where to go for a week

hey names mike and I live in northern Illinois. im planning on taking my 3 girls (7,6,4) on a camping/fishing trip somewhere in the Midwest region. id drive up to 8 hours one way. I would like your opinions as to where you guys would go if you had 7 days to go fishing? what would be the best time between june and end of august to go? love crappie/cat fishing and girls just love having tight lines. thanks for any input. have thought about Kentucky lake, reelfoot, rend, crab orchard, Shelbyville. looking to tent camp unless someone knows a reasonable cabin rental with dock.

Look at Truman lake, Contact Bucksaw Marina lodging right on water,or a fine campground right on water also....june would be a great time lake full of crappie and fine catfish

Rend Lake had great camping.

Well if you would go as far as reelfoot, maybe you would consider Taneycomo/Table Rock area. Lots of things for families (including trout fishing).....Silver Dollar City is fun for the whole family. Trout can be caught all year. Table Rock is beautiful and relatively uncrowded. There are caves, shows, shopping.....just plenty of things for everyone.

looked up bucksaw good rates for a cabin and waterfront very nice ive never heard about Truman lake will have to do more research.

I fished rend as a kid with my dad a few time haven't been there in many many years. what part of te lake was god camping.

ill have my boat with and would prefer places that had docks if anyone knows any where I can leave it in the water all week.

where are all the first choice picks you guys have????

thanks guys

With little ones like that go to Disney Land. They will bore quick.

Carlyle lake has crappie and tons of channel cats. I have seen posts on here where they pull cats out by the hundreds. Don't know about cabins or camping but just go to the Army Corp of Engineers site and you can check it out there. I know here on the Ville you can camp at Lithia and leave your boat tied up onthe banks or at the marina overnight for a fee and a security gaurd will check on it throught out the night. There is cabins at the entrances of lithia too. Worth checking out. I can point you in the right direction for you and your girls to catch some crappies.

My choice would be Reelfoot if the kids really like to fish. Blue gill, crappie and catfish. Get a hotel with a pool and all is good.

I'm sorry, but I second Disney! 7 and 5 year old here

My choice would be Truman lake. Several campgrounds with swimming beaches next to campground. Clean bath houses with lots of crappie and catfish in the lake. Several family style dining places close by too. Camp by the water and beach your boat at campsite all week.

Truman is a great place in the summer. Be sure to post in the Missouri page before you come. There is a lot of sunken timber as well as shallow points to break your boat. You should be able to get a regular to help with some of the tricky areas. By then dipping the flats should be going good. Bucksaw is good for fishing but most general boating, tubing etc would be down lake about long shoal on down to the dam. Feel free to pm me if Truman is where you choose to go. I'm no expert but do try to keep up to speed.

ok ill explain a little further. my girls would love Disney but my 4year old isn't tall enough for most rides so that is in the works for 2017 when she is 6. im a full time daddy I have my girls 100% of the time. these girls aint your ordinary 7,6,4 year old girls. when I go fishin I bring them ad they love it. if they get bored fishing which if the bite is good they wont. then they have what we call their boat bags. leap frogs with games and movies they can watch always have assortment of snacks and extra comfy clothes. i get the bow they get the rest of my 16.5ft lund. they get bored of fshing and their leappads then we tube. they love being on the water or in the woods. they all go hunting with me weather it be sitting in a blind while im bow hunting (no more than one when in blind lol learned that the difficult way) or listenng to the dog tree in the woods. so am not worried about them being bored what so ever. also we aren't fishing the entire time will be hiking, riding bikes, finding local things to do and they would rather have a tent on the lake they can swim in than a hotel with a pool. last year we spent 4days camping and fishing in Sabula on pool 13 and they was mad we had to go. if you know Sabula there really isn't a lot to do other than fish and swim and they wanted to fish more than swim. sorry for long reply but im dang proud of my girls.

bowhunter ive though about Carlyle but for me I don't mind traveling and driving a good distance I could fish Carlyle on a weekend which I have considered doing this year at some point.

