I have vacation I have to burn this year and I haven't been able to get on the water hardly any this year. Figured what better vacation than a extended weekend for a fishing trip! Looking to do something like a Wednesday to a Sunday and be roughly within 5 hours of Raleigh NC and not looking to spend it at a lake immediately surrounding Raleigh.

Been looking hard at Lake Marion and staying at Carolina King campground and hitting the grass and cypress trees in late October or early November...kind of leaning to arrive the first week of November.

Any information/suggestions or best time/place to hit that lake?

Open to suggestions for other lakes around the 5hr mark as well if there are better options.

Goal is decent catch rate of reasonable fish. I don't want a boat full of 2lb fish but I also don't want the other end of the spectrum with no fish and just chasing giants. Will likely take my father if he is game for it so I want to be sure its a good time.

I have a Tracker 175txw with 60hp motor, 93sv UHD and enough tackle to do just about anything needed....except drop shotting, I'd rather stay home.

Sounds like we're probably neighbors. I don't have any good pure bass lake suggestions, because my fishing travel is almost all for salt water. If you want to talk the OBX area, I've got some suggestions for bass around there. There's some serious bass fishing to be had out of Elizabeth City and the Pasquotank River-- look at where MLF fished recently. There's also very decent bass fishing mainland side of the sounds.

Obviously locally we've got Jordan and Falls, but that's not a real vacation. Norman I've not fished, but have heard it it's lower productivity but with some excellent fish. There's been some high profile tournaments there too.

My personal bucket list is Lake Hiwassee. It's pretty much the most southern reach of the northern fisheries. It's got bass, but also walleye, pike, and a some muskies swimming around.

I'm excited to see what people recommend who travel freshwater more.