Northwest Fishing Reports

I fished two diffrent lakes today, Jackson, and rapjon. Both of them were in a process what they call back home of turning over. Being from Kentucky, when this happens the fishing in that body of water pretty much comes to a screaching hault. Does it do the same here, I had good luck there today but it just started yesterday because I was at rapjon three days ago and it wasnt doing this but now it is. Any pointers on how to fish these conditions better???

Fishing can be red hot when the lake turns over. It pulls all the stuff off the bottom and brings it up the water column up to the top...What sort of fishing are you doing first of all?

Interesting, because I've been told the same thing about lakes turining and the fish no-longer wanting any action. If the professor Sam has any good info on catching those silly fish during this "phase", I'd love to hear about it.

-Lou

TROLL TROLL TROLL

The fishing will be pretty effective if you troll. Generally anything that turns over has freshwater inlets on one end and DEEP water on the other (as most of them are river impoundments). Fish the inlets where you see the color change, and fish near the dams (both sides) where the water depth has significant effect on the turnover.

E

The lake that i've always seen "turning" is Holme lake in King county, I dont believe it has any streams feeding it. I also took my fishfinder out there last year during the turn and I couldn't find one fish the whole time. Perhaps I need to find search more for this inlet.

-Lou

In that case Lou, find points. Fish like to be out in murky water alone and surrounded by nothing about as well as humans do. They will park themselves on structure or near shorelines, places that get them what they need (safety and food). Points will hold more fish than open bodies, just like normal structure fishing.

E

Is there any good reads on "turning over" Any links or small mentions in books???? I want to know exactly what it means and whats going on.

http://waterontheweb.org/under/lakeecol ... ation.html

Here is a pretty good article I found on what I think is going on. Thanks for all the info guys and if you all have anymore expirences in catching fish during water conditions like this I would love to hear them that way I can better fine tune my strategy.

Thanks

Jason

Rfatt16 wrote:Is there any good reads on "turning over" Any links or small mentions in books???? I want to know exactly what it means and whats going on.

Fall Turn-Over is essentially the destratification of lakes that occurs because of dropping temperatures. blah,blah,blah

As summer developes, water temperatures warm up the upper layer of the lake more than the bottom layers. If you drop a bathythermograph probe into a lake with some depth, you will see that the water on the surface is the warmest. As the probe descends, the water temperature gradually drops in proportion to depth. Then it hits a wall, so to speak where the temperature makes a dramatic drop of 3-5 degrees in a matter of inches or a foot. This is called a thermocline. You can actually see this with your fish finder as a blurry line usually 20-22 feet down, but sometimes as deep as 35 feet.

Above the thermocline is where we catch our fish because that is where the dissolved oxygen is. Below the thermocline there is no or little dissolved oxygen. From the smallest plankton to the largest musky, they will all be above the thermocline.

Below thethermocline is death. Rotting vegetable matter, dead animal debris, fish poop, etc. Fish don't go there and we waste our time fishing there.

In the fall, as air temperature drops, the water molecules on the upper or surface level condense and thus get heavier. The heavy water falls to the bottom taking with it dissolved oxygen. And since two objects of matter cannot occupy the same space, the bottom layer of water below the thermocline is displaced, destroying the thermocline.

As this continues and upper water continues to fall to the bottom, the lake assumes a uniform temperature and dissolved oxygen content from the continuous stirring that is taking place. That is the Fall Turn-Over.

Fish react by scattering. They are not found stacked together and predatory fish (bass) go everywhere. Some will be very shallow, some hang near the bottom, some go to the deepest holes, some suspend. That's why fishing is so hard when this happens because they fish are not concentrated at all. It's impossible to find a pattern.

As we approach winter, the water will stratify in reverse with the best water near the bottom. However the spring shift will not be as dramatic as the Fall turn over, as it is the gradual warming that we see every spring. Some lakes are shallow enough that they don't stratify, and those are the lakes to be fishing now.

Does that help?

felts_jf wrote:http://waterontheweb.org/under/lakeecol ... ation.html

Here is a pretty good article I found on what I think is going on. Thanks for all the info guys and if you all have anymore expirences in catching fish during water conditions like this I would love to hear them that way I can better fine tune my strategy.

Thanks

Jason

And now they put up a website. After all that.

Man I'm glad your break is over. That was exactly what I was looking for. Thanks Cav

cavdad45 wrote:

Rfatt16 wrote:Is there any good reads on "turning over" Any links or small mentions in books???? I want to know exactly what it means and whats going on.

