straw hat

Pretty chilly today. Made 3 stops, all near CC. Found a few crappie at 8' deep. A little suprising as with this cool weather I expected them to be deeper. Bite was light and only managed to come up with 4 keeper crappie and two nice white bass. Also saw my first bald eagle of the fall. Water temps were between 66 and 68 and the water was a little dingy but not bad. As cool as it was today I found myself already thinking of spring. lol

I am attaching a file that summarizes my conversation With Adam Bowman from MCC. Turnover.doc

Fished Fri evening and Saturday around CC area. The water looks a lot better, water temp was 70 and 1 1/2' clarity. Caught a total of 24 keeper crappie and 2 whites. Saw a lot of whites hitting the top and being caught. Also saw 2 nice walleye (3 lb+/-) being landed. Crappie were running around 10' deep and the bite was slow but steady. There were a lot of boats out and bank fishermen. Be sure and bring your patience if you fish that area in the near future. lol

I found his name. It is Adam Bowman and is in the Springfield office. I will call him next week.

Obviously I am not sure either. If I had a temperature profiler (a thermometer with a long cord, say 50') and a dissolved oxygen meter it wouldn't take me very long to find out what is going on but I don't have access to those things anymore. Your suggestion about contacting the Mo. Dept. of Conservation is a good one. I have talked to the new bioligist for Stockton a couple of times but can't remember his name. I will try to dig it up and give him a call next week. He certainly would have access to the right equipment. I know he loves his walleye program and oxygen depletion is really hard on walleye populations so he would probably be concerned.

Well, %^#@^&(_@! my computer skills!! I couldn't get it to copy over so I am just typing it. Here goes. 0 Centigrade 14.6 ppm 32 F 5 C 12.8 41 F 10 C 11.3 50 F 15 C 10.1 59 F 20 C 9.1 68 F 25 C 8.2 77 F 30 C 7.5 86 F 35 C 6.9 95 F

OHHH Forget that. It didn't look like that when I attached it. I will try again. Sorry

I found a nifty Disolved Oxygen table. Of course it doesn't allow for decay of organic materiaal but only for optimun dissolved oxygen at various temps. I will post a temperature conversion chart in a few minutes. Table 1 Solubility of Oxygen (mg/L) at Various Temperatures and Elevations (Based on Sea Level Barometric Pressure of 760 mm Hg) Temperature Elevation, Feet Above Sea Level oC 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 0 14.6 14.1 13.6 13.2 12.7 12.3 11.8 2 13.8 13.3 12.9 12.4 12.0 11.6 11.2 4 13.1 12.7 12.2 11.9 11.4 11.0 10.6 6 12.4 12.0 11.6 11.2 10.8 10.4 10.1 8 11.8 11.4 11.0 10.6 10.3 9.9 9.6 10 11.3 10.9 10.5 10.2 9.8 9.5 9.2 12 10.8 10.4 10.1 9.7 9.4 9.1 8.8 14 10.3 9.9 9.6 9.3 9.0 8.7 8.3 16 9.9 9.7 9.2 8.9 8.6 8.3 8.0 18 9.5 9.2 8.7 8.6 8.3 8.0 7.7 20 9.1 8.8 8.5 8.2 7.9 7.7 7.4 22 8.7 8.4 8.1 7.8 7.7 7.3 7.1 24 8.4 8.1 7.8 7.6 7.3 7.1 6.8 26 8.1 7.8 7.6 7.3 7.0 6.8 6.6 28 7.8 7.5 7.3 7.0 6.8 6.6 6.3 30 7.5 7.2 7.0 6.8 6.5 6.3 6.1 32 7.3 7.1 6.8 6.6 6.4 6.1 5.9 34 7.1 6.9 6.6 6.4 6.2 6.0 5.8 36 6.8 6.6 6.3 6.1 5.9 5.7 5.5 38 6.6 6.4 6.2 5.9 5.7 5.6 5.4 40 6.4 6.2 6.0 5.8 5.6 5.4 5.2

