9 Best Lake Campsites for Fishing, Checked Against Official Pages

Quick answer: For fishing near your tent, Elephant Butte in New Mexico, Lake Havasu in Arizona, Caddo Lake in Texas and Lake Ouachita in Arkansas have the most fishing detail on their official pages. The others are smaller, seasonal or thinly documented. Site counts, fees and dates come from state, federal and operator pages we read on November 7 and 9, 2026. Confirm before you book.

The chart shows five of the nine. Caddo Lake (46 sites) is left off for space, and Cave Lake, Lake Havasu and Lake Scott give no site total.

What changed from the old list#

An earlier version of this list got several things wrong, so we rebuilt it from the pages themselves. It listed electric hookups at Gull Lake, whose sites the official list labels non-electric. It gave Lake Scott the details of Cave Lake. It put WillowTree on the South Carolina coast, but it is an RV-only resort 12 miles inland. Grayson Highlands is gone: Virginia’s page describes nearly 10 miles of wild trout streams, not a lake campground. Caddo Lake takes its place.

Gull Lake Campground, California#

The Forest Service runs Gull Lake Campground in Inyo National Forest, in the June Lake area of the eastern Sierra. Recreation.gov counts 11 sites, five of them on the lake, at 7,600 feet. The fee is $32 a night for one site plus $10 for each extra vehicle, and the Forest Service gives November 15, 2026 as the anticipated closing date.

The fishing is nearby, not at the tent pad. Recreation.gov says two lakes with fishing and boating are within a few miles, and that nearby June Lake offers great rainbow trout fishing. It names no species for Gull Lake. The two pages disagree on rig size: Recreation.gov says motor homes and trailers under 25 feet fit and advises against longer RVs, while the Forest Service says sites take a 30 foot vehicle. Plan for the smaller figure. Every site has a bear locker, and the boxes must be used. Our June Lake guide covers the town.

Cave Lake State Park, Nevada#

Nevada State Parks describes a 32-acre reservoir stocked with rainbow trout and home to German brown trout. Fishing is allowed 24 hours a day with a license, from shore or by boat, and motorized boats may not exceed 5 mph. There are two campgrounds. Elk Flat opens in early May and closes in mid-October, weather permitting. Lake View is near the water and open year-round, though its facilities may close in extreme cold, so call before a winter trip. Ice fishing is popular, and lake ice may reach 24 inches.

Camping costs $15 per vehicle per night for Nevada vehicles and $20 for others. A camp-and-boat rate is $20 or $25, and the boat launch alone is $10 or $15. The stay limit is seven days in a 30-day period. Reserve Nevada takes bookings from three days to 11 months ahead and adds a non-refundable $5.00 fee. The park page gives no site count. Cave Lake also appears in our water sports campsite list.

Jenny Lake Campground, Wyoming#

This is a tent-only campground in Grand Teton National Park, within walking distance of the lake’s eastern shore. Recreation.gov lists 51 individual sites and 10 hiker-bicycler sites, says trailers, campers, pop-ups and all towables are not permitted, and gives the season as early May to late September with a seven-night limit. The National Park Service says sites are reservable on Recreation.gov up to six months ahead. We found no nightly fee on these pages.

On fishing, the NPS fishing page says a Wyoming license is required and that lakes in the park are open year-round. The lake limit is six trout a day, with no more than three cutthroat. That page does not list Jenny Lake’s species, so the old draft’s fish list is gone. Recreation.gov also says bear activity is frequent here.

Elephant Butte Lake State Park, New Mexico#

The park page calls it New Mexico’s largest state park. It lists 173 developed campsites, including 144 water-and-electric sites and eight full-hookup sites, plus beach camping and boat-in camping. It also lists a boat dock, boat ramp, boat rentals and a marina. The page notes that drought and long-term climate shifts shape the shoreline and access, so check lake conditions first.

The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish names Elephant Butte among its best largemouth reservoirs, says it stocks young striped bass here, and says stripers are found at 20 to 50 feet, sometimes over much deeper water. It also says blue catfish live only in Elephant Butte and Caballo.

The park page gives no rate. New Mexico’s statewide camping table lists, per vehicle per night, $20 for a resident developed site with electric hookup and $30 for a non-resident one; with electric and sewage hookups, $25 and $35. We could not match the park’s sites to a table row, so confirm the price when you book. Sites can be reserved six months ahead, and the reservation service adds $3.50 per night up to $10.00 per reservation.

