So I am finally at the point in my career where I am about to get 5 weeks of vacation a year, and have 3 day weekends. I like to fish out of my jon boat because of it's simplicity, and my top 3 fish would be white bass, crappie, and catfish.

My plan is to make a trip about every other weekend to camp / fish different lakes. I would leave out Thursdays around noon, camp either in my truck camper or tent, fish all day Friday, camp again Friday night and head back Saturday.

I want to stay East of Austin, and South of Dallas- mostly. Maybe some West Louisianna a little bit, too.

Looking for lakes where the water conditions are generally always suitable for a smaller boat. I normally just fish around lake Houston and it's creeks. But I need to branch out and see Texas- I've only fished Houston, Conroe, Livingston, and Rayburn for the last 25 years, but sometimes feel like I want to catch a break from the big water.

What lakes or rivers would be your top 3 for small craft fishing?

Several lakes around Nacodoches. Tyler lakes, Gilmer, Hawkins, Timpson, Murvaul, Kurth. I fish a 12 ft cartop pram. Even big lakes often have multiple arms where you can find sheltered water; I fished lake of the Pines in 25mph wind but found miles of sheltered shoreline

I will fish any of the lakes in my 14’ Jon boat. The key for me is the wind. I will only go if it is less than12 mph. I only have a trolling motor on the boat so with 2 batteries I have about a 7 mile round trip range.

Have you been over and fished the Trinity river? An awesome fishery and wind would not be an issue. There are oxbow and cuts and creeks off of it north of IH 10. I used to live near there and loved fishing that place. All the fish your looking for plus Bass.

Check out Purtis Creek State Park near Eustace. It is a great, no wake lake with camping spots. Decent bass and huge crappie.

I you are ever in the Lake Fork area, Holbrook, Quitman, Welch, are good places, in the Mount Pleasant area lots of folks are launching kayaks on thre north end of Monticello at a bridge so you could do the same with a jon boat. Most of these are known as largmouth bass lakes but they all are loaded with other species as well. Holbrook is a really good crappie lake.

What size is your Jon boat? I have a 1656 and modified the deck to fit a pop up tent. We camp right on the boat. The tent takes 2 seconds to set up we have an inflatable mattresses and also carry battery operated fans for summer camping. We have tents for each season.

This one is for winter it is waterproof and windproof.


This one for fall


We also use a military mosquito bar during the hot summer months

And those perfect spring nights when sleeping under the stars is best .
We mainly fish/camp on rivers but also camp on Amistad where it's always windy but we can always find a protected cove

Gar1970.
That is a great idea.
Thanks for posting

Those pics are awesome.

https://texasfishingforum.com/forum...ishing-camping-part-2-added#Post14508656 we also fish camp out our 12 ft Jon boat but since it's smaller we just camp on the bank

Gar and PL should be the poster couple for TFF, they have their stuff together!

Yegua Creek on Lake Somerville would be my first choice for crappie and white bass, but it may need a good rainfall before you can get your boat up the creek from Nails Creek park. Bedias Creek and Nelson Creek are two more great white bass fishing streams provided they have adequate rainfall and flow. You could camp at Huntsville State Park. In East Texas you've got the Angelina river and Sabine river with great white bass spawning runs. Caddo Lake state park would be a great base camp where you have direct access to Big Cypress Bayou and a short boat ride to Caddo Lake. Plenty of catfish and crappie in Lake o the Pines with multiple parks for camping.

Decker lake just east of Austin
Lake Raven, Huntsville
Fairfield (if it’s not a strong north or south wind)

If you want a day trip, Lake Pat Cleburne is awesome when the water is high enough to use the ramp.

Houston County outside of Crockett TX