Truman is only 8 hours from me that would be reasonable. camping where I can tie the boat off would be real convenient. reelfoot about the same.

we are usually after cats or panfish bobber fishin for both and the look on their faces are amazing when that bobber goes down.

thanks for the responses guys where else is good I know there are more out there Truman looks good though.

Chippewa flowage by Hayward WI or Turtle Flowage by Mercer Wi

I agree with the no Disney thing. My kids have been to see Mickey and if given a choice would choose time at a lake over going to see that mouse again. Disney fun once for all of us but if asked their favorite vacation of all time both my kids still like the three lakes we hit in a week and a half, Beaver, Table Rock and Stockton.

Enjoy!

any other ideas I researched Chippewa flowage and lots of great places to stay. fishing seemed pretty good would like to try for some big walleye while up there. maybe musky never caught one lots of pike though. im thinking though that I would love to fish some flats for big cats on Truman too...

Mike,
There are several good suggestions here. You might also consider Mark Twain lake in Missouri. I am not sure exactly what there is to do besides fish but it's not a bad lake to fish for numbers and I don't think the drive would be to bad for you. I have taken a trip to the Jonathan Creek area on Kentucky lake for a number of years and normally stay at a house called the Kentucky lake log home. I can find a link somewhere if your interested. Nice place with a small dock on the water in a small cove and the marina is about a 3 min boat ride from the house. Stockton lake in missouri is beautiful with some good fishing as well and it's only about an hour from Truman I think. They don't have many options though as far as staying right on the water. J.R.Oldham is a guide on that lake and can put you on some fish or talk to Beagle Man on here and he can probably help you out on Stockton or Truman. Beagleman isn't a guide just a real nice guy. If you are interested in possibly finding a house or cabin to rent if the price is right. Check out vrbo.com or homeaway.com. My family uses these websites all the time to find people that rent out their vacation homes. You can find some real nice places for a decent price if you do some research. Hope this helps some. I have two young boys that I am planning to do something like this with this year too. I can't wait. Good Luck and Tight Lines!!!

Some of these lakes that are more south than north could be a bit tougher in the summer. I'd think about going north, to Minn or Michigan (mostly Minn). Walleye, smallmouth black crappie--you name it. And the end of July, first week of August is beautiful. Lots of lakes up there (almost too many) with lots of camping. Go to the Minn sites and check it out. Many of them should be within your 8 hour drive, as it's about 14 hours from Ohio. One lake in Michigan with great walleye, smallmouth, and panfish--St Clair--but it's a big lake and maybe not your cup of tea.

Good luck with your trip planning. One word of wisdom for your trip. Plan it towards the middle of May if possible to take advantage of the bluegill/redear spawns as well as the catfish spawn in lakes in the mid-west.

Crappie fishing is our life here but it can be hit-or-miss and what you want to do with kids the ages of yours is to get their motors revved up and keep them interested in fishing for the rest of their lives. You can do that with a bed of bluegills or a bunch of spawning catfish on the rocks. Not so much with crappie and bass with most kids.

I was raised on bluegills. The most fun to catch fish. I took my 2 girls for a day during the spawn at Willow Slough in Ind. and they had a ball. They lost more than they caught but didn't care. They were 4 an 5 at the time. That was back in the early 80s when the Slough was in its prime

you guys get what im going for then. its all about them having the time of their lives on the water. we got a local pond up here by us that they let the kids from around the area come and fish they aint got their bait in the water 5 sec and them gills are on it. im not a crappie specific fisherman i to like just catchin fish. like topwater bass, stink bait channel cats, bobber fishing, jigging tubes long as we are having fun don't really matter what we are catching. i haven't really looked in michgan much but have some in minn.

Check out St Clair then. I think you'll be surprised at what you find out.

I have fished all of the lakes you mentioned in your original post and by far Truman is a better crappie lake.