Over time, individual waters develop associations with certain fish species, which is the case with Crawford County's Conneaut Lake.

Though Conneaut can be accurately linked with several varieties of finned creatures, a strong case can be made regarding its connection with huge white bass.

Conneaut's white bass picture is this:

• It produces exceptionally large white bass, including the past three state-record fish.

• These record fish have been caught by a corps of seasoned anglers who have decades of experience on the lake.

• The biggest of the lake's big white bass tend to be caught during the late fall.

The current state white bass record stands at 3 pounds, 15.7 ounces, and was caught Nov. 6, 2002, by Bob Hornstrom.

Hornstrom's catch narrowly topped Dave Hornstein's 3-pound, 14-ounce former record. Jerry Swidinski's Conneaut Lake white bass held top honors previously.

White bass are native to the Ohio River and Lake Erie drainages. Presently, they do not occur in either the Susquehanna or Delaware watersheds. Their numbers are self-supporting. Since they are not stocked, white bass numbers rely on the success of a year's spawning effort, which is strongly influenced by the weather of the spring. Thus, it's common to have missing year classes of white bass, which can lead to hot and cold fishing.

Though Conneaut Lake has a history of producing the state's biggest white bass, they are commonly caught in many other Western Pennsylvania waters as well.

Lake Erie has strong white bass numbers. When white bass move into Presque Isle Bay, they can provide entertaining recreation.

The Ohio River and lower Beaver River both tend to have robust white bass populations, though typically the fish are ov average size. Allegheny Reservoir and Pymatuning Lake both contain decent numbers of white bass.

Recently, I spent an afternoon on Conneaut with Swidinski. With the water surface temperature still in the high 50s, he explained that the day would be more of a scouting mission than one likely to produce a big white bass.

"The schools of big white bass don't really bunch up on the deep humps until after the turnover period," he said.

During the course of the summer, deeper lakes like Conneaut stratify into three distinct bands.

The fall turnover occurs when the warm surface water cools enough to sink through the depths. From a fish's standpoint, the flip-flop effect of turnover temporarily creates an unstable environment. Fish become tough to catch.

But once conditions stabilize, oxygenated water is present from the lake's surface to its depths and fishing improves. In northwest Pennsylvania, this usually occurs about late October, depending on the weather.

Guided by his knowledge of the lake, shoreline sightings and a keen eye trained on his trusty flasher unit, Swidinski motored right up to a rocky hump that topped out in 16 feet of water. He tossed a marker buoy on the hump as a reference point. Positioning the boat so we had the best angle to fish the structure, he had me lower the anchor.

"I fish for big white bass the same way I do (during the fall) for the smallmouth bass that also use these spots," said the Butler-area angler.

That said, he picked up a spinning rod rigged with a three-eighth ounce blade bait and fired a cast over the top of the hump. After counting the bait down to a certain depth, he began a swimming-jigging retrieve. A few casts later, he set the hook into a three-pounder, not a white bass, but a beautiful smallmouth bass.

For the remainder of the afternoon, Swidinski illustrated his talents, pulling up on similar deep rock humps without the aid of a GPS or fancy sonar unit.

He made note that the fish usually relate to the steepest sides of the humps. On some spots, we'd use multiple anchor sets to properly work the area.

In addition to blade baits, casts were made with 3-inch Galida's Grubz (a ribbed, twister-tail grub) and jigging spoons. Though the timing was too early to have a good shot at Conneaut's bubba-sized white bass, I left the lake with an understanding of what it takes to catch these prized fish.

An angler looking for a great late-fall fishing adventure would be hard-pressed to find a better area than western Crawford County.

Besides the white bass fishing, Conneaut has outstanding largemouth and smallmouth bass fisheries. Panfish — bluegills and crappies in particular — are available in good numbers and sizes.

Nearby Pymatuning Lake contains a solid bass fishery, excellent numbers of muskies and some large, though hard-to-catch, walleyes.

Modern cabins are available at Pennsylvania's Pymatuning State Park. For more on the park, visit: www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateParks/parks/pymatuning.aspx. Cabin reservations can be made through this site.