Diving Cass Lake in Late Fall

It was late November, not unlike right now, and I was setting around the house, bored to death. I had not been diving for a while and was getting the urge. The fact that it was colder than heck and the sky was ashen grey didn't discourage me much. I have always been a bit on the impulsive side.

There is a park on Cass Lake. I invited Nim and Darrell to a little hunt there this last February. I have dove in Cass, off the park, many times with great results. I especially liked bottle hunting in the lake and have hundreds of finds to show for the effort.

I looked out of my window at the sky and it looked a bit crappy but what the hell? I called one of my bottle hunting, dive buddies and asked him if he felt like a dive. I had to listen to ten minutes of him insulting my intelligence and such but finally wore him down. I simply asked him if he was gonna be a sissy all his life. I told him I was going alone if he didn't come along and he relented. I told him, Dwaine was his name, to meet me at the park and we would go from there.

This was before I bought my hookah so we would be using tanks. We normally do single tank dives, which means it would be about a one-hour dive. That would be plenty under the conditions.

When I got to the parking lot at the lake, Dwaine was waiting. He was standing outside the car and a looking at the sky. Man it did look like crap and the wind was picking up out of the north. He said it looked like snow to him and I told him not to be stupid. It was only November! I guess I should have given that statement a bit more thought and he should have brought it to my attention that it does snow in November in Michigan :)

Cass Lake is the biggest lake in Oakland county and is about 1500 acres or so. It is deep. There are 5 holes over a hundred feet with the deepest 127ft. There are also 4 other holes over 90 ft. It is shaped like a big arsed kidney with Dodge Park at the inside of the bend. The deepest spot is straight out from the park beach. If we stayed to the left of the hole, we could hunt a huge area that was not over 15 ft or so. I have found many old bottles in the area over the years. Fishermen had been pitching bottles there for a hundred years. The shallow plane goes all the way across the lake with hundred foot holes on either side. The flat between the holes was about, and I am guessing here, 500 yards. Lots of room.

Dwaine and I suited up, all the time him a bitchin' about the fact that we just might freeze our arses off. I just ignored the guy as why would I give any credit to a persons opinion that was so damn weak that he would let me talk him into this stunt in the first place? Doesn't figure... I took a side look at the sky and did notice it was looking bad. Those damn ole' grey clouds were just a scuttling across the sky and a fearful rate. Oh well. I came to dive and dive I would! I noticed the whitecaps were building on the lake but they since we were on the north side they were hitting the far shore. No problem! :0)


When we are diving we always drag a inner-tube along behind us, on a hundred foot rope. This tube has a plastic laundry basket laced in the center with rope to hold any goodies we might happen to find and also there was a dive flag mounted on it to warn any boats. Like there would be any boats out today. It would help to find our bodies too if it came to that. :)

Dwaine was a bitching type that day, I'll tell you! We donned our suits and slung on the tank. Down to the waters edge we headed. I was a lugging the tube and flag. Now I don't know why the boy was a griping cuz we were wearing dry suits. They are pretty darned warm actually. You are sealed from the water and actually wear heavy long johns under them. Your hands and face get wet but with a hood and wet suit gloves, it is bearable. Damn that wind was a picking up now. Just a howling!

We waded out deeper, our masks and fins in the basket until we were waste deep. Man that damn water was getting rough! It was hard to keep my balance while pulling on the fin, even though I was holding onto the tube for support! That is ok, I figured, because we would soon be on the bottom and out of the weather. When we were ready, I started letting out the tube line to its full 100ft and we walked backwards toward the deep water. When we got chest deep we nodded to each other and dropped down to the bottom.

Once on the bottom everything is calm. It is amazing but you are in a different world. All you hear is the sound of your breathing and a little pulsing from the movement of the waves, which seemed to be building, on the rope I held in my right hand. It can be very peaceful and I sure was glad I had come out now.

We swam to the right toward the deep hole, not wanting to go down in it but to use it for reference. Many people fished around the hole over the years and many bottles were tossed overboard. I have a good collection of old blob topped beer bottles I have found along with an assortment of old fishing lures.

I was sorta leading the procession as I had the tube. We did not follow each other tightly but tried to keep aware as to the others position. I don't worry about needing help but it is a big lake out there. The visibility was not the best as the sun was up there, but it was above about 5000 ft of nasty assed clouds. It was getting darker but at that point I was not noticing it much. I was hunting bottles and we were finding some. I will not pretend I can remember what the hell they were but I was enjoying myself, snug as a bug.

