In this paper, the typical lake of river-connected lake in China, Poyang Lake, is selected as the research area. The MIKE21hydrodynamic model coupled with particle tracing model is used to simulate the movement footprint of heavy metal Cu in Poyang Lake under three different flow patterns of gravity type, top support type and inverted irrigation type. The simulation results showed that:(1) In January (gravity type), the heavy metal movement rate in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River was the fastest, at 2.111km/d. The particles moved along the north-south direction to the northwest direction of the center of the lake area, and then suddenly change its direction of movement. In May (top support type), the rate of heavy metal movement in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River was the highest, reaching 2.901km/d. In August (inverted type), similar to the top support type, the heavy metal movement rate in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River was the fastest, 3.287km/d. (2) Judging from the overall movement of heavy metals in each tributary, the water level of Poyang Lake was affected by the water from the five rivers and the backwater of the Yangtze River. The movement footprint of heavy metals in different point sources in the lake area was greatly affected by the shape of the top-supporting type and the inverted-flow type. The flow of heavy metals in the upper and lower reaches of the Yangtze River was relatively large under the influence of different lakes. The two tributaries of Fu River were the least affected by the shape of the lake. The particle motion rate was as follows:inverted type > top support type > gravity type.