Lake turnover

[snoozebutton]

What temp does the surface water have to be for a turnover to occur? Last week the surface temp was at 70 and yesterday it was still in the upper 60's over much of the lake. And when you get a turnover, where do you target the walleyes?

Thanks!!!!

[Gutz]

"Usually" after turnover you'll get the water to stabilize around 55 degrees, give or take. This should put the actuall turnover itself in the upper 50's to lower 60's. You'll get a pretty substantial drop in surface temps in a short amount of time. My advice for trying to find fish during turnover is to go hunting for a couple weeks and come back when it's over. It's far and away the hardest fishing of the year and fish are scattered all over the place and extremely stressed. When the water stabilizes you'll find fish will start to bunch up on weed lines that remain green and are close to deep water.

[wanger29]

My wife loves turnover or when extreme coldfronts & storms occur. Good oppurtunity for me to get caught up with the wife & kids... J/K

[Borch]

Turnover has many variables that make it more more than just a tempature thing. Wind, current and the lake itself are variable to consider. On many or our nonbowl lakes with bays, turnover can happen at different times on different parts of the lake. No ned to work on your hiney do list as you can often just go fish another lake and be right back into them.

[backlash 1]

Am I safe to assume that once you start picking up fish between 30 and 40 ft, as we are now, he lake has turned over? If so, will there usually be a weedline bite coming yet, or could it have been early this year and those weeline fish are out deep now?

[fishinmajishin]

What's the surface temp at where you are? The central MN I was on today has a max depth of 80' and the surface temp was 64.5. I was catching walleyes in 12' over/in the weeds jiggin. Water still had like a slight alga bloom going(green)No weeds floating about. Fall seems to be running late with the pleasant Sept.

[backlash 1]

Surface temp 64. Couple weeks ago it did get down to 61 or 62

[riverrat56]

What are some signs that a lake has turned over?

[Kyle Sandberg]

Floating weeds, clearer water, generally you can find walleyes and other fish for that matter, relating to deeper water and when the lake is turning over, it smells like lake mud (or if you've never smelled that, rotten eggs).

[wanger29]

I had seen that a few lakes in the state do not turnover. Anyone heard of this? I can't recall but it seems Itasca Park's got a couple.

[riverrat56]

Ya, after duck hunting on Swan lake I know the lake mud smell....

wanger, I have heard that before as well, I thought it was often the very shallow lakes that didn't turn over, but I could be, (and am likely) wrong.

[markkstanley]

Several lakes don't form a thermocline so they don't turnover. Mille Lacs is one for example. THe key to remember is water gets denser(heavier) as it cools. On Minnetonka for example the thermocline sets up ~25ft depending on bay. Water just below the thermocline is typically in low 50s down to 40ft or so all summer. Once the water above the thermocline cools to low 50s it sinks and mixes and reoxygenates the deeper water. So now the top 40ft is in the low 50s and fish are free to move deeper. Cooling process contnues until 39 degrees where water is at it's densest and the deeper waters get more oxygen. Drop a temp gauge down when ice fishing sometime and you'll find water temps to be in the high 30s all the way down. Except for the first few feet.

[Mike Walerak]

Turn over starts to occur when the average air temperature matches that of the water's surface. I was just out doing some profiling on central MN lakes. On the lakes I sampled I sampled the temps and oxygen levels were just starting to mix. It won't be long.

mw