I fully agree jbeenemd. That is why I started this string by saying i may "stick my foot in my mouth...". It is way too early. The low oxygen levels in say August didn't bother me. The water was so hot you could boil an egg in it!! (Well, maybe not but close, lol) At those temps the water holds little O2 BUT now with the water temps down in the low 70s the oxygen levels should be back up to around 5 or 6 ppm easily if not higher. The minnows are still reacting O2 stressed and the water is heavily stained. I made several stops around the lake today to see how things were going. The water temps were running between 71 and 73. The water around Hartley and Ruark were very heavily black/tea stained. The water around CC still real dingy looking and smells anaerobic. The black/tea color looks like the water in a swamp or marsh. This color is due to the release of tannic acid from decaying organic material. This organic material comes from the bottom of the lake (dead algae, leaves, etc). This is what suggested to me initially that the lake might be turning over. I also do not see the thermocline any more on my fishfinder. I would be interested to know if anyone else has noted the lack of a thermocline on their graphs. If the thermocline is still there like you suggest (which is possible) what in the heck is the lake going to look like when it does turnover?

Thanks for the report 9lb. Good info.

Absoluterly walcrabass! I would say it smelled a little like my brothers used socks but not as strong. lol Seriously though, you could smell it along the windy banks. A little foul smell with a tint of fish odor. Odd situation.

Frying eyes, would like to meet you as well some time. I will be mostly bank fishing for the next few months...Just keep an eye out for that old "straw hat". lol The water in the tributaryarms cool first and allow the thermocline to breakdown and the turnover to begin. This has been going on the last 2 or so weeks in the CC area. I noticed that the water clarity and the bite both seemed a little better last Friday evening so maybe that area will clear up soon. The Hawker Point area seems to be about a week into the turnover Friday and seems to be getting slowly worse. How long it will last? Well if i could guess that I would already have a winning lottery ticket!!! lol It really depends on rain, wind and temperatures. Rain can introduce not only oxygen into the water but also help cool the lake. Wind obviously adds oxygen to the water, especially along the bank where the waves are crashing on the shore. Be aware though that this causes a circulation in the lake. The oxygen poor water will come up on the calm side of a lake (bad side for fishing), travel across the lake pushed by the winds and crash against the opposite side of the lake. As that water blows across the lake it will hit the windy side and sink down (especially if it cooled as it crossed the lake). It will not only carry oxygen down with it but also shad that has blown against the bank. And of course a drop in temperature will also shorten the turnover. The cooler the water gets the more oxygen it holds and the more relief to the fish. The weather doesn't show any real cold weather in the next week but a chance of some rain and wind. My best guess is that most of the lake will probably be pretty decent in the next 2 weeks. Earlier toward the tributaries and later toward the dam. But a bad day of fishing still beats a good day at work.

Thanks for the compliment sandbc but I am not sure if I am right. I know my minnows were always within a few degrees of the lake temp so it wasn't temp shock and a lot of the fish I have been catching have been real white and tight to the bottom, like they are stressed. Those O2 meters are real expensive (a good one is about $700) and too rich for me. When using an O2 meter it is important to take your O2 reading about 4 or 5 feet below the surface. The top 2 or 3 feet is too heavily affected by wind, waves, and algae. In the old days when I used to have a meter I would run around to my favorite spots and check O2 until I found a spot a little higher than the rest. It would usually produce more fish. Bass, crappie and walleye are particularly picky about low oxygen. .

