How do you fish a lake when it turns over in the summer time ?

On TV

That's the thing you just fish.

The Vine has to be turning over now...taking a shower you can smell the water has that hint of rotten egg..just fish like you always do is my approach!

Shallow, with low expectations.

Wonder how forks gonna fish during McDonald's if the lake is turning over

Is Fork turning over?

I'm not sure I have ever seen a lake turn over in the summer. My belief is nearing winter when the deep water is warmer than the surface and it switches places. I agree with the rotten eggs and poor fishing.

Generally happens late sept or early oct around here. The rotten egg smell is the water below the thermocline. If I am fishing a lake that is turning I usually try to run to the shallow end and find fish in areas that don't have deep water near by.

unless your lake has experienced a dramatic cool down, it is highly unlikely that you have had a turnover. turnover normally occurs at the mid 50's. if you have had substantial rainfall, and a big influx of water, perhaps the mixing of water has stirred up your water columns.

bo

Well, does a turn over kill a bunch of the fish by causing a decline in the available oxygen?

Usually the surface temps have to dip just below 70 for turnover to occur.

A couple of different things going on here with these issues. 1) turnover doesn't happen until water temps start to drop. Once this happens the heavier (colder) water tumbles to the bottom of the water column and triggers a turnover. The heaviest (most dense) water is 39 degrees. Warmer or colder than this and the water is lighter. So with our consistent summer temps a turnover has not happened.

2) the rotten egg smell in the shower or faucets is an entirely different issue and not related to the lakes. It's a water supply issue and typically isn't even associated with unhealthy or "dirty" water.

3) a summer fish kill is caused by raising water temps and is the opposite of turnover. As the water warms the plants start to omit oxygen. Warmer water won't hold as much oxygen and it can get over saturated. During the day these plants omit oxygen but at night they consume it. If the oxygen level drops far enough and fast enough a fish kill happens. A couple of cloudy days in the summer can trigger a fish kill suddenly the plants aren't producing enough oxygen and when it gets dark the oxygen levels drop suddenly. So after a couple of cloudy cool days some will mistakenly assume a turn over happend (lower water temp) but in reality a fish kill ( lower oxygen levels) is what really happened.

Water is most dense at 39 degrees celcius. In the summer as the deep water warms above 39 degrees celcius and the surface water never cools to create dense water, the deep water begins to rise. Deep water typically has decaying matter in it, and sulfur gases wouldn't be out of the ordinary. As it rises to the surface, the sulfur gases can be released (rotten egg smell) So, at least according to my studies, the sulfur gas smell can be associated with that rising, stagnant, deep water in summer time. (but not from the shower, from the lake itself)

But like KD, I don't call this turnover because although we have rising deep water, there is no sinking surface water, so it really isn't turning over, but instead, getting ready to turnover in the fall when the air temperatures create dense surface water.

In the hot summer, the air temperatures do not cool the surface temperatures adequately to cause dense, sinking water, so mixing of the water ceases. An invisible layer of water separates the dense, cold, deep water from the less dense warm water. We call this the thermocline and it is most likely pretty strong in most of our waters by now.

This is why oxygen gets depleted from the deeper waters - no mixing. But the fish want to get out of the heat and cool water holds oxygen better. So they go down as deep as they can where the water is cooler and oxygen is still present. That is why you often hear about fish hanging out in depths above the thermocline this time of year where oxygen is available. It also causes fish to suspend in deep water.

So, although the fish get a bit lethargic in this warm water time, the fishable part of our lakes gets smaller because we can ingnore water deeper than the thermocline.

Sandies will tell you where the thermocline is. They will suspend there and are easily seen on your fish finder. Some finders actually detect the thermocline when fish are absent. I was at Texoma the other day and we never marked a fish below say 22 to 23 feet of water, so my guess is that is about where the thermocline has set in on that lake.