Did the lake turn over?

[eurolarva]

This weekend I was fishing a lake I have always had good luck with Sunfish and Crappies. Water temp from my graph last Sunday was 56. Yesterday I could not buy a bite. I noticed that all the regulars out on the lake was having similar luck. My graph said the lake temp was 46. Is it possible the lake turned this week and the fish are stressed? I fished for 6 hours yesterday deep, shallow using a flasher using minnows and wax worms but no takers.

[Jack Peterson]

Yep, with the cold weather, wind, and rain, I'm thinking most Minnesota lakes have hit turn over. The fish have literally disappeared on the local lakes I fish on. Hopefully I can figure out where they're at.

[eurolarva]

cool Thought it was me. Pretty tough to fish now till ice. Even the slightest breeze will make detecting a bite hard.

[Riverratpete]

Just need to wait for the lakes to stabilze and bite the bite should be back on..that was a pretty intense storm system last week,think it really shook some things up. Planning on hitting the tree stand at sunrise, on the lake by noon then back in the tree by 330 this weekend.

[TruthWalleyes]

Positive the lakes i have fished have turned over, so i started pulling HJ's in 5' - 5.5'FOW where GREEN weeds are still present, and getting consistent northern action.

[solbes]

On the 22nd of Oct, I measured 54 degrees F from top to bottom on a deep lake that I frequently fish. Turnover had apparently just occurred and the fishing confirmed. No pike or walleyes taken, only some LM bass during the full moon.

Best thing to do is change lakes to one that has re-stabilized post turn. We did on Saturday night and had some success.

[bikeoutback]

I've never fished this time of year and probably won't for a few years but my thirst for knowledge wants to know what does lake turn over mean? Is this some point where the water temp becomes equal on top to bottom and eventually deeper ends up warmer than shallow water? Does it do the same in the spring? Sorry if this sounds dumb asking, I'm a hardwater guy that occasionally throws a line in summer for fun so the nuances, skills, and knowledge of open water fishing are not in my arsenal yet.

[EBass]

Fishing was horrible all weekend. Friday I caught two bass and had two bites. Sat and Sun I was skunked. Lake temp dropped close to 10 degrees in a week and was like lifeless. I saw some carp surface and sunnies here and there, but not even a bite or even a swipe and miss. I blame turnover and not my lack of fishn' skillz.

bickeoutback - google lake turnover.

[Rick G]

The rising barometric presure since the inland hurricane went by does'nt help any either. I also had a fair amount of trouble locating active fish on the main lake this weekend. I worked a bunch of the spots that have been good to me all fall and nothing to show for it other than a few non target fish. I did find some active walleyes in a shallow narrow area of the lake that has a fair amount of current so the weekend wasnt a total waste of time. Give the weather a few days to get back to normal and the fish will return to the classic fall spots and the bite will be on once again

[Nick Kuhn]

I've never fished this time of year and probably won't for a few years but my thirst for knowledge wants to know what does lake turn over mean? Is this some point where the water temp becomes equal on top to bottom and eventually deeper ends up warmer than shallow water? Does it do the same in the spring? Sorry if this sounds dumb asking, I'm a hardwater guy that occasionally throws a line in summer for fun so the nuances, skills, and knowledge of open water fishing are not in my arsenal yet.

In the summer lake water does not mix very well. If you have a lake that is say 50 feet deep, water at depths over 30 feet will see very little sunshine and will stay cold. Cold water being much denser will not mix with the warm water seen at depths less than 30 feet. What happens is eventually that deep water loses all oxygen, meaning any fish in the lake cannot survive in depths over 30 feet (though they can suspend at say 20 feet over 40 feet of water). There are insects and such however that can survive in that low oxygen environment. What happens in the fall is eventually the surface water gets colder than the deep water, and all that bottom water rises (often bringing a ton of decaying organic material to the surface). At this point, the deep water now has oxygen and fish can travel there. With a food source that has gone untapped for several months, a lot of fish work their way to very deep water that are otherwise found shallow most of the year. The problem is that during the actual turnover process, fish just flat out don't bite.

[bikeoutback]

bickeoutback - google lake turnover.

I should have done this first before posting, doh. I was going to then I thought it sounded like one of those things that I'd get 18 returns about some lake called turnover... I was wrong lots of info on Google about it.

Thanks Nick for the reply. Guess I wouldn't be biting much either if I had a free OCB all around me all day long.

[pikedreams]

State wide. No question.