10/31/17 report

[Dan the fisherman]

I found some good top water action this afternoon.  Got a handful of  2 pound whites a few spots and even missed two striper.   All the action was in the mid lake area.  All fish were caught on a spook.  Air temps were in the 50’s don’t know the water temp though.  Fished from 4pm to dark. 

[Fish Hound]

Thanks Dan, that gets me excited to get the little runabout launched this weekend. Has the lake started turning over yet that you could tell?

[Lance34]

2 hours ago, Fish Hound said:

Thanks Dan, that gets me excited to get the little runabout launched this weekend. Has the lake started turning over yet that you could tell?

It turned already.  Like September 

[Dan the fisherman]

Lance is correct ☝🏽

[Ozark Flyer]

Thanks for the report Dan.

[Notropis]

Not trying to sound contrary but I doubt the lake turned over in September.  Fall turnover begins when the surface temp becomes colder or equally cold to the bottom layer of water.  Water becomes denser as it gets colder and when the surface temperature becomes the same density as the water on bottom, it sinks and pushes the bottom water up to mix with the surface water.  During most years the lake starts turning over on the upper end, which is the shallowest, around late October to early November (depending on how cold the air temperatures are) then continues down the lake to the deeper ends (which cool down slower due to the greater volume of water) until the lake is totally mixed, usually in mid to late December.

When you consider that the water temperature coming out of the dam (from the bottom of the lake) during power generation in the summer is in the high 40's. it's makes sense that the surface temps must be much cooler than they are typically in September to cause fall turnover. I don't doubt the bottom temps in the upper lake are warmer than the bottom water close to the dam but still much colder than the typical mid 70's surface temps in September.  

During the years I worked on the lake, there were a couple minor fish kills, mostly involving gizzard shad, that were associated with the turnover and subsequent mixing of low oxygen bottom water with the surface water.  These kills happened in late October on the upper end of the lake in both cases.  

  

[Lance34]

2 hours ago, Notropis said:

Not trying to sound contrary but I doubt the lake turned over in September.  Fall turnover begins when the surface temp becomes colder or equally cold to the bottom layer of water.  Water becomes denser as it gets colder and when the surface temperature becomes the same density as the water on bottom, it sinks and pushes the bottom water up to mix with the surface water.  During most years the lake starts turning over on the upper end, which is the shallowest, around late October to early November (depending on how cold the air temperatures are) then continues down the lake to the deeper ends (which cool down slower due to the greater volume of water) until the lake is totally mixed, usually in mid to late December.

When you consider that the water temperature coming out of the dam (from the bottom of the lake) during power generation in the summer is in the high 40's. it's makes sense that the surface temps must be much cooler than they are typically in September to cause fall turnover. I don't doubt the bottom temps in the upper lake are warmer than the bottom water close to the dam but still much colder than the typical mid 70's surface temps in September.  

During the years I worked on the lake, there were a couple minor fish kills, mostly involving gizzard shad, that were associated with the turnover and subsequent mixing of low oxygen bottom water with the surface water.  These kills happened in late October on the upper end of the lake in both cases.  

  

I’m going by what Beaver water district and 40/29 news.  When they did a report in the first part of September about it turning.  Mention up about the big algae bloom as well that happen this year.        Plus how the water quality was rated at some unclean level or something like that.  ???

 

Thought it was early too.  But we had a cooler September in the beginning   So who knows?  I just know back in the beginning of September when I quit fishing Beaver it looked pretty yucky up river.

 

But your education and knowledge experience is way more than mine sir

[Fish Hound]

If my tap water in Springdale was any indication of turnover late September would be right. It got fairly skunky smell and taste for awhile.

[Stump bumper]

We go through this every year, the local news calls the annual dying of the algae "turnover" but the algae dies about the same time the leaves start falling off your oak tree. Just like leaves falling off the tree lake turn over does not make the leaves fall off the tree nor does it make water taste bad it is dying rotting algae that makes the water taste bad. This will go on again next year and the year after because people get their knowledge from the entertainment industry (what the news is business to do, they entertain you not educate). 

The lake turning over is about where the FISH will be do to where in the LAKE( how deep) they can Breath due to oxygen levels and has nothing to do with your tap water and even though there has to be a lot dead Algae in the water already to run fish out of deeper water the Algae died long before the lake turned over. Lake turn over forces all that dead stuff to the bottom and the water you see and drink will actually be cleaner.

This is totally off topic, and once again thanks for the report Dan.

 

[Notropis]

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 I’m going by what Beaver water district and 40/29 news.  When they did a report in the first part of September about it turning.  Mention up about the big algae bloom as well that happen this year.        Plus how the water quality was rated at some unclean level or something like that.  ???

Yes, they say that every year Lance and it's confusing when they refer to it as "turnover" but it's typically when the blue-green algae starts dying off as Stump bumper indicated, that causes the bad taste and odor in the drinking water. The blue-green algae is dominate in the summer months especially in the river arms which are more fertile than the middle and lower lake.  When the high water temperatures of summer start to drop into the 70's, they usually begin to die off. The problem is compounded because of the location of the water intake in the fertile upper lake.  The other intakes (Madison County and Eureka Springs) located further down the lake are less effected by the algae taste especially the one adjacent to the dam.  

Of course, for us fishermen, it's a good thing that the upper lake is more fertile.  The lake's highest biomass of fish per acre is in the upper reaches, including the crappie population, which you well know, judging by your reports!