Big baits often tempt post-turnover fish into eating more often.
November 14, 2024
By David A. Brown
Nearly every time a company undergoes an ownership change, employees can expect a shakeup at the top—a significant shifting that trickles down through the ranks. Folks get nervous, resumes get polished, ‘cause a shakeup is coming.
During the fall transition, Lee Livesay looks for a different kind of shakeup. In this case, it’s the seasonal lake turnover that, more or less, flips the water masses on either side of the thermocline and ultimately see a mixing that brings challenge and opportunity.
Fall turnover occurs at different times across the country, but understanding what is happening is the first step to catching more fish during this period. Livesay, a Lake Fork guide and Bassmaster Elite Series pro, describes it this way: “It changes the whole water column. That’s why you start seeing deep schools move around and get off the bottom. You start seeing a lot of fish schooling in the late summer and fall.
“That oxygen contents just gets weird when that water flips. Once you start getting those cool nights and shorter days, it changes the whole ecosystem.”
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As Livesay notes, this annual occurrence not only affects the ecosystem, but also anglers.
“It’s a complete change in the oxygen content,” he said. “It all mixes for a couple weeks until it gets cold enough to reestablish. Once that thermocline breaks up and that water starts flipping, it changes everything.
“You start seeing guys going down the bank and catching them. I can You can still catch them deep, but they suspend a lot more and they just roam a lot more in that time period. That’s why you see a lot of late summer-fall tournaments won on topwaters, and on schooling fish, in general.”
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Bassmaster Elite series pro Lee Livesay has cracked the code on his home body of water at Lake Fork in Texas. And what he has experienced can be applied anytime a lake turns over. The Process Lake turnover timing varies by location, but he finds it usually occurs in his East Texas lakes from late September to early October. Weather patterns play an integral role, as extended heat will delay the transition.
“This year has been really hot, so (as of October 7) it was just starting in East Texas,” he said. “It had been 88-98 degrees every day and that water hadn’t condensed enough to flip, but once we started getting some cooler nights in the mid-50s those nighttime lows did a lot to cool the water.
Summarizing what he experiences every year, he said: “Summertime, the water’s really hot day and night and there’s a base thermocline with colder water on the bottom half of the water column and hot water will stay on the top half.
"Once the nights start getting colder and you get those cold fronts coming, that top layer of the water column starts getting just as cool as the bottom and starts to sink. The colder, more oxygenated water on top wants to sink and it starts mixing with the water on the bottom half of the water column.”
Livesay is no stranger to big bass, but finding them willing to eat during turnover is the secret code. The good water on top mixes with the less desirable water in the lower reaches and everyone plays aquatic twister for a couple of weeks.
The Impacts This weird little transition period is marked with visual clues, such as a dirty surface film and bubbles caused by mixing water masses. As he said, there’s also a clear impact on the lake’s residents.
“It kinda freaks out the fish—and the baitfish,” he said. “The baitfish start suspending really bad, you start seeing fish schooling out in the middle of nowhere, you see fish cruising down the bank.
“You get a little bit of everything until that water gets its equilibrium back and it will establish itself again. Then you get that oxygen content down deep again going into the fall and winter. That’s why you see guys catching them really deep in the wintertime.”
He likes his topwaters, but he said squarebills, swimbait and most of your moving baits will tempt those post-turnover fish Once the turnover is underway, he also expects to find wolf packs roaming grass lines, wood, and other ambush points. These fish typically come from deep schools that have fractured during the fall transition.
Wolf packers might stop to poke around rocks for crawfish, or they could be up shallow chasing bluegill or gizzard shad.
Baits & Strategy While options abound, he said his favorite way to catch fish during and after the fall turnover is to move up shallow and throw a Sixth Sense Catwalk topwater. A strategic presentation that mimics a wide range of forage, topwaters tend to appeal to a better quality of fish.
“I can go down the bank and catch those fish that are looking for bream beds, laydowns, or rocks,” Livesay said. “I can also catch schooling fish. I can cover water and imitate a variety of forage.”
He makes super-long casts and uses a pretty peppy retrieve to make sure the fish don’t get a good look at his bait. He might slow down around a late-season bream bed; otherwise, covering water is key.
The other key— keep an open mind. he likes his topwaters, but he said squarebills, swimbait and most of your moving baits will tempt those post-turnover fish. Just keep running and gunning ’til you hit the motherlode.
“The turnover is a great time to just go fishing,” he said. “Cover water and hit some of the less obvious places because the fish could be just about anywhere.
“It can be a really tough time, but once you figure something out, you can catch a lot fish—and some great big ones.”
