I want to take my dad fishing for a weekend for his 85th birthday. We live in the Mid Cities and i really dont want to travel much over 2-3 hours to get there. I would like to go the weekend of March 26-27 and will need a hotel room. Kind of short notice and we don't get to fish much any more, but what suggestions might you have?

Bank or boat fihsing? With or without a guide?

The way they catching crappie on Fork would be a good time. Plenty good crappie guides there

If he's never been to Caddo, it would be a trip of a lifetime! Stay on the lake or in Jefferson. You can fish or just sight-see (there are tours).

Fork is liable to be a madhouse that weekend.

This, I went this past fall and I'm going back this spring.

We will be fishing from a boat with no guide. We used to do a bit of tournament fishing. Never been to Caddo, but were thinking about Pines. Fork always kicked our tails and left us dissappointed but we kept going back because of the possibilities.

Good time to hit Texoma with the opportunity to catch largemouth, smallmouth, spotted bass, or the abundant striper. Plenty of places to launch and you can usually get out the wind and waves if necessary.

I fished Pines under extremely heavy pressure last year. It was a holiday and had a major bass tournament going on at the same time and we caught fish everywhere we went. I caught them on a Carolina rigged zoom centipede and a strike king XD3 and KVD 1.5 square bill both in sexy shad. That lake seems to produce bites waaaay better than Fork but has the potential to produce a DD fish. I'd love to see how it would fish with not a lot of pressure on it.
Fork might still be in play for you if you fish it mid week. I used to fish it a lot like that because of my work schedule and it fished like a whole different lake on Wednesdays and Thursdays, the days furthest from the weekend pressure.
Another body of water that is just minutes from Fork I've has success on is Lake Holbrook. If you like Lake of the Pines you'll love this lake, it's like a miniature version of Pines. It's just off Highway 69 north of Mineola.

Priceless Memories yet to be made again. Enjoy the time with your Dad.

We have it narrowed down to these: Nacogdoches, Naconiche, Pines or Caddo. The only one we have fished is Pines and it has been a few decades since we fished it. Which would you guys choose, it is all new water to us! Would like some numbers, but we are used to hunting big ones.

There are lots of lakes in the Nacogdoches area that can produce bigguns, I’d do my research and find some of the ones you haven’t mentioned and then decide what suits you’re fishing style best.