Fall Turn-Over is essentially the destratification of lakes that occurs because of dropping temperatures. blah,blah,blah

As summer developes, water temperatures warm up the upper layer of the lake more than the bottom layers. If you drop a bathythermograph probe into a lake with some depth, you will see that the water on the surface is the warmest. As the probe descends, the water temperature gradually drops in proportion to depth. Then it hits a wall, so to speak where the temperature makes a dramatic drop of 3-5 degrees in a matter of inches or a foot. This is called a thermocline. You can actually see this with your fish finder as a blurry line usually 20-22 feet down, but sometimes as deep as 35 feet.

Above the thermocline is where we catch our fish because that is where the dissolved oxygen is. Below the thermocline there is no or little dissolved oxygen. From the smallest plankton to the largest musky, they will all be above the thermocline.

Below thethermocline is death. Rotting vegetable matter, dead animal debris, fish poop, etc. Fish don't go there and we waste our time fishing there.

In the fall, as air temperature drops, the water molecules on the upper or surface level condense and thus get heavier. The heavy water falls to the bottom taking with it dissolved oxygen. And since two objects of matter cannot occupy the same space, the bottom layer of water below the thermocline is displaced, destroying the thermocline.

As this continues and upper water continues to fall to the bottom, the lake assumes a uniform temperature and dissolved oxygen content from the continuous stirring that is taking place. That is the Fall Turn-Over.

Fish react by scattering. They are not found stacked together and predatory fish (bass) go everywhere. Some will be very shallow, some hang near the bottom, some go to the deepest holes, some suspend. That's why fishing is so hard when this happens because they fish are not concentrated at all. It's impossible to find a pattern.

As we approach winter, the water will stratify in reverse with the best water near the bottom. However the spring shift will not be as dramatic as the Fall turn over, as it is the gradual warming that we see every spring. Some lakes are shallow enough that they don't stratify, and those are the lakes to be fishing now.

Does that help?

"Cav"...you had me at "Hello" :thumleft:

Nicely done. I'm leaving work now, I've learned something!!!!

So where are these shallow lakes at because I have been to three lakes in the past two days and only one out of the three are doing it and the one was Kapowsin. Is there anymore around that arent doing it?

Jason

felts_jf wrote:So where are these shallow lakes at because I have been to three lakes in the past two days and only one out of the three are doing it and the one was Kapowsin. Is there anymore around that arent doing it?

Jason

Silver Lake in Cowlitz County is an example of a lake that will not turn over (or should not.) It is 3000 acres with an average depth less than 6 feet with a couple hard to find 10-11 foot pockets. There are others, go to the Features page on this website and look for those lakes that are essentially soup bowls that don't go deeper than about 15 feet.

Now the reason alot of lakes have seemed to shut down may not always be about fall turn-over. We have been pounded by repetitve cold fronts. Those cold fronts are what turned off lakes like Silver. The fish are just holding close to bottom and not moving around much because (and I'm not sure of the scientific explanation why) the effects of lowered barometric pressure. Good news, they will come back after a couple or three days after the passing of the front, if the water temperature doesn't drop too much more. If the water temperature stays in the low- to mid-50's and the weather stabilizes, fish will bite. Think jigs and slow presentations.

rfatt and bassackwards, ain't this what we used to do on this website? Feels good to be back in the groove.

I hear that

cavdad45 wrote:rfatt and bassackwards, ain't this what we used to do on this website? Feels good to be back in the groove.

I second what cavdad has to say. If you want some extra reading on it, I have a huge-o book called "The Ultimate Guide to Freshwater Fishing". It has some great information on the thermocline and some graphics to support the tips it gives.

I dread what happens when the week ends. But for now, let's make the most of it.

cavdad45 wrote:...

Very good information. That is something I have never really thought about. One thing I wonder is a shallow lake such as Silver never really "stratofies" since the water is in a constant state of fluctuation with regards to temperatures. At what point or depth does this have more of an effect? Ten feet, twenty feet, one hundred feet? How does this effect a lake, say Kapowsin; as felts_jf has stated he believes is turning over, with an average depth of ten to fifteen feet with a couple areas that are twenty or more feet in depth? Would this be isolated to only those areas that are deeper, since there is more volume of water throughout the entire lake as compared to those areas? If that makes any sense at all and I haven't confused myself. I was never really any good with math, so there may be actually more volume of water in the deeper areas than what I think. Anyrate, thanks for the info...extremely interesting!! Thanks!


Chad

cavdad45 wrote:rfatt and bassackwards, ain't this what we used to do on this website? Feels good to be back in the groove.

FEELS GOOOOOOD!!!!

:thumleft:

Let's keep it going fellas!!!!!!!! Good stuff comin out of the bass section again.