Looking to take a two week fishing sabbatical this year, sometime in April-May.

Can't decide to go east for largemouth (Guntersville, Chik, Seminole) or North for smallmouth (Sturgeon Bay, Mille Laks, lake of the woods)???

Any ideas or anyone else have experience doing something like this. Most likely will be by myself as all my fishing friends are busy with kids and work...

Dallas native so have very little small mouth experience.

My vote is for Mille Laks

Make sure you check the seasons. Bass season doesn't even open in Wisconsin until the first Saturday in May. It's illegal to even target them before that. Some years the ice isn't even out on the opener on sturgeon bay! If you want to do a small mouth trip up there, shoot for the back half of May. I'd recommend sturgeon bay, it regularly takes 30lbs a day to win the Sturgeon Bay Open up there in mid May. Get a guide for a day or two, because it's a completely different kind of fishing.

I'd do a tour of the TVA lakes. Start furthest east and work your way back. Chick, Gville, Pickwick, Wilson, etc.

Spent a week on Guntersville a few years back and it was one of my favorite places I have ever had the chance to fish.

+1. Spent a week there last August and it was really awesome. Had a forum member hook me up with a couple smaller lakes close to Mille Lacs for when the weather was bad and the fishing was awesome there as well.

Two weeks in the Boundary waters in June!!!!

Small mouth fishing up in Minnesotta or Wisconson, there are enough lakes up there that if you fished one lake a day you couldn't fish all of them in your life time, and they are so aggressive!

Thanks for the input, seems like I should push trip back if going north! Will guntersville and lakes in that region still be in prespawn in April?

Fished Boundary Waters late summer 2019 it was a fantastic trip!

I fished it for a week last May. 100 fish days. Just incredible. Not for the faint of heart though. You need to be educated to stay safe and you need to be in solid physical shape. Carrying a canoe on your back over a small mountain to get to the next lake is no joke.

But so very worth it!

I went with a couple of friends to the Minnesota Arrowhead region for a week and fished some of the small lakes close to the boundary waters last july, Like others have said, 100+ small mouth a day plus muskie, walleye, and pike. Be aware that some of the ramps are too shallow to put a bass boat in. You should consider using a cheap aluminum prop because the gravel is not kind. The most important thing to be prepared for is the mosquitoes. They will literally eat you alive early in the morning and late in the day. We had to stay at night down by lake superior where it was cooler and the mosquitoes weren't bad there. The locals told us that mosquito season had started about mid june. We were there the first week of july.

The Watertown/Waubay area in S. Dakota is usually pretty darn good the first half of May. Great mixed bag for smallies, walleye and pan fish.

They will most likely be on the bed mid April. All depends on the weather. As warm as it's been this year they may spawn early.