake, there's nothing quite like a mask, flippers and snorkel. I love slipping them on and exploring up and down the shoreline from our cabin on Birch Lake, near Minocqua, Wis. This year our lake is much clearer than in the past, for no reason I can discern. The days have been hot and the skies clear, so one would think conditions should be right for algae (and we do now and then experience a minor bloom here). Instead, the water is crystalline compared to what we're used to. When anchored on my favorite rock bar for evening walleye fishing, I can clearly see the anchor resting beside a boulder five feet down.

Therefore, while often I have taken my snorkel gear to other nearby lakes with clearer conditions, I have kicked my way around Birch in recent days. The neat thing about snorkeling is that the action of the flippers keeps you buoyant with little exertion. That means you can snorkel fairly long distances from shore without worrying that you may get too tired to make it back. (Some people prefer to wear a life vest when snorkeling over deep water, just in case.)

I always enjoy the new scenery I encounter when snorkeling, and I almost always learn something new about my lake. This year I've learned that our rusty crayfish population is bigger than I would have thought just from what I see around my pier. They are everywhere, and some of them are huge. It tells me I need to augment the the efforts of the Friends of Birch Lake and get a couple of my own traps to place along the edge of our reed bed. I also noted some patches of cabbage weeds down the shoreline from our place -- a good sign, after the cabbage beds were all but wiped out years ago when the rusty crayfish population exploded.

The best thing I learned, though, was the exact nature of the spot a short distance from my pier where a brother and I have caught numerous walleyes at times. About 50 yards down the shore and about 50 feet out from the reed bed lies a tangle of brush, probably placed there deliberately as a crib years ago. Hovering over it, I looked down on a couple of smallmouth bass in the upper branches and, down deeper, a dozen or more walleyes, finning in place. They seemed not to notice as I quietly passed over. I fished that brush pile the same evening and caught -- nothing. I suppose that says something about the fickle nature of walleyes, or about my skill as an angler.

After recent heavy rains, the water of Birch Lake remains clear. There are more areas of the lake to explore. You could certainly do worse than to spend some time getting to know your lake from a whole different perspective -- with flippers on your feet and your face behind a mask of glass.