i like the full twelve months of water time in texas.but tennesse near pickwick and kentucky lake was my favorite trip.......i just dont have the memories that i have here

Don't you find that La. State Fisheries Dept. doesn't try to develop "trophy" lakes and also that mush of La. suffers from a "meat mentality" within its' sportfishermen? I know I see tons of La. fishermen enjoying Texas' sporting situations. Any day at the ramps on Rayburn there are tons of La. plates in the lots. Whazzup with that?

RayBob, I agree with you about maine. I've been going to sabago lake region for the last 6 yrs in late may early june. We fish 6 to 10 lakes in 7 days and never run into more then 2 bassboats a yr. We had more 150 to 250 fish days then you could dream of.

Tyler is the place in less than 2 hours i can b on lake tyler,palestine,lake-o-pines,fork,toledo bend,sam rayburn,richland chambers,ceder creek,tawakani,lake athens,martin creek,murval,caddo,sandlin,cypris springs,montecello,ray hubbard,cooper,holbrook,wright pattman,and so many smaller town lakes than u can shake a stick at and all produce big fish which is why tyler bass fisherman r always happy lol

I agree that the mentality is much different here in Louisiana, but I see some recent changes in that here in Central and North Louisiana. In south Louisiana, its all about eating, and catch and release is considered a sign of weakness.

I know that Rayburn is very popular here, mainly because we don't have large resovoirs like Texas, and its really convienent. Our DWF is so busy on enforcement that we don't really spend the money to promote trophy lake management like they do in Texas. We have enough July deer hunters and commercial bass fisherman to keep them pretty busy.

We also have more natural bodies of water here that have large native bass populations, and very little Florida strain largemouth. Therefore, we don't see the giants seen in Texas here very often.

What we do have here that I don't see much in Texas is the natural swamp like bodies of water that present different challenges and conditions every month, dependent on rain and river conditions. This is a whole different type of fishing than resovoirs, and requires another whole skill set. The Atchafalaya is the best known, but Saline-Larto is a wild place, and the Red has a lot of these qualities.

what about the low cost of living in southern california??

Good points linsfav! Would love to fish The Basin. You do know that after Hurricane Andrew whacked the Basin in 1992 causing massive fish kills and that Texas gave La. at least 1/2 million Fla. bass fingerlings to restock! I have done swamp fishing in the SE corner of Texas and do some awesome marsh fishing from time to time. I've fished Sabine Refuge a bit too down in Calcassieu Parrish.

The basin has really changed since I was a kid - I think it is a much better bass fishery than it was 30 years ago, unlike most resovoir lakes, which seem to diminish with time.

Saline-Larto is not well known outside of here, and is a "mini-Basin" of sorts. Tournament sacks here are usually 18-22 lbs most weekends, with very little Florida strain in the population.

The Red gets a bit more mature every year, and has some of the feel of the Basin in parts, particularly in the upper pool backwaters.

I love fishing these waters. The conditions change rapidly with rains and river rises, and when they're really on there's nothing in Texas quite like it. Also, these are really wild places, with a lot of unusual wildlife, local culture, and a mix of commercial barge and oilfield traffic that is kind of interesting.

Longview or Tyler.

Always thought Mt.Pleasant was good.There are 2 hot water lakes,Monticello and Welsh within 10 minutes.Sandlin and Cypress in the back yard. Fork and Pines within 45 minutes and lots of small lakes scattered around. Between the hot water lakes and the others you can get 3 or 4 months of spring fishing worked in.

Palestine/Jacksonville area TX

Fork about 1 hr
Big Sam little more than 1.5 hours
Palestine 30 minutes
Nac 1 hour
Pines when you want to drive some 2 hrs
Toledo When you want to drive some 2 hours and change
Richland Chambers 40 min
Neches river for something different
And a bunch of other lakes when you feel like it.
Just being able to fish Fork/Sam/Palestine/Pines any given day without a hotel required would be great.

Zavalla Tx on Sam Rayburn

I lived San Antonio for 23 yrs and there's some great lakes around me. I moved to Corpus for my job and from my door to the launch now. Falcon is 2 hrs and 45 min. Choke is 1 hr and 15 min. The move kinda messed up my Amistad trips as now its 5 and a half hrs.

Also from Corpus Sam Rayburn and Lake Texoma aren't too far. Along with Lake Livingston

east texas, fork, rayburn, bend, all the good ones are here