Early Turnover??
MNSteveH
Posted 9/27/2012 11:34 PM (#587581)
Subject: Early Turnover??


Can anybody remember a time when turnover started this early? WB has definitely started in the past couple days and was MUCH greener today than it was the day before.

So my question is when it starts this early and now with a week of warmer temps on the way are we going to have an agonizingly long turnover period? And if yes, how do you deal with it (besides the usual responses of fish super shallow and look for the clearest water)?
bturg
Posted 9/28/2012 8:00 AM (#587619 - in reply to #587581)
Subject: Re: Early Turnover??




Posts: 716


I suspect (but don't know for sure) that you are seeing some late season bloom due to warm temps. That said one of teh advantages of being in the metro is lots of other lakes to choose from. Not all of them turn at the same time so go to a bigger, smaller, deeper , shallower body of water and get away from turnover when it happens. If your stuck on a lake that is turning consider high current areas as an option, better O2 levels etc.
Flambeauski
Posted 9/28/2012 8:19 AM (#587624 - in reply to #587581)
Subject: Re: Early Turnover??




Posts: 4343


Location: Smith Creek
Fish have to eat. If they stopped eating entirely over turnover they would cease to exist as a species.
guest
Posted 9/28/2012 8:27 AM (#587628 - in reply to #587581)
Subject: RE: Early Turnover??


lakes dont just rapidly turn over in one single event. The epilimnion will gradually begin to mix with the lower layers as the cooler nights drop the surface temps so the first 1 meter of water will become more dense and slowly beging to mix with the layers beneath it and so on until the densities have changed enough to cause the epilimnion and hypolimnions to mix.

In some cases a lot of algae, zooplankton, or detritus (fancy word for decaying stuff) will accumulate around the thermocline since the difference in water densities at that line prevents it from making it all the way to the bottom so when this initial mixing begins a lot of that crap is brought to the surface. That may explain why its taking "longer than usual" and with the cooler temps followed by the warmer temps this process could happen several times before the top and bottom layers fully mix and become unstratisfied.

There really isnt any clear cut way to deal with it from what ive seen or experienced. many anglers have success using different methods during these times but all I can tell you is that when the lakes around me begin to do this I switch to bright ridiculous colored baits that move a lot of water and can get the attention of fish more easily.
Angler II
Posted 9/28/2012 8:34 AM (#587630 - in reply to #587581)
Subject: Re: Early Turnover??




Posts: 80


Wbl is still far from turning over. You're seein an algae bloom. The lake I normally fish is doing the same. Water temps need to drop more for turnover to happen.
jaultman
Posted 9/28/2012 9:22 AM (#587641 - in reply to #587630)
Subject: Re: Early Turnover??




Posts: 1828


Angler II - 9/28/2012 8:34 AM

Wbl is still far from turning over. You're seein an algae bloom. The lake I normally fish is doing the same. Water temps need to drop more for turnover to happen.

How do you know it's far from turning over? I'm not challenging you, just looking to learn. I was wondering this summer if some lakes might turn over quite early this year because of the extremely warm weather we had. In my mind, a lake turns over when the upper portion of the water column cools to temperatures lower than the bottom portion of the water column. I really would like to know how cool the water stays down deep in certain lakes. For example, Lake A has a main basin of 40 - 45 ft depth, and this lake had an established thermocline about 24 ft down this summer. Let's say water clarity is 8 ft. How cold was it below the thermocline? 45? 65? I honestly have no clue. "Lake B" reaches depths over 100 ft, has 20 ft clarity, and had a thermocline 26 ft down. Was the whole mass of deep water significantly colder on B than A? Someone on this site posted temperature profiles from some Wisconsin lake earlier this summer that showed temps pushing 70 degrees as deep as 20 ft down.

My thought is that with the hot summer, even the bottom portion of our lakes climbed to higher temps than normal, thus it will take less cooling days to bring surface temps down enough for the water column to mix.
Mr Musky
Posted 9/28/2012 10:52 AM (#587670 - in reply to #587581)
Subject: Re: Early Turnover??





Posts: 999


Talking with some friends who are up in Vilas right now it sounds like the majority of the lakes are either in turnover or starting turnover, even the big deep ones. Temps 54 to 58. Might be a very slow weekend.
horsehunter
Posted 9/28/2012 10:59 AM (#587671 - in reply to #587581)
Subject: Re: Early Turnover??




Location: Eastern Ontario
Dosen't the water temp have to drop to aprox. 40 degrees where it is most dense before it will sink to start turnover???
I understand shallow lakes that don't develop a strong thermocline can be turned by the wind but this is not a real turnover.

Our local shallow lakes are still 63deg. F (surface)

Edited by horsehunter 9/28/2012 11:11 AM
Angler II
Posted 9/28/2012 11:13 AM (#587674 - in reply to #587641)
Subject: Re: Early Turnover??




Posts: 80


jaultman - 9/28/2012 9:22 AM

Angler II - 9/28/2012 8:34 AM

Wbl is still far from turning over. You're seein an algae bloom. The lake I normally fish is doing the same. Water temps need to drop more for turnover to happen.

How do you know it's far from turning over? I'm not challenging you, just looking to learn. I was wondering this summer if some lakes might turn over quite early this year because of the extremely warm weather we had. In my mind, a lake turns over when the upper portion of the water column cools to temperatures lower than the bottom portion of the water column. I really would like to know how cool the water stays down deep in certain lakes. For example, Lake A has a main basin of 40 - 45 ft depth, and this lake had an established thermocline about 24 ft down this summer. Let's say water clarity is 8 ft. How cold was it below the thermocline? 45? 65? I honestly have no clue. "Lake B" reaches depths over 100 ft, has 20 ft clarity, and had a thermocline 26 ft down. Was the whole mass of deep water significantly colder on B than A? Someone on this site posted temperature profiles from some Wisconsin lake earlier this summer that showed temps pushing 70 degrees as deep as 20 ft down.

