Summer -- those letters bring different thoughts to different peoples' minds: a break from the daily school routines; a chance to explore somewhere fun and new on vacation; a time to seek a cooler spot (literally); or the best season for certain styles of fishing. Unfortunately, differing ideas of what summer means has the potential to create family strife.

What if there was a plan that blended those ideas, with a summer vacation that included, but was not limited to, fine fishing opportunities? Such plans really can exist, and even without straying far from home. With that very thing in mind, we have scoured Georgia and picked out three fabulous destinations, one per summer month, for family vacations with fishing as a major part of the plan.

JUNE
Red Top Mountain State Park
For many Georgia sportsmen, Red Top Mountain offers a great family getaway that's surprisingly close to home. Located on the banks of Allatoona Lake, Red Top Mountain sits right off Interstate 75, tucked between the northern Atlanta area suburbs of Kennesaw and Cartersville. Because it is situated on a forested peninsula and is fairly large at 1,950 acres, the park offers surprising respite from the nearby hustle and bustle.

Most importantly, Red Top Mountain provides access to an abundance of fine summer fishing, with some very good opportunities only footsteps away from the park's campsites, cabins and lodge rooms. Allatoona Lake offers a diverse fishery, and anglers can target a variety of species without ever leaving the park or even launching a boat.

Bluegills are the easiest and most obvious targets for family fishermen working from the banks. However, anglers can also catch catfish by presenting chicken livers on the bottom and spotted bass by walking the shores and working brush or rockpiles with artificial lures. Even the lake's hybrid and striped bass sometimes push baitfish to the surface over a point or a flat near shore. Anglers who are prepared with topwater lures or bucktail jigs can get in on very exciting action from the bank.

Even more opportunities exist for anglers who want to launch a boat at the park's boat ramp or travel around the lake by car, utilizing the many U.S. Army Corps of Engineers access areas.

Allatoona Lake spreads over more than 11,000 acres, so anglers have plenty of water to explore. The upper parts of the rivers and creeks feature broad flats adjacent to the channels and offer more cover and stained water than other parts of the lake. The lower end of the lake is steeper, deeper and most likely to be clear.

Allatoona stands out as a good family bass lake because catch rates tend to be high. The bass, most of which are spots, are not very large on average, but they are abundant and can serve up fast action. Among the best approaches during the summer is to begin at first light with topwater lures. Then switch to soft-plastic jerkbaits as soon as the topwater bite wanes and eventually change to plastic worms or jigs fished around shade-producing cover in 10 to 15 feet of water.

Making an early start is a very good idea during the summer because the fish bite well at that time. Also, Allatoona is very popular with pleasure boaters during the summer.

Folks who want to add a little variety to their summer angling adventures might also consider exploring the Etowah River, downstream of Allatoona Dam. The river offers close to 50 miles of fishable waters below Allatoona, and fishing can be good for everything from panfish to jumbo-sized catfish to striped bass.