Turnover soon?

I fished Summit Lake this week and noticed what looked like mixing going on at mid water column in 38 ft of open water. Saw a lot of debris at about 20-22 ft. No change in the water color yet. Also they dropped the lake level 3 ft. in a week! I didn't know if they do this annually at Summit or not? It really screwed up fishing for me. My favorite weed line on a cove point was exposed to the cold snap and the weeds flattened out on the bottom. Of course the fish scattered all over the lake and got lockjaw.

I purchased a temperature gauge with a long wire at Walmart. It's made by Minn-kota. You can attach a small weight to the temperature probe and lower this wire and probe down into the lake and measure the water temperature at the various depths. Lower the probe down 1 ft at a time out in the deeper part of the lake and record the temperature reading in 1 ft increments. That will tell you if the lake has turned over or not. If you find a depth where the water temperature changes more than 1 deg F in less than a 1ft change in depth then you may still have a thermocline in the lake and turnover has not occurred. If the lake is the same temperature throughout the vertical profile of the lake then turnover may have occurred already. But remember if it warms back up the lake can start to stratify again if it's calm and warm. Water requires a lot of heat input before it starts to warm back up and it holds it temperature much better than air. It has a high specific heat factor. So it slowly cools or heats up, unlike the air.

Turnover can also be accelerated by high winds and cold rains during this time of the year. And any currents created by letting water out at the reservoirs **** can also help mix the lake waters and break up any thermocline. Lake's like KY lake that have hydro generation going on will have the any thermocline break up sooner than a lake of the same size and depth but with no water flowing though the system.

I am not sure just how long the wire is for the Minn-kota temperature probe but I think it's long enough to find the thermocline in most lakes. I know that the thermocline on Patoka lake can occur below 25 ft as I have another temperature probe that only has 25 ft of cable and I could not find the thermocline last fall at Patoka Lake. I went to the Corp of Engineers web site where the give the do and temp profiles on the various corps lake and found that the thermocline at Patoka Lake was around 27 ft. It was at that time I was considering buying a new DO/temp probe with the 50ft long cable! But YSI wants way too much money for that device. Oh well maybe they will have a sale someday.

Regards,

Moose1am

Hey LiveOne, Summit lake doesn't get draw down at all, at least that what I was told by the park personnel. Excess water goes out the spillway. I was there Sunday, water was up due to the rain and stain/muddy on the upper part of the lake. I was on the lake a little over an hour cranking a bandit 300 and caught one.

Thanks Idbefishing for your input. I was in a big hurry when I posted my comments, I should have said that another angler told me it was down 3 ft. and I was not really sure. I was easily fooled after hearing that and remembering the water lines I noticed on the rock down at the dam. I did see that the dam was not roped off like it was bach in August. I have only fished at Summit lk. about 4 times beginning in August.

Anyway, I have no idea how to fish for perch as the cold weather settles in. Do they move deep after the lake turns. Have they moved from the point I was fishing to other weed lines, since in most of the area I was fishing, the weeds had flatted out on the bottom. I have just started fishing for perch and walleye, so any advice may help. Thanks