Branson Online: fishing

Another reason to visit the Branson area is the excellent fishing. Bass fishing is the big draw at Table Rock Lake, with large-mouth, small-mouth, Kentucky-spotted, rock and white bass. Lake Taneycomo is known as one of the top trout-fishing lakes in the U.S. Anglers come from far and wide to this 2,000-acre lake. The cool and constant water temperature (58 F/15 C) makes the lake a prime habitat for brown and rainbow trout. If Table Rock and Taneycomo aren't enough, you can find more fishing waters in Bull Shoals Lake, farther east. Visitors can hire local fishing guides.

Photo by Jerry Vasser

Sunday, Dec. 21, 2003, Table Rock Lake. George Steele of Reeds Spring, Mo., fished Table Rock Lake as he had been doing the previous week. On a day when he was catching many quality fish in the area, he just so happened to land a new state-record meanmouth bass. What he was doing was making up for lost time. Due to a busy work schedule as a local contractor, he had been unable to fish and told his friends and family that on Dec. 15, 2003, he was spending the remainder of the year on the water. During the six days leading up to the record-breaking catch, Steele was not only catching numbers of fish but also quality fish as well, stating that this was not uncommon for him to catch several fish in the four-pound range on any given day. This made him decide to fish an Ahoy’s Winter Series Tournament Dec. 20, where he took third place with a limit of fish weighing just over 19 pounds. One of those fish was a meanmouth that weighed 4.69 pounds on the tournament scales, a fish ounces away from Curt Walker’s record-breaking fish.