What is your most epic road trip to bass fish?

[Darth-Baiter]

Hauling a bass boat, maybe a down scaled kayak?   
 

what is your greatest journey?  I keep looking at waters in Florida on google earth. Hauling my kayak to key bodies of waters would be mind blowing.  Hell, cutting across Texas puts you in some world class lakes. 
 

stories?

[Bluebasser86]

Mine was either time I've been south of the border bass fishing. Didn't haul my boat but tough to beat the fishing.

 

As far as hauling my boat, it wasn't just a bass fishing trip but I hauled my boat with a friend down to the White River in Arkansas. Our plan was to fish for brown trout on the river (we'd never caught one), hit Bull Shoals lake midday when the trout slowed down. Then, after 2 days of that, we were going to Beaver lake to chase striper (neither of us had ever caught one).

 

It was a blast. At the White and Bull, we both caught our brown trout, I had one that was 5 1/2 pounds T-bone a jerkbait after missing it a few times and we got to watch the whole thing happen. I caught a new PB spotted bass (3.75lbs) and walleye (4.5lbs) on Bull.

 

When we got to Beaver, I caught 3.5lb largemouth on an Arig while my buddy was parking the truck and we barely started the big motor that day. No idea how many bass we caught, but it was a lot. I had the biggest with a 6lb 3oz largemouth, a 5lb largemouth, and a nearly 5lb smallmouth. Right as it was getting dark, it looked like boat wakes were moving across the surface, but there was no boats and it was flat calm. My buddy fired his A-rig at them and caught a 15lb striper and I got a 7 pounder. The next day was a lot tougher, but we found another spot with a lot of fish and my buddy caught his new PB smallmouth that was 4.5lbs, new PB hybrid striper that was almost 7lbs, and right before we had to leave, I caught a striper that was just over 20 pounds on my A-rig. I wish I had my GoPro back then, I'd love to have video of it all.

 

 

[NorcalBassin]

We had an exceptional trip to Northern Idaho a few years ago that I'd love to do again, but I'd still have to say Clear Lake is #1 for me since it's nostalgic (my incredibly sweet grandma lived on the lake for 30+ years before passing a few years ago) and the fishing is good more often than not. We usually make the 4 hour road trip 1-2x/year and hit up the same couple restaurants we'd take her to after a day of fishing... always a great time. If it wasn't such an economically challenged area with the highest arrest rates in the state (lots of drug and behavioral health issues) we'd probably end up moving there. 

[Captain Phil]

My most epic bass road trip was to Lake Erie.   Two years in a row, three of us rented a house on Pelee Island in Ontario.   We left our homes in Florida towing a Ranger bass boat at 6 AM in the morning and drove straight through.  We crossed into Canada and got on the ferry at 9 AM the next morning.   We started fishing that day.  The smallmouth bass fishing around that island is phenomenal.  Using tube jigs loaded with 5/8 oz. weights, we caught bass all day long.  Our bass averaged 2-3 pounds each.  We caught two over 6 pounds. We caught an occasional Walleye, which we ate for lunch.  If you ever get a chance to go there, do it.

 

As far as Florida Kayak fishing is concerned, you don't need a big boat to fish for bass in Florida.  Every body of water in Florida larger than a puddle has catchable fish. Here on the Harris Chain, you can fish six mile long Haynes Creek with a Kayak.  Some of our best winter bass fishing is in that creek.  Many residential lakes have small ramps where you can launch a canoe or kayak.  Some of these fish have never seen a lure.  Some bass in these small waters grow big.  This fish was caught in a small residential lake less than a mile from my home.

 

 

[TnRiver46]

Took my tiny Jon boat all the way to lake fork for spring break senior year of college with nothing but a trolling motor. Camped for a few days then hit a lake down around college station. Little did we know that both the spares tires we had wouldn’t fit on the 1957 boat trailer, luckily I didn’t find that out until years later and the drive went smoothly (something like 18 hours back to Knoxville from college station ) 

 

[A-Jay]

Seems every trip down to Mexico is most memorable.