It seemed to be getting darker all the time but I sorta ignored it. I could feel the tube tugging against me and it was a bit irritation as it wanted me to head south and I was on a sorta southwest heading. We were in 15 or 20 ft of water, no more than that anyway, and I sorta let the wind have its way with me and went more south than west. I really didn’t have much of a choice as it was dragging me a bit. I had never had it happen before. It felt like I was hung up on something, like weeds and I kept a tugging on the rope, at first unconsciously but it started to piss me off and I looked up toward the surface to see if I could see something.

I finally thought it was time to get a bearing on our position and see what the heck I was hung up on. I looked at Dwaine and nodded up toward the surface and he nodded OK.

I shot a little air into my suit and up I went. As my head popped through the surface I was a bit disoriented to say the least. I could see absolutely nothing but white. Well it was clear for about 15 ft or so, and then it was a wall of white. A damn blizzard! Dwaine came to my side and said he thought it looked like it might snow. Smart ass!  I could hardly hear him over the noise of the wind. I did a 360 and could see nothing but snow. No land in sight. Wasn’t a problem as I knew where it was. Every direction actually 

I looked at my tube and saw what my problem was with it. The wind was blowing up some hellacious whitecaps and besides that, the temperature had taken a dive in the last half hour and the tube was almost sunk because of ice buildup. I took out my dive knife, which I wore on my ankle, and hammered as much off as I could. It was rough on the surface and I didn’t want to stay there any longer than I had to. We were bobbing around like corks in the wind and it is a pain.

I figured that we were a third of the way across the lake now. I could not be sure but from the time I figured we were close. Dwaine yelled we better head back. I told him I was not going to try to drag that tube against the wind all the way back and I was gonna hit the bottom and go directly across the lake to the far shore! He was not sure about that but said OK. He asked what the hell we were gonna do after that but I had not a clue but would work on it. I sure the hell was not gonna swim against the wind! If I had not had the tube, it would not have been a problem.

Down we went and we set off, following the pull of the tube. It was a nice ride actually. I was watchful of our air supply but we were ok so far. The depth was only 20 ft or so but we did hit a few holes of 40 ft or so. No problem.

I had no idea where we would come to shore or what we would do then but I would deal with it when we got there.

Finally we hit a rise. It was the far drop-off, which is like a wall in that area. We were about 30 ft deep but the drop went up to about 2 ft of water and leveled off. We followed the drop up and when we got to the level, we stood up. The snow had let up a little and we could faintly see the shore, about 60 ft or so away. Aaah :0) We made it.. Now what?

We reached down and took off our fins and mask. Then we walked to shore, looking around and getting our bearings. We had come to shore on Wards Point, which is where the rich people lived back then. Dwaine asked me, “Now what?”

My father-in-law lived only a couple miles away and I figured I could call him and he would pick us up and take us back to the park. All I had to do is get someone to make a call for us.

We wadded to shore and with mask and fins in hand, walked across a vacant lot and onto the road, Dwaine following. I went to the first house on the right and told Dwaine I would get them to call my father-in-law. He took my mask and fins and I headed up the drive, the tank still on my back. I tried to get it off at the end of the drive but it was frozen to my back by then.

I rang the doorbell. There I was, in a wet suit and tank on my back, all covered with ice. Lots of ice by this time. The door opened and the old gentleman just stood there for a half minute. I was a bit at a loss of words myself but finally introduced myself and told him our problem. I asked him if he would call my father-in-law and ask him to bring his pickup truck to get us. He laughed and told me to come in and call myself! I said, “Man you don’t want me coming in your house like this!” He just laughed and held the door open, calling his wife to see what he had found at the door. I was a bit reluctant but stepped it to the most beautiful house I had ever been in up to that time. It was spotless and he told me to walk right in, tank and all.

Well, I went to the phone and made my call. My father-in-law told me to go to hell and walk but I told him I would kick his scrawny little ass if he didn’t come and get us. He relented and said he was on his way.

I thanked the old gentleman and walked out to the road to wait for Pete. I still could not get the tank off my back, so I went back to the lake and wadded out, lying down when I was deep enough. The lake water thawed the ice and I was able to get my tank off. Hell, my weight belt was froze on too. Dwaine had pulled his off before it had frozen on, I guess.

Pete got there in short order and I had to put up with a bunch of, “Stupid sombutch”, “Stupid sombutch” grumbling. He sorta said it with a grin so I let the little bastud live.

All in all it was an adventure I never wished I missed. It gave me a story to share and I just relived it again, after all these years—Thanks for listening



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