Why Lake Turnover can be good for bank fishing

DEEP DIVE

For those who fish large ponds and lakes, I’m sure you’ve heard about the lake turnover effect that happens every fall. But did you know this can be a great thing for bank anglers?

During the turnover, which lasts about a week, the surface water and the water at the bottom of the lake literally swap places. This happens when the surface water gets colder than the water on the bottom. 

So what?

The water that’s been trapped on the bottom is heavier and less oxygenated than the water on the surface which makes it stagnant. In about a week's time, all that water comes to the surface. This often makes fishing tough.

BUT

It can be a great time to fish for bank anglers as the fish typically move to the shallows where there is “NO TURNOVER” because there is no deep water near the shoreline. 

So all the shallow water near the shoreline basically goes unchanged and becomes attractive to the fish in the lake. So the next time the lake you fish goes through a turnover, make horizontal casts keeping your lure along the bank.

Shallow water under 3 feet is your target!

If you want to nerd out even more, give this video a watch to truly understand the effects of Lake Turnover.

My 3-Day Weekend

Ok, enough geeking out! Let me tell you about my 3-day weekend at the camp. So I headed to camp this past week on Thursday night planning to do some crappie fishing with my friend Mike.

The plan was for him to bring his boat. Well, something came up and he had to bail. He offered to leave the boat for me to use but I didn’t want him to have to come back and pick it up on Sunday. 

Sooooo, I thought to myself “This will be perfect! I’ll take my time and knock out the newsletter.” The next morning, I woke up to a beautiful fall sunrise. There was fog on the water and I poured a hot cup of coffee and got to work. 

Well, after writing for just 20 minutes, A heard a commotion by the bank. When I looked over, I saw the water still rippling and a few minnow still skipping across the surface. 

That was all it took!

I grabbed my rod and started casting but came up empty. So I started walking and casting a white spinnerbait along the shoreline. I find that bold colors like white or black work best when the river is stained. 

Not even 30 feet from the camp my spinnerbait came to an abrupt stop and I set the hook.

The bass made two jumps before I drug it in.

Quick tip: It’s fine to battle the fish and wear it out while its in deeper water, but as it gets closer you’ll want to horse it in quick to prevent it from jumping. A bass jumps more if it’s in shallow water because there is no other option; it can’t dive because it's only in a foot or two of water. 

I held it up and admired the fish and thought to myself, “I’m doing better than I would with a boat.” 

As my coffee sat on the table, I pushed a little further down the shoreline and had another bass within 15 minutes. 

That’s when I decided to start keeping my fish and went back to the camp to get a stringer. The rest of the morning I was totally immersed in the quest to catch lunch by 11 a.m.

I had 7 fishing between 12 and 16 inches. I headed back to the camp to filet the bass and enjoyed some delicious fresh fried fish on the wharf. 

While I should have been writing, the rest of my weekend was spent fishing as I was even able to pound the shoreline and find a group of crappie suspended on a submerged tree-top. I found the treetop by located the largest tree trunk that extended from land, into the water. 

If you follow that trajectory of the trunk you can estimate where the top of the tree is located. 

When it comes to crappie fishing, the canopy or treetop is where the fish hang out! I pulled 8 crappie off that canopy using a slip cork and a Bobby Garland Original Baby Shad in the Monkey Milk color. 

Needless to say it was a very productive weekend as I caught loads of fish! It was so sad that I almost wrote off fishing for the weekend because I didn’t have a boat.