Why does crappie fishing fall apart during fall turnover?
Turnover demolishes the structure the fish were organized around. When the surface cools to match the deep water — near 10–13 °C (50–55 °F) — the whole column mixes: the thermocline vanishes, oxygen and temperature become uniform top to bottom, and suddenly bait and crappie can be anywhere. Schools that were compressed into a tidy band scatter, and the water itself turns murky with stirred sediment. The slump usually lasts one to two weeks; skip lakes that smell sulfurous and look tea-stained, or find water that has already restabilized — shallow lakes finish turning over first.
The full story
This answer is one piece of a longer lesson — setups, diagrams and the reasoning behind it.
Same topic, other species
- 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 mean on a trout lake? — Trout (Rainbow · Brook · Lake)
- What does fall turnover do to walleye fishing? — Walleye