What does fall turnover mean on a trout lake?
Liberation. As surface water cools to match the depths — typically at 10–12 °C (50–54 °F) in late September or October at mid-latitudes — wind mixes the whole lake, erasing the thermocline that held lake trout in their summer band and re-oxygenating the deep water. For a week or two the mixing water is turbid and fishing can go strange, but the aftermath is the point: with the entire lake at trout temperature, lakers roam every depth, and rainbows and brook trout ride the cooling water back into the shallows. Turnover on a trout lake is not the setback it is on a bass lake — it is the opening bell of the best cold-water feeding of the fall.
The full story
This answer is one piece of a longer lesson — setups, diagrams and the reasoning behind it.
Same topic, other species
- Why does crappie fishing fall apart during fall turnover? — Crappie
- How does fall turnover affect muskie fishing? — Muskellunge (Muskie)
- Does fall turnover mess up perch fishing the way it does bass? — Yellow Perch
- Does fall turnover shut pike down like it does bass? — Northern Pike
- What does fall turnover do to walleye fishing? — Walleye