I counted 12 that I have fished personally. Most have been Minnesota waters. They really need to add pools 4-8 of the Mississippi River to the list of 9-14. 4 thru 8 is an absolute bass mecca.
When I got to #1 and saw that lighthouse I knew right now it was Sturgeon Bay on the Door County peninsula. Been there several times and the smallie fishing right off the breakwater cannot be described easily. On each trip I have sprung for a day license and spent a couple hours casting shad raps along the rocks and simply wearing out hemostats by removing hooks from 5 pound smallies. I've never been to a place where 100 casts will yield 97 smallies and most of those will be on the plus side of four to five pounds.
Mille Lacs has a superb smallie factory on the south shore. I've gone up there to fish walleyes and had to wait in the weeds casting for smallies while the lake fog burned off and then never left the weeds when we could see. Of course there's some unreal pike and muskies that share the digs with the bass and many times I have seen four feet of teeth come burning out of the weeds to hit a spinner bait and leave me with a slack line.
Minnetonka is over-rated in my opinion...sailboats, jet heads and skiers will screw up your fishing faster than a fast moving storm.
Chequamegan Bay on Superior is another smallie warehouse when it comes to thick fish. The cold water of the big lake can change things quickly up there, but when the bite is hot you'll get tired fast.
The upper Mississippi is good for smallies to 4 pounds with a 5 or 6 coming to hand once in a while. The river tends to be pretty recreational during the best smallie months.
"Boji" and Oahe are great bass waters. Oki can get pretty busy at times in the summer though.
Minnesota's Green Lake is a nice quiet body of water with really nice bass to be had, probably a better LM lake. I've done ok on LM and SM there. Leech Lake has been a disappointment for me.
I was amazed to see so many Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin/Michigan waters lakes. I'm surprised Red Rock wasn't included, but then maybe I missed it. Was it in there Jerry?
