Cross Country fishing trip

[SilasHughes]

In a few weeks I am planning on going on a cross country fishing road trip from Washington to new jersey and am wondering what you all would recommend I go through and if you think I should adjust my route. I am targeting Pike, Trout, and Bass but am happy fishing for anything that bitesAlso if you have any good fishing spots that you are willing to share along my route that would be hugely appreciated. 

[Don51]

Can only imagine what the cost for licenses will be. 😂

[Susky River Rat]

boat, bank, or kayak?

I don’t think you should drive over the susky and not throw a line in. That’s just me though. 

[webertime]

Finish it up with St Lawrence river to Champlian.  

[MIbassyaker]

Sounds exciting.

 

This kind of fishing trip is not something I have done, but I have made many cross-country drives, and I am familiar with the geography of what is probably the most straightforward route, following I-90 or I-94 through ID, MT, the Dakotas, then MN/WI/IL/IN/OH, and then I-80 or I-76 through PA, and into NJ. 

 

Following 90 out of WA, you go right past Lake Coeur d'Alene in ID, which has all three of your target fish.

 

Through ID/MT you'll pass a lot of mountain trout water. Your next opportunity for Trout will probably not be until PA, unless you choose to stay on I-90 at Billings, MT, and go into WY, and then the Black Hills, in SD.  The other choice is to follow I-94 into ND.

 

You would cross the Missouri River in either North or South Dakota. The Missouri has a lot of pike, and good smallmouth in places.  My wife's uncle fishes the Missouri river in SD for walleye a lot, and catches quite a few big smallmouth as bycatch.

 

Following I-94 through eastern ND takes you over some rivers with smallmouth and pike opportunities. Once you cross into MN at Fargo/Moorhead you then go through an area with lots of small natural lakes, around Fergus Falls and Alexandria, all of which have pike and bass.  Continuing to the Minneapolis area, you pass just north of Lake Minnetonka on the west end of the city.  Mille Lacs Lake is a little more out of your way to the north in the same area.

 

If you follow i-90 instead from SD, it takes you into the south end of MN which has not quite as many opportunities, but does have fewer people and less congestion.  The freeway takes you just a little north of Lake Okoboji in Iowa which is one of the best lakes in IA for bass.  Down the road, at the MN/WI border, you cross Pool 7 of the Mississippi River, another prolific bass and pike fishery

 

Generally, going through MN and WI takes you past tons of smaller lakes, virtually all of which have largemouth bass and pike, and some have smallmouth.  I-90 and I-94 converge in Wisconsin, and you follow 90 into Chicagoland.

,

Just after Chicago on I-90 you pass the southern tip of Lake Michigan, and there is some access at NW Indiana parks. Lake Erie is a little farther along, halfway through OH.  At Toledo, you can take a  detour north to Lake St. Clair.  If you want to get on some Great Lakes smallmouth, these may be your best opportunities, unless you go quite a bit farther out of the way.

 

Once you get into PA, you re-enter some trout territory.  Halfway to the NJ border, you'll come across the  Susquehanna River, as @Susky River Rat mentions, likely at Harrisburg.  Legendary Smallmouth river. 

 

And then there's the Delaware River, on the border of PA and NJ.

 

These are just the most obvious places I know of, and I can't help with specific access points, but hopefully gives you as start on some places worth looking into.

 

[Alex from GA]

A few years ago my wife and I took a trip from GA to Maine.  We had a camping trailer and kayak.  It was around the 4th of July and very hot and most of the rivers were too high to fish but we camped and fished where we could and had a good trip.  Since there are not a lot of smallmouth in GA I mostly targeted them.  Mostly small lakes were where we camped and fished.  I caught my first northern pike in a smallish lake in Maine along with LM and SM.  If you're going near Frankfort, KY there is a place called Elkhorn Creek that had the best smallmouth fishing I've had.  There is a canoe and kayak launch that I went from. canoeky.com.  A couple years before that I got there too late to rent a kayak and waded for about an hour and caught several small mouth.   I fished several places in NY and PA and wasn't disappointed.  BTW I mostly used a T/R finesse worm.