With the summer vacation season fast approaching, now's the time to start planning your family getaway. But how do you please all of the family all of the time?

Sure, it can be a bit of a juggling act -- but organizing the "perfect vacation" isn't impossible. With forethought and planning, the family holiday can be a terrific opportunity to share the great outdoors together, and can even turn it into a rewarding fishing adventure as well. Happily, angling opportunities in the Magnolia State are so diverse and so plentiful that fishing can easily be combined with virtually all other sporting and eco-themed activities.

Nature tourism is the hottest trend these days, and Mississippi has it all. And that's the real quandary: With so many parks, angling honeyholes, wildlife areas, and eco-adventures to enjoy, choosing what to do and where to go can get complicated. To streamline your decision-making process we've put together the following menu of ideas.

JUNE
Fishing With The King
In early June, the rock-and-roll vibes of the Elvis Presley Festival transform downtown Tupelo into one gigantic concert, though for diehard fans the most important venue is the two-room shotgun house that is Elvis' birthplace. While the King will always rule -- this year's festival celebrates the 50th anniversary of Elvis' first homecoming performance -- the Tupelo area has much more to offer, especially for vacationing anglers.

After all this urban music activity, the lakes and forests in the surrounding area will offer a welcome respite, and the fishing spots in the vicinity can be as much fun for novice anglers as they are for experienced fishermen.

The first and most obvious is Elvis Presley Lake, newly acquired by the state and stocked with bass, bream, crappie and catfish. Fishing the 368-acre lake just northeast of Tupelo off U.S. Highway 78 is a very apt way to honor the memory of one of the Magnolia State's greatest artists!

Davis Lake in the Chickasaw Wildlife Management Area and the Tombigbee National Forest to the southwest of the town is another option. The fishing there is expected to yield some super-lunker largemouths this year.

To the northeast of Tupelo lies 330-acre Lake Lamar Bruce. Part of the State Lakes system, it offers good bream action; it also boasts a lake-record largemouth, caught in 1992, that weighed 11 pounds, 2 ounces.

Due west of Tupelo is Trace State Park, which contains 600-acre Old Natchez Trace Lake, considered one of the best small reservoirs for bass in the Magnolia State.

If the fish aren't biting, the family will have a couple of other options for fun in the area. The first is Tupelo Buffalo Park and Zoo, where the nation's largest herd of buffalo east of the Mississippi River roams. Open barely five years, more than 100 American bison -- including Tukota, one of only three true white specimens in the country -- reside on nearly 200 acres, with 25 calves being born in the park each year.

The herd is the pride of local businessman Dan Franklin, who turned his fascination with bison into one of the region's best family destinations.

"Three hundred years ago, there were millions of buffaloes roaming the American plains, but by the early 1900s, due to homestead settling and unbridled hunting, there were fewer than 1,000 remaining," Franklin explained. "Livestock farmers and dedicated conservationists have helped restore their numbers to more than 250,000."

The park also features a petting zoo, a variety of exotic animals including, zebra, camel, lion and a pair of giraffes, alongside a Chickasaw Indian village. For more details, call the Tupelo Buffalo Park and Zoo at (662) 844-8709, or visit their Web site at www.tupelobuffalopark.com.