Tennessee River, in particular Pickwick Res.

I see not very many of you have ever left Texas

I haven't been to Alaska but fished hard for 25 years in south Florida. When you wake up in the morning you ask yourself what do I want to target today... bone fish, tarpon, snook, peacocks, redfish, largemouth... all within 45 minute drive in city traffic.

That would seem to be the case, LOL. I about fell out of my chair when I saw friggin' Tawakoni as the first response. As one who's spent much time looking for the perfect place for an angler to settle down, I'll never forget that. And hey, I've enjoyed fishing that lake, but as the pinnacle nationwide? *YIKES!*

I'm born and raised in Texas and have flat fished the hell outta this place for 40 years, mostly from Dallas east. It's an OK place to fish, but far behind other places in many ways. I used to think TX was the best place for anything and everything, then I visited a bunch of other places and, well, I guess, grew up.

FLORIDA - wow. Big largemouth out the wazoo. Ungodly salt water action. Excellent facilities for sportsmen, with an explosion of ramps, courtesy docks, and online resources to find and study them (including pics of every ramp and parking lot) that plain puts Texas to shame. Astounding number of river boat ramps and free campsites, something uncommon here. The short, spring-fed rivers are something else - big bass, redfish, jacks, snook. Even the snakeheads are a blast! Peacock bass, too. There's just fish everywhere. Best shore fishing I've seen, always carry a rod in your car. ALWAYS. How I would have loved to fish here back in the day, before the crowds came.

ARKANSAS - half of my family comes from there, but somehow the sheer grandeur of the opportunities escaped me until recently. Great variety of fish from walleye to huge brown trout to just about everything else. Crooked Creek and Buffalo NR are insane, especially for smallmouth, my preferred fish. I'm not much for snow up to my crotch or tightlining thru a hole in the ice while freezing my butt off, so my ideal place can't much more north than the stunning Ozark region of Arkansas. If AR and LA had been one state, adding LA's plain insane saltwater fishing to the mix, it would have run away with the title. I would have called the state Arkanweeseeanner and even the state flower would have been a fish of some sort.

Much better, though, would be to have two places to live. Spend about 4.5 months in, say ME, NH, or VT slaughtering the smallmouth, trout, and whatnot while doing the rest of the year in FL, perhaps somewhere in the armpit with good access to the panhandle and all the way down the wang to the Keys.

One body of water? Greer's Ferry, AR + its river tailwater. That place has just about everything exceptin' fer salmon and nurse sharks.