I am going to go out on a limb here and probably stick my foot in my mouth but I sure would like everyones input. Here is how I see it...The highest water temp I recorded was 91 (in the shade) at 3' deep in the CC area in early August. Most of my August temps ran from 85 to that 91. This is about 5 degrees warmer than I normally see in the summer. Normally when water gets that warm near the surface there is a strong thermocline and very very little oxygen that gets to the lower levels during the summer. This leads to a really bad turnover in the fall. As soon as the thermocline starts to break down that low oxygen water mixes with the surface water and sucks all the O2 out of it which really kills the bite for a while. Now I know you guys know all that but here is the kicker...The water at CC started looking like turnover (crudy looking) about 2 weeks ago. I noticed that when I added lake water to my minnow tank the minnows would immediately come to the surface and "pipe" for air. Now wait a minute...by adding fresh water to the tank it usually HELPS the minnows, not stress them out. For the last two weeks I have been loosing a lot of minnows on my trips as soon as I add lake water. This evening the wife and I went to the Hawker Point area (water temp was down to 74) and I noticed that the water there looked "off" colored and a little cruddy. As soon as I added lake water to my minnow tank the same thing happened that has been happening in the CC area. Stressed and dead minnows within minutes. Back in the old days when I was working I could always check the O2 with a meter and keep track of the progress of the turnover. Those meters are too bloody high for me to afford now though. Anybody else notice a worse than normal turnover or is my senility getting to me? Anyone have an O2 meter on their boat?

Most of you have probably noticed the new bait shop (Lunkers) that is going in just south of the Aldrich bridge. When I went by tonight I didn't notice the "coming soon" sign but I did notice a sign advertising storage space and live bait. It sure didn't look like they were ready to open yet. Has anybody heard anything?

Fished two spots in the Springfield Cove area. Real tough. Did pick up 3 crappie with only one keeper. Water was real dingy at CC. Definitely looked like turnover. Visibility 3" or so. Water temp was down to 71 from 75 last weekend. The few crappie we did get were running 10' deep and real white in color.

Not bad. The water is low enough that I have to be careful when I back in my long pontoon trailor into the lake. The bass boats don't seem to have any problem though. Good luck the fishing around there has been bad for us lately.

Sat out in the rain all day. I think we were wetter than the fish we caught not that we caught many. Did manage to get into some small channels at the CC boat launch. We caught 28 cats but only 4 were big enough to keep. If you had a young boy itching for some fast action they would have loved that. There were also about 40 white pelicans there. They were gorging on the massive schools of shad on the surface. I don't think I have ever seen so many shad there this time of year. Not much surface action on the shad either. Not much going on for us today. Been tough lately.

I got scucked once but luckily the dr was able to successfully remove it!! lol

I thought maybe because they were dropping the lake fairly fast this week. There is so little depth left at CC I hope the fish can breath out of water. lol I noticed that they are not scheduled to let out water this weekend, maybe this will help along with cooler water temps and clouds.

Only had a couple hours so hit the boat launch area at CC. Not much doing only a few hits and one keeper. Water was suprisingly dingy (1 or 2 foot visibility) and 77 degrees. I noticed they are droppong the lake again. Down about 4" in the last day or two. Water is really low at CC.

Good job looking4crappie!! We went the same days you did and caught a ton of fish but not near as many keepers as you. I hope you left some for me.

Only got to go for a couple hours but my freind and I managed to pick up 6 keeper crappie, one 2 lb channel and a 2 lb flathead as well as a 2 lb white. All were at 4 to 7' deep on a steep rocky bank. Moved to the CC boat launch after the rain stopped but only managed to pick up a couple small crappie. We did see quite a few nice whites being caught on the other side of the lake. Also saw 2 big flocks of ducks go over. Too high to tell what kind but there were about 30 in each flock. I sure am glad it is going to cool off.

I forgot to mention in my fishing report yesterday that I saw a couple flocks of teal the last few days. I know that some of you guys like to duck hunt so I thought I would mention it.

Fished from CC north a couple of miles. Caught lots of small fish (5 to 7") in standing timber. Out of roughly 50 fish we only had 1 keeper. Switched to brush and laydown and caught another 20 or so with only 5 keepers. By 3 PM the heat was getting to us and we had to call it quits. Fish were 4 to 10' deep. Water temp was 80 to 82 and the water was very green with poor visibility.