Fall topwater? Natural Springs? thermal-mapping (mu-ha-ha)

[SteveO]

1. Come September, is it time to put away the top water? (for smallies).

2. Natural springs flowing into a lake - do they attract fish and why? (in my experience yes they do, and I'm guesses it is because they promote vegitation / plankton, that promotes minnows etc). I'm talking small trickling brooks that are not visible entering the lake.

3. Everyone has depth charts, but it would be pretty neat to get a thermal map of a lake. I've seen maps (of cities, not of lakes) produced by Infra-red cameras flown beneath planes / choppers. Imagine getting one of your favorite fishing lake? Would be neat to identify current patterns, inflowing streams etc.

[Todd B.]

I was out last evening and I couldn't keep them off my top water popper. The fact that we had another good Hex emergence helped as well.

As for the thermal mapping, and springs, etc I wouldn't give it much thought as the fall turnover in the lakes will basically leave the lake uniform from top to bottom till it begins to freeze over.

[slop]

I'd hafta say DO NOT put away those topwaters come September! The key to having success is to slooooow down and I mean waaaaay down. Make a sandwich or root around your tackle box for that secret weapon between twitches.

This technique proved to be deadly last year in late September.

Bustin a gangsta pose



Another beauty on a calm morning:



As for the other 2 questions Steve, I have'nt the foggiest idea

[beachburger]

I have a soft-bodied topwater rigged from opening day for bass thru the end of Oct. I usually start every fish with one, if only to tell me what sort of mood the fish are in. Even when there is no topwater bite (or it has gone away), I still chuck the topwater a few times throughout the course of the day. The end result is too much fun not to keep trying. If the smallies have the feed bag on, they will come a long way up to smash a topwater.

My experience says pretty much any place where "new" water enters will hold fish. I'm guessing the oxygen content is higher and the water will probably be a different temp than the "old" water.

[wolfe]

I can remember some of my best topwater fishing ever was during early September, but I'm kind of surprised and pleased (!) to hear people get them into late Sept/Oct this way. Will keep that in mind for autumn weekend getaways to the lake.

W.