Lake Havasu State Park, Arizona#

The campground sits in Lake Havasu City and is open year-round. Every site has 50-amp electric hookups and potable water, and the fee is $50 a night. Reservations are online or by phone, with a $3.60 non-refundable fee per site. The maximum stay is 14 nights, weekend stays from April 1 through October 31 need two nights, and second vehicles cost $15.00 a night.

The facility page lists two boat ramps in lot 2 and a personal watercraft ramp in lot 1, and says to check with a ranger about ramp conditions because water levels fluctuate. It names largemouth, smallmouth and striped bass and calls the lake a world-wide bass fishing destination, the park’s own wording. Fishing from boat docks is not allowed. The old draft’s site and boat-in counts do not appear on the current pages, so we dropped them. See also our guides to boat rentals and swimming at Lake Havasu.

Caddo Lake State Park, Texas#

Texas Parks and Wildlife lists 46 campsites, from water-only to full hookup, on 26,810-acre Caddo Lake. It says the lake holds more than 70 fish species, and the park has a fishing pier and boat ramp. You need no license to fish from shore in a state park. The campsite page lists eight full-hookup sites at $25 (no tents), 18 electric sites at $20 and 20 water sites at $10. All are plus the daily entrance fee, which is $4 for adults, free for children 12 and under.

The busy season is March through November, and the park says it often reaches capacity. Alligators live in the park, so read our guide to fishing around alligators safely. The page flags active alerts, so read them first. More in our Caddo Lake guide.

Lake Ouachita State Park, Arkansas#

Arkansas State Parks lists 93 campsites for RVs, trailers and tents. Class AAA sites have 50-amp electric, water and sewer. Class D and walk-in tent sites have no electricity, though water is accessible. Every site has a picnic table, grill and fire ring. The park’s main page calls Lake Ouachita Arkansas’s largest reservoir, with 40,000 acres surrounded by Ouachita National Forest, and says bream, crappie, catfish, striped bass and largemouth bass can be caught in open water or quiet coves. These pages give no nightly fee or booking window, so check the reservation page.

Historic Lake Scott State Park, Kansas#

Kansas describes a 1,020-acre park around the 100-acre, spring-fed Scott State Fishing Lake, in a canyon in the western Kansas prairie. It is a state fishing lake, so state license rules apply, and the page names no species. One camping area has 40 water-and-electric sites.

The booking details conflict. The page says all campsites are reservable, yet it lists several campgrounds as not reservable. The park news page says sites are reservable April through October and first come from November through March, and that the park is open year-round, but that text is dated April 2024. One fee table is labeled 2019 to 2020, so we are not printing a price. Call the park office.

WillowTree RV Resort, South Carolina#

This is a private, RV-only resort in Longs. Its home page says 106 sites, while its own at-a-glance block says 107. The ways to stay page says Lakeside and Premium Pull-Thru sites have full hookups. It describes freshwater lakes with a white sand beach, catch-and-release fishing, kayaking and nature trails, but names no species or fishing rules, so this is the least documented fishing pick here.

The offers page lists weekly rates from September 1 through May 1: $495 a week ($70.71 a night) for a pull-through site and $560 a week ($80 a night) for a motorhome or lakefront site, with a seven-night minimum. No standard nightly rate card was found, so treat these as seasonal offers.

Before you book#

• Check the fishing license rule for the state. The rules above differ.
• Confirm the season. Several of these close or cut service by late fall.
• Read the park alerts, especially on water levels.
• See our guide to choosing a waterfront campsite and more lakes to fish across North America.

Sources#

Checked on November 7 and 9, 2026: Gull Lake FS, Gull Lake Rec.gov, Cave Lake, Reserve Nevada, Jenny Lake Rec.gov, Jenny Lake NPS, Grand Teton fishing, Elephant Butte, NM camping, NM warm water fish, Havasu camping, Havasu facilities, Caddo Lake, Caddo campsites, Ouachita camping, Ouachita, Lake Scott, Lake Scott news, WillowTree, WillowTree stays, WillowTree offers, Grayson Highlands.

Frequently asked questions#