murry lake

[Lureless]

It looked as if it was turning over last week. How long does it take to settle back when this happens? Any other reasons the clarity would have been so low?

[Larry Porter]

Murray reminds me of a lake that I used to live on, in Minnesota. It seems to have a cold-water bloom. It gets clearer as the summer sets in and clouds up in the fall as most other lakes are clearing. The other lake in Minnesota had a very similar shape and size, steep edges and a cisco population, just the same as Murray. It is nice to have a lake like this in your reperatoire because it gives you a lake to fish that "zigs" when the other lakes are "zagging".

[jasonvkop]

I fished Murray today and i think it is done turning over. It was very clear with no weeds floating on the surface and the fish were moving a little. I was only out for three hours or so and saw two and missed one. Talked to another boat with two guys in it and they had landed three fish with two of them being 40inches or so.

[Will Schultz]

Here's some info from the members only area:

It's no suprise that this topic has come up again, it's fall.

Here's what you need to know:
- water is at its heaviest (most dense) at 39 deg.
- as water warms it becomes lighter (less dense)
- as surface water cools it becomes heavier than the warmer water below causing it to sink through and mix
- only lakes that have a thermocline actually "turnover"
- lakes that don't have a thermocline don't tunrover but still go through a mixing process until temps are a uniform 39 deg. (lakes w/o a thermocline usually have oxygen at all depths)
- the thermocline is pushed deeper until turnover starts

Turnover is actually inaccurate as there isn't really a turnover happening. In the fall it's really a mixing of heavier water pushing down through warmer water. In the spring the mixing slows and layers of temperature breaks develop. The lake will continue to mix (turnover) in fall until ice forms and in spring until a thermocline forms.

In the fall, this mixing will eventually push through the thermocline and the lake will begin to mix from top to bottom. Does this bother the fish? No, in reality it allows them to use the entire water column because areas that had little oxygen all summer are now oxygen rich.

[Lureless]

Thanks for the info. Makes sense.

I like me some edumacation every once in a while. :D