Crappie

Turnover Period

Water Temperature: 60°F to low

50°F range

General Fish Mood: Negative

Many lakes stratify by temperature in summer, with heavier, denser, cold water deep and lighter, warmer, less-dense water on top. Turnover occurs when the temperature on top drops to a point where it equalizes with water temperature below the thermocline. It’s a dramatic event for aquatic life and a visual event for us. When the temperature drops below 60°F, look for detritus, clumps of bottom algae, and old, dead weedstalks littering the surface on lakes that thermocline in summer. The flotsam is dragged topside by currents created as the water in the lake mixes top to bottom. Sometimes the stagnant bottom water of the lake releases a sulfurous odor as it reaches the surface and mixes with the air on windy days. You also may detect suspended debris on sonar.

Turnover is like one big off-switch. The crappie bite, consistent for so many weeks, now abruptly shuts down for several days to a week. Turnover is usually brought on by cool winds after a cold snap or a cold rain that chills the surface of the lake. Shallower bodies of water never develop thermoclines and don’t turn over in fall. The Turnover Period can be a great time to seek crappies in rivers, backwaters, flowages, and other shallow impoundments. Or, if that isn’t an option, look shallow. In many environments, predators like pike, walleyes, and crappies follow hordes of baitfish right up to the beaches and into shoreline cover during the turnover, where they find more environmental stability in terms of temperature and oxygen content. In-flowing creeks and other current areas become key spots. The bite’s slow, but better shallow than in deeper areas. In fact, deeper spots, which crappies otherwise flock to, can be entirely devoid of fish in many lakes during this period.

As the days get shorter in fall, the first really hard cold snap followed by several days of windy, cold weather generally precipitates turnover and heralds the approach of the Coldwater Period. As the temperature on the surface of the lake drops to about 55°F and the water perceptibly clears, coldwater fishing patterns for crappies begin to emerge.

The Coldwater Period (Fall)

Surface Water Temperature: 55°F down to the coldest temperatures of the year

General Fish Mood: Neutral

This period spans the entire time frame from turnover to freeze-up, or down to the lowest temperatures of the year on waters that never freeze. It represents a gradual slowing down and stabilization of the entire ecosystem. The metabolism of a crappie slows in direct proportion to the gradually dropping temperatures. A cooling environment, however, triggers the instinctive need to feed. Winter, and all the stress it represents, is drawing near. Crappies may be moving more slowly, but they rarely pass up an opportunistic meal during this period. Even cold fronts can trigger activity.