Turnover Question

[powerdive]

Being from the land of natural lakes, I don't really understand how fall turnover works on flowing reservoirs.

We fished out of Big M yesterday, looking for walleyes. All we found were a few bass and a big bluegill. It was a nice day to be out. However, the water temp was 54. Back home that would be right in the middle of turnover. We did notice quite a few white swirly windrows on the surface, but the water was very, very clear. On the electronics, we didn't find much for shad on the main lake--in fact, there wasn't a lot of fish life of any kind showing. Not like usual in that stretch; it's normally a very fertile area.

It was like fishing a lake on another planet. So, would you say that the lake is turning over in that area?