However we could never expect to surpass the Oct 2018 trip. 

For numbers of giants - this one's pretty close to top of the mountain. 

The small plane flight to the lodge never disappoints offering breath taking view of Lake Baccarac.

 

But it's the on the water action that easily stole the show on this trip.

 

A-Jay

[ArthurLK11]

Roughly planning a roadtrip for this summer to GA. There are 10 different black bass species found in the state. My plan is to spend roughly two weeks road tripping it through the state catching all those species. 

[Dwight Hottle]

I have had a few epic road trips over the years. For largemouth my most epic trip was my first visit to lake Baccarac in Mexico. One morning I was fishing by myself with my guide. We anchored up on a deep water spot so we were casting to deep water around 20'-25' deep & retrieving uphill the whole way back to the boat. My first fish to start the day was a scorable 7+lb fish. As the morning progressed they kept getting bigger. I ended up with a 43.5lb bag for 5 fish with three over nine lbs. The biggest was 9.5lbs. I lost one fish when she jumped near the boat throwing the swimbait. She would have gone an easy 9-10lbs. All this before lunch. 

 

My other epic road trip was fishing for smallies on lake Erie. I was a late bloomer when it came to boat ownership. I bought my first boat when I was in my middle fifties. A buddy & I decided to make the trip from NE Ohio to Presque Isle bay in Pennsylvania as the boats maiden trip. At the time my PB smallie was just under 5 lbs. We fished for two days over a May weekend. We both broke our PB several times that weekend on the my new boat. Talk about beginners luck. I caught two smallies over 5lbs and my first six pounder. We fished rapala husky jerks deep divers almost exclusively. That weekend convinced me to move to PA so I could spend more time fishing for smallies chasing trophies. 

[scaleface]

Most epic trip was to Bull Shoals . I have never fished there before  and arrived finding the lake under flood conditions . I had to launch the boat from the road . Thunderstorms roared in every day and drove us off the lake . In between storms we were catching  smallmouths 30 foot deep on tubes . No huge fish but a lot of 15+ inchers . It really boosted my confidence , finding good bass under those conditions on a new lake .

[roadwarrior]

I had a similar trip on Bull Shoals with my best guide, Tim 'hotdawg"  Curtis.

We fished baby diaper yellow Gitzits exclusively. Initially Tim was outfishing

me 10:1, but I'm thinking, "he's a guide and this was his lake".  Then he asked

what size line I was using? It was #8 and he suggested changing to #6. That

was the trick! For two and a half days we never went fifteen minutes without

"fish on!" 

[soflabasser]

I have had fishing trips that I caught over 100 bass in 1 day, caught most species of black bass that have been identified, trophy bass, and other awesome bass fishing trips. Longest fishing road trip I did was well over 1000 miles of driving in 1 week. 

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, soflabasser said:

I have had fishing trips that I caught over 100 bass in 1 day, caught most species of black bass that have been identified, trophy bass, and other awesome bass fishing trips. 

Was there a road involved? 

[J Francho]

Driving to Santee Cooper lake with a fishing partner that went by the nickname "The Critter."

[NoShoes]

32 minutes ago, J Francho said:

Driving to Santee Cooper lake with a fishing partner that went by the nickname "The Critter."

Worth trip?  It’s about 2 hours from me, kind of worried about navigating it. 

[J Francho]

1 hour ago, NoShoes said:

Worth trip?  It’s about 2 hours from me, kind of worried about navigating it. 

Totally.  It was a 13 hour drive for us.  We stayed at Black's Camp - awesome people there.  Watch out for stumps and gators.

 

An 8-5 my friend caught on a topwater:

[NoShoes]

1 hour ago, J Francho said:

Totally.  It was a 13 hour drive for us.  We stayed at Black's Camp - awesome people there.  Watch out for stumps and gators.

 

An 8-5 my friend caught on a topwater:

I’ll have to make the trip. I got a few Florida destinations in mind too, Rodman been calling my name. 