My thought is that with the hot summer, even the bottom portion of our lakes climbed to higher temps than normal, thus it will take less cooling days to bring surface temps down enough for the water column to mix.


I know because I just fished the lake...
sworrall
Posted 9/28/2012 11:24 AM (#587675 - in reply to #587581)
Subject: Re: Early Turnover??





Posts: 32886


Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin
Turnover occurs when temps fall to equality throughout the water column, and as the colder nights hit, can take awhile before temps stabilize because of progressively cooler nights repeating the process after a set of warm days.
MNSteveH
Posted 9/28/2012 5:13 PM (#587746 - in reply to #587581)
Subject: RE: Early Turnover??


OK I'd like to learn more as well - I fish WB a lot too and while I agree that it's not displaying the more sure-fire signs of a big turnover event (ie weeds. debris, crap floating all over the place) it sure seems like there's a lot more than an algae bloom going on. Can areas of a lake go from 5+' of visibility to less than 1' overnight purely due to algae bloom? I was out Wed and Thurs and the lake was MUCH cloudier Thur than Wed. Seems me I've read that turnover isn't a single event but a process that happens over time. As the deeper water rises it brings up nutrients that lead to a bloom, so they both kinda go together???

While were on the topic how about some reports on lake conditions: WB was ~60 degrees and only about 1-2' of visibility and the only fish I caught/saw were in about 1' over sandy bottoms...



itmusky
Posted 9/28/2012 8:31 PM (#587775 - in reply to #587581)
Subject: RE: Early Turnover??




Posts: 78


I am in Vilas right now and lots of green water. I think its going to be a tuff weekend of fishing. 2 Lakes fished today one 55 and the other 57.
jonnysled
Posted 9/28/2012 9:06 PM (#587779 - in reply to #587581)
Subject: Re: Early Turnover??





Posts: 13688


Location: minocqua, wi.
temps. 57 deg. on the chain today ... fish are eating.

15 suckers just left the tank and into a boat for the weekend for a friend ... i don't expect any survivors ...

Uptown
Posted 9/28/2012 9:57 PM (#587786 - in reply to #587581)
Subject: RE: Early Turnover??


It's a late season bloom , could be zebra mussel poop also . Seriously, the zeb poop slicks up in brown bloom like slicks - gross!
Jeremy
Posted 9/29/2012 5:43 PM (#587883 - in reply to #587581)
Subject: Re: Early Turnover??




Posts: 1144


Location: Minnesota.
Seriously?? With all that heat from a couple weeks ago and just a brief cool spell, thinking turnover???

No way!

I've been to several TW lakes this past week and the only turnover occurring is with all the boat traffic and discust at low water and that stinkin' green algae bloom.

It's gotta get KOLD w/a kapitol K!!!!

;-))

Edited by Jeremy 9/29/2012 5:44 PM
AndrewR
Posted 9/29/2012 6:38 PM (#587888 - in reply to #587670)
Subject: Re: Early Turnover??





Posts: 300


Location: Minocqua, WI
Mr Musky - 9/28/2012 10:52 AM

Talking with some friends who are up in Vilas right now it sounds like the majority of the lakes are either in turnover or starting turnover, even the big deep ones. Temps 54 to 58. Might be a very slow weekend.


400 acre & smaller waterbodies were in turnover phase last weekend and should be back to good about now.

Larger lakes still haven't started (seems they've stalled with warmer weather right now), but definitely will end of this week when the next big coldfront hits. However, they've displayed the best water clarity and activity for me all week.

Keep jumping lake to lake and wasting gas for best results.
itmusky
Posted 9/29/2012 10:30 PM (#587905 - in reply to #587581)
Subject: RE: Early Turnover??




Posts: 78


talked to a guide today on 3 lakes chain and yes he said some of the lakes in the area are in turnover mode.
MartinTD
Posted 10/1/2012 6:49 AM (#588123 - in reply to #587905)
Subject: RE: Early Turnover??





Posts: 1141


Location: NorthCentral WI
itmusky - 9/29/2012 10:30 PM

talked to a guide today on 3 lakes chain and yes he said some of the lakes in the area are in turnover mode.



Fished two lakes in that area Saturday. First one was clear water, 57.5. Second lake was 54.5 and definitely showing signs of the process.
stdevos
Posted 10/3/2012 7:07 AM (#588638 - in reply to #587581)
Subject: RE: Early Turnover??





Posts: 416


Location: Madtown, WI

Looking to learn here as well, I haven't been out in the last couple of weeks and I won't pretend to know what lake WB is but I don't think its a stretch to say lakes were starting to turn a while ago. I'm looking at the water temperature profile from the Lake Mendota buoy and on 9/20, I think turnover officially began. It was after the second consecutive night of lows in the mid 30s, coldest nights of September at the time. It warmed from 57 to 64 degrees in 50' of water in 6 hours time and the surface temps were slightly cooler than everything <30'. Then it cooled back down and did the same thing on the 21st and since then the surface temp has been about the same as 50' except for daily warming. Seems like some major mixing has occurred. 65' deep hasn't moved from 53 degrees though. Is this a sign of the beginning of turnover, the middle, none of the above?

 Here is the link for the buoy, you can manipulate the url to show any data that you want for any time period. I found the same thing on around the 26th of 2011, should mention both days were windier than an SOB

 LINK



Edited by stdevos 10/3/2012 7:13 AM