Spring trip someplace south

This winter here in Minnesota has me thinking of a early spring trip someplace south. At the rate we are going here in Minnesota we may not have open lakes till mid May or later. I don’t think I can wait for 4 more months to get out on open Water to catch a few fish. What is normally the earlies dates a guy can get into some decent fishing in say Missouri or Kentucky? Any lake suggestions? I was thinking of possibly Table Rock or Lake of the Ozarks

Pool 4 of the Miss is open year round…I travel North to open water fish!

But, if you want warmer and are determined to head South, the best fishing is probably Kentucky Lake in April. Best fishery I’ve ever been on. Big bass, Crappie, stripers and beautiful scenery. Something closer could be Truman Lake for crappie in Missouri in late April too. Then you have the Ozarks, Bull shoals, table rock all down south that are great too. Kentucky lake though…go and thank me later.

OR…if you really don’t mind a drive…head down the crappie highway and hit Lake Enid, Sardis, and then Grenada in search for a 3lb+ crappie. Been there 3 times and the experience of the deep south coupled with the giant crappie is well worth it. there is a 12″ minimum length if that tells you about the size of the average fish there!

I have two kids attending college at “Mizzou.” I am making plans to visit them this Spring and get some fishing in at Lake of the Ozarks. Its not as far South as some locations but even in March its frequently 60-70 degrees there. I can make the drive in 7 3/4 hours.

I used to go to to Truman every spring. Haven’t for about four years, I really miss it. I would go the end of march and the weather was hit and miss. One year the temp never got above 45 in 4 days. The next year we hit it just right for the big girls to pull up on their beds, that was fun got a couple pushing 6#s in almost back to back casts. Truman is only about 11 hours from the twin cities so its close enough that a guy can to do a weekend trip if you wanted to.

I have done A LOT of research on this. The closest places to MN for “early” bassin’ are LOZ or Table Rock in MO, and Lake Newton in southern IL is a really good lake too from the reports I have read. Newton is a power plant lake and good fishing can be had in March. You can put a big boat on Newton, but anything over 25 hp is slow no wake speed. Have some good buddies that are very knowledgeable about LOZ and told me that the last two weeks in March and first two weeks in April are prime time. You do run the chance of tough fishing though if they don’t get warm weather in Missouri by the time of your trip. If you want to go farther than that I’d say the best bets are Grand Lake in Oklahoma, Guntersville, or Kentucky Lake.

A few places that I would love to go back again to:
1. Louisiana – Red River
2. Louisiana – Venice (Mississippi river Delta)
3. Louisiana – North OR South Toledo Bend state park (TX border)
4. A little further south Del Rio TX Amistad res