Summer Fishing Trip – Best Places To Fish In The U.S. Outside Of Florida

We are absolutely spoiled with the fishing we have available in Southwest Florida. I live on the Estero River which can be a great spot. There's the bay, the gulf, off the pier (except for Sundays in Naples), shore, and on and on. If you have the means there are a myriad of ways to fish here. Check out Reel Talk on Saturday mornings. They have enough content to do a daily show. But let's go back to that "if you have the means" statement. When was the last time you fished outside of Florida? Being out on a boat in South Florida summer heat can be absolutely brutal. We still do it because we love it, but it's summertime up north too. And even though they are experiencing a heat wave up there, our heat just hits different. I was in Ohio last July and wore pants the whole time. How about a fishing trip?

So let's take out love of fishing on the road and see what awaits us in other states. Extra Space Storage has a section on outdoor recreation that I used to help compile this. And I know a lot of us are from other places so may have missed your favorite. I grew up using a cane pole on the banks of Lake Laramie, but it's not one I'm gonna recommend on this list. Ready for a fishing trip this summer? Check individual states for license requirements, then get packed. Here are the best fishing lakes in the U.S. outside of Florida.

Great spot for bass, redear sunfish, crappie, sauger, yellow perch, and bluegill.

Fishing for  bass, channel catfish, and white crappie.

You got largemouth and smallmouth bass, walleye, crappie, and chain pickerel. Plus less-common species like rock bass, pumpkinseed sunfish, and northern pike.

You go here for perch, but there's also northern pike, walleye, and white bass. People pull some big walleye out of this lake. 

Going for Chinook salmon and largemouth bass to rainbow trout and Sacramento pikeminnow. Looks like the drought out there is hitting them, so do some more research first.

Reel in yellow and white perch, bluegill, brown bullhead, and northern pike. Plus trout, salmon, bass, panfish, perch, pickerel, and carp. It's a busy place with over 100 fishing tournaments.

Bass, yellow perch, steelhead trout, walleye are the main ones. Plus, if the fish aren't biting you can always just go to Cedar Point.

You’ll also find plenty of crappies, channel catfish, bluegill, and sunfish, but the main draw here is bass fishing. Record setting bass fishing.

A variety of species, but you're going for salmon and steelhead trout.

It's the “Walleye Capital of the World” and also a spot for freshwater fish like northern pike, smallmouth bass, sturgeon, sauger, tullibee, and crappies. 

A lot of beaches, actually. Plus musky and smallmouth bass The St. Clair river brings in cold, nutrient-rich waters great for smallmouth bass, walleye, and yellow perch.

Cold, clear waters are ideal for trout species like rainbow, brook, brown, and most notably mackinaw trout.

Smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, rainbow trout, and salmon are abundant, but those who know where to look can also find yellow perch and bullhead catfish.