chifisherman11B

I need some advice, the situation is that I live outside of Chicago and my father and I are looking to take a 3-5 day fishing trip to the Ozarks this summer. We have a pretty specific trip in mind, so I figured my best bet would be to throw myself at the mercy of the locals and see if they would be willing to help me out. We are looking for wade-able streams that we can camp along. We are open as to trout or smallmouth, truth be told I never can decide which one I prefer fishing for. I suppose in an ideal world I would like a stream that has both, but thats not a requirement. We are not looking to canoe, just because we dont feel like dealing with an outfitter, and we will only have one vehicle, which makes drop off and pick up a little bit harder. I definitely would rather not bank fish, so wade-ability(not sure if thats a word, but it conveys my intent) is a requirement. We would like to be able to pitch camp, fish a stretch of river all evening and most of the next day, pick up and move to the next camping spot and start over again. Naturally we would like to keep the daily driving to a minimum and the fishing to a maximum, so I was planning on just working our way up/down one stream. I am expecting this trip will be in the next 2 months. Finally, as we are coming from just SW of Chicago, the closer the stream is to us the better, but I am certainly willing to travel for the ideal location. My dad was based out of Leonardwood when he was in the service, so he knows some of the main rivers/streams down in that direction, but its been so long that he isnt exactly the expert he used to be. So, thanks in advance for any intel or advice. Hope everyone has a good weekend, filled with tight lines and overflowing coolers. J