Last Sunday I had a chance to go to one of my local lakes (Miami county State Lake). The winds must have been 30 mph & the waves were breaking over the top of my Kayak. I think the lake was turning over as I could only see my paddle about 2'' (Yes inches) in the watter and that was it ! After about 15 minutes The wind got to me & I went home SKUNKED!

So it looks like I can slip away this afternoon but I'm not sure were to go . If that lake is turning over would I be better off to go to another lake? How long does a turn over take? If I do go back what should I use ? Black & blue?

The turnover question is kind of hard to answer as its going to depend on the lake. Here's a table of a couple different lakes and how they experiance turnover. Hope this helps a little

MIXING REGIMELAKES

DIMICTIC (2mixes/yr)

Lake Minnetonka

Grindstone Lake

Lake Independence (Minneapolis, MN)

Pike Lake (Duluth, MN)

MONOMICTIC (1mix/yr – mixed all winter and spring)

Lake Erie

Lake Huron

Ice Lake*

Lake Michigan

Lake Ontario

Lake Superior

Lake Tahoe

Lake Mead

POLYMICTIC (many mixes/yr)

Shallow lakes & ponds< 4wide range

Mille Lacs Lake, MN

St. Louis River and Duluth-Superior Harbor

MEROMICTIC (never totally mixed because of stagnant bottom layer)

Miners Pit Lake

Pennington Pit Lake

Brownie Lake

Deming Lake

Big Soda Lake (Fallon, NV)

Basically, from a technical standpoint turnover will occur whenever it gets windy from the time the thermocline dissappears until the lake restratifies.

Last Sunday I had a chance to go to one of my local lakes (Miami county State Lake). The winds must have been 30 mph & the waves were breaking over the top of my Kayak. I think the lake was turning over as I could only see my paddle about 2'' (Yes inches) in the watter and that was it ! After about 15 minutes The wind got to me & I went home SKUNKED!

So it looks like I can slip away this afternoon but I'm not sure were to go . If that lake is turning over would I be better off to go to another lake? How long does a turn over take? If I do go back what should I use ? Black & blue?

Quick look at Google maps indicates you are in KS and this is a small 1/2 mile long lake.

When a lake turns over you can smell and see the decaying bottom debris floating on the surface. Wind can turn over a small lake that is ready to turn over. The result is low DO levels for a week or so until the lake settles down.

This small lake has a lot of public docks and I would imagine everyone fishes them. If you have a portable sonar unit, you should be able to locate some brush piles and isolated structure or rock piles and those would be a good target. Try drop shotting a finesse worm in whatever color you prefer using.

Tom

I just checked out what it looked like on Google maps. It has around a dozen long piers that Google doesn't show . Anyhow it is a shallow lake normally only around 7' at the deepest. Other than that it's a nice lake with Trees / brush everywhere!

If its only 7 deep I doubt it develops enough of a thermocline for turnover to be an issue tbh.

FWIW turnover really relates to a lake being equal temperature, allowing the different layers/depths of water to mix. As far as I know, lakes don't actually 'turnover'.