[TOXIC]

Define “epic”.  Every trip is in someway epic to me.  Whether it was wading the Shenandoah for 100 smallness a day, driving to St Clair for 100 smallness a day in or first trip which turned into an annual trip for the las 17 years, or just going out locally with friends, they are all epic.  I haven’t been to Mexico or Brazil yet but I imagine those would be epic as well.  
 

I will relay a story that was pretty epic and will always be in my memory.  I flew into Vegas and rented a car (a Malibu ss but that’s another story) and drove to Page, AZ for a Yamamoto pro staff get together.  I got to spend 2 days on Lake Powell.  I had never fished a desert canyon lake before.  I fished the first day with a touring Ranger pro out of Utah and we caught smallies in creek washes where a creek carved out the bottom of the canyon and cracks in bluff walls where it was 300 feet to the top of the wall and 300 feet to the bottom of the lake straight up and down.  The second day I went out with the husband of a GYCB employee.  We had just started fishing out of a 21 foot Ranger when a guy in a v bottom tiller motored up to us and asked if we wanted to catch some stripers.  Of course we said yes.  For those who have ever fished Powell you know there is no limit on stripers and DNR wanted you to keep all you caught.  The guy I was fishing with said he needed to fill his freezer.  We get to the canyon where all of the stripe were and let me tell you it was on for the next 6 hours.  We filled both his live wells and then the entire floorboard of the boat.  Powell has cleaning stations at all of the ramps with water sprayers and constantly running grinders in the center.  He called his wife and had her bring his electric filleting knife and by the time he was done there was 50lbs of fillets. It took a month for my thumb and hands to heal.  That was pretty epic.??

[FryDog62]

Epic in both a good and bad way -

 

Went to Boundary Waters several years ago and 1st fish 10 minutes in was an 8 lb walleye caught on an ultra light spinning rod.

 

Later that day we found a young woman on the shoreline waving for help from us, she was almost in a state of shock. She and her dad had tried to paddle up a large channel from a connected lake - got 3/4 the way up and the current was too much. Canoe capsized and he was lost. We spent the rest of the day and the next morning looking for his body until the Park Ranger and planes showed up to search further. Put a damper on the trip to say the least. Turns out the guy was a state attorney general from a nearby state. Tragic...

[Columbia Craw]

My first trip the Clear Lake.  My buddy and I went with no information after the area had flood closures.  The high water was warm and the bass moved up.  I had four days with five best going over twenty five pounds.  I’ve never had four plus pound fish in four casts until that trip.  It was awesome.

[Darth-Baiter]

For bass.  I fished Lake Huetes in Mexico.  Our first day, my brother and I skunked. We were young and inexperienced.   The other fisherman pooled together some worms and Texas rigs for us.  And showed us how to fish them.  Instant 200 fish days. 
 

Upcoming?  I’m gonna drive my kayak to the first lake I ever fished for bass. It’s near Tucson. 

[schplurg]

On 1/12/2021 at 7:57 PM, They call me “Gaiter Salad” said:

Hauling a bass boat, maybe a down scaled kayak?   
 

what is your greatest journey?  I keep looking at waters in Florida on google earth. Hauling my kayak to key bodies of waters would be mind blowing.  Hell, cutting across Texas puts you in some world class lakes. 
 

stories?

 

Cutting across Texas will lower one's I.Q. by at least 5 points (usually temporary). Not recommended.

[brgbassmaster]

Prob my annual trips to Northern Michigan. 2100 miles there and 2100 back and usually 3k miles just driving around the state fishing. 7k miles in amonth is a heck of alot of miles just to chase brown bass. But catching 3-6lbrs every trip on lakes ppl dont even fish is a completely surreal experience. Nothing like it. Luckily im only 12 hours away now lol. 

[schplurg]

My epic road trips are just about to begin. I'm adding a bed to my minivan, and I just bought a camp stove and everything else I need to camp in my van.

 

Why wake up early to drive 3 hours to the water when I can wake up there ready to fish? New adventures await!