Unless I missed something a topo map is a topographical map. Just a lake map that shows the contours and depth of the bottom of the lake.
What are topo maps that everyone is talking about and what do they do?
Unless I missed something a topo map is a topographical map. Just a lake map that shows the contours and depth of the bottom of the lake.
Thats exactly what they are....they help you find flats, sunken islands, points, deep water next to the bank...etc. There are generally two ways in which they show depth 1. If a lake has a fluctuation of depth from season to season due to winter draw down they tend to show "depth" as feet above sea level 2. If it is a smaller lake or don't generally have a great variation in depth from season to season it will most likely be shown in actual feet of depth.
Duane
Exactly. You can get "Fishing Hotspots" books for most any region that contain charts for bodies of water for that area. Also, many times local marinas and bait shops will have topos available.
If you have a combination fishfinder/GPS, there are electronic charts that can be downloaded onto the units for most major bodies of water.
While these topos won't put you on fish, they give you a lay-of-the-land so you can have an idea of where to start looking.
For small local lakes there often are no maps. I fish a local 1000 acre lake quite a bit. I went and got a USGS quadrangle map of the area before it was a lake. I knew what pool level is so I drew it on the map and thus had my own lake map.
Many of our lakes in Mississippi have been mapped with sonar/gps equipment and are posted on wildlife and fisheries website. Not sure if other states have done this or not, but it comes in handy if you are not familiar with a new lake. Scroll down on this link and it'll give you several lakes that can be viewed
http://www.mdwfp.com/Level2/Wildlife...sp?article=452
Ranger B
Wi and MN also have lake maps available online for most bodies of fishable water. I have a navronics lake chip and it has every lake I have ever wanted to fish on the chip, and some I don't. That chip is excelent. I just wish they made a card reader for the PC that doesn't cost as much as the chip.