Fishing Vacations - Where have you gone?

I thought it would be fun and interesting to see where everyone has gone for fishing vacations.  It may spark an idea in someone else's mind to try something outside the box.  I'd love to do some ocean fishing either in The Gulf or Florida Keys at some point.  Post your destination and what you fished for and caught.

Western Oregon/Oregon Coast – Steelhead & Cutthroat Trout/Sea Bass, Pacific Rockfish, Ling Cod, Wolf Eel, Dungeness Crab

Clark Fork River, MT - Rainbow & Cutthroat Trout

Lake of the Woods, MN – Walleye & Sauger

Kodiak Islands, AK (2x) – King, Sockeye & Silver Salmon, Dolly Varden/Halibut, Black & Red Rockfish, Sablefish, Grey Cod, Arrowtooth Flounder, Octopus, Tanner Crab

Northern Wisconsin - at least one long weekend a month and one or two weeks a year - Walleye, Pike, Crappie, Bluegill, Bass

Eagle Lake, ON – Booked Spring 2018

Lake Havasu, AZ – Planning Winter 2019

Canada four times, BWCA Ely Mn once, Toledo Bend twice, Truman Reservoir twice, Big “O” once, Lake Lanier once. Vilas county many, many times.

Did you think that the fishing was better on Chetek or Long?  My cousin has a place on Long in the NE finger on Schnacky Road so I've fished and duck hunted it a fair amount.  My folks looked at a place up in the narrows before they bought their place in Oneida County.  But I've never fished Big Chetek.

Did you know that Larry the Cable Guy has a place on Long?

Been going to Long Lake in Washburn County for years. 

Last September was my first year on Chetek. Went with a bunch of guys from our church. Never been up in late September before. But we did catch some nice fish. Did some river scouting and found a spot under a bridge where we caught Pike, Muskie and Smallmouth Bass. 

I had one for years.  What an entertaining fish.  He was like a dog.  He'd bang the cover of his tank every day at the same time which was when I fed him.  He managed to jump out one night and I found him on the floor in the morning.  Dry.  I picked him up and he started to flop around in my hands so I threw him back in.  He lived for a couple more years after that.  

The best was my wife's cat.  We had the Oscar in a custom tank that was made for a family member's back bar so it was an odd size.  We couldn't find a cover for it so we just had a flimsy piece of plexiglass over the top and illuminated it from the back.  The cat used to sit on the plexi and bat at the fish which would jump and bang at the plexi.  One evening we came home to find water everywhere, the plexi broke in a few pieces and floating around in the tank, and a drenched cat cowering in the corner of a closet. Priceless!

Ireland?  Cool.  Care to elaborate?

Fishing for salmon in the River Spey in Northern Scotland is a bucket list trip for me.  If I can do some ocean fishing while I'm there, that would be awesome.

I have fished several lakes in Canada, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Illinois, Tennessee, Missouri, Ohio, and did some Ocean fishing in Puerto Rico, and Ireland.

I watched a fishing show on Sunday morning that added another destination to my bucket list.  Southern Florida canal fishing.  The canal the show filmed on had peacock bass, tiger oscars, and Mayan cichlids.  Obviously all exotic species.  The peacock bass, native to the Amazon basin, were supposedly stocked to control an over-abundance of baitfish and the oscars and cichlids were likely introduced by people who didn't want their aquarium fish anymore and didn't want to kill them.  They claim the cichlids are excellent table fare and are wicked-cool looking fish.

Used to fish Lac Vieux Desert every year opening weekend, has been a couple years since I've been there. Probably time to take another trip.

Sturgeon Bay/Green Bay at least 1 time/year for whitefish.

Green Bay spring walleye run - used to fish it every year. Got back into it last year and plan to continue. Absolute blast.

Bemidji area every year with a group of guys, have tried a couple different lakes up there now as its been a 8 year tradition. I target panfish, they target pike/walleye. We've done good just about every year.

Mille Lacs sleeper shack for walleye- Only spent 1 day there the last two years. Definitely planning a weekend sleeper here sometime, did great the one day there this year.

Upper Red Lake sleeper shack for walleye - won't go back.

Waubay Lake South Dakota sleeper shack for perch - tougher fishing than expected but perch quality is phenomenal. Will be back, hopefully for early ice next year.

Lake Michigan Salmon fishing - head out of Algoma or Kewaunee a couple times a year, dad has a nice salmon set up for out there.

Sylvania Wilderness - that was a blast, boundary waters is next.

Devils Lake ND when I was about 14 years old. Limited out fishing off the dock, I've always wanted to go back.

Alaska Coho Salmon run near Seward, Halibut fishing in Seward- hopefully will be back there someday.

Deep sea fishing the Carribean out of Cozumel, good excuse to drink free while fishing on vacation.

On the to-do list:

Lake Havasu, AZ

LOTW, MN

LBDN, MI

Lake Erie

Cascade Lake, ID

Perhaps my favorite fishing vacation was with a group of buddies back in '07 when we went to Sandy Beach Lodge on Trout Lake in ON.  We were there for 5 days and caught more walleye than I can remember.  Now I belong to a Musky fishing club and we go to Lake Namakagon in Cable, WI every October and have a good time.

Fremont in May for a few days  Whites/Eyes

Oshkosh a lot of day trips  Whites/Eyes

Eagle River area in the fall for a week or so Walleyes/Panfish

Doesn't matter where you go as long as you have fun and catch some fish!!

For our honeymoon my wife and I did a fly in fishing trip out of Kabeelo Lodge near Ear Falls Ontario. It was her idea. We flew out of the main lodge. Spent 4 days on a lake all to our selves. Great fishing. Flew out of there twice. Planning another trip there again in the near future.

Only thing I try to do every year is make it down to Southern Illinois for the spring Crappie spawn for at least a couple years.  I was late this past year and missed the hot bite.  I normally do Crab Orchard Lake or Kinkaid Lake.  Not only is fishing good, but it's usually about 10-15 degrees warmer in the spring compared to Chicago.  It's nice to be fishing in the 70's in mid April.  Even though the lakes can get busy they are mainly undeveloped with few if any homes or businesses as it's mainly federal land.

Great thread!

Reelfoot Lake TN - Bluegill

Lake Erie - Walleye

Lake Winnibigoshish- Perch (ice)

Lake Sakakawea - Pike (ice)

Wasbaskang Lake - Walleye

Lake St. Clair - Musky

Ottawa River -Musky

BWCA - Walleye, Smallmouth

Lac La Belle - Smallmouth

Bay de Noc - Walleye 

Thats the list thus far of “trips”....some are repeated annually, and some are several times a year!

The pilots up there are a special breed.  Our bush pilot that we had for a day the first time I went up was a former Air Force pilot.  He made that Dehaviland Beaver do things I didn't think were possible for a plane built in the 40s or 50s.  Almost lost my lunch as we spiraled up the Hallow Glacier.  Every time we've caught a flight from Anchorage to Kodiak City, it has been on an old 737 retro-fitted to carry cargo.  There's like a dozen or so seats in the tail section where we sat.  The runway in Kodiak is short enough to begin with but was partially under construction on our first trip there.  Never knew a 737 could stop that fast and thank God the seat in front of me was padded as I bounced my face off of it.

Even if it's just one time, anyone who loves to fish has to have that experience before they're pushing up daisies. Truly an incredible place.

I would love to get to Alaska. I missed a nice opportunity as a college buddy lived there as a cargo pilot for about 3 years. I saw some of the fish he caught and it looked awesome. I guess after he left I didn't even consider it as an option. Definitely will look back into it. He now lives in Bozeman which I might have to take a trip and toss some flies.