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Table Rock’s alluring bass fishing
During its halcyon days in the 1960s, Table Rock Lake conjured up my childhood dreams of catching a giant bass. Our annual family trip to the southwest Missouri reservoir gave me some of my earliest experiences at trying to catch bass. While working my lure through the lake’s flooded timber I constantly envisioned a monster bass jolting my rod with a vicious strike. I never caught that elusive bass, but the opportunity to catch a trophy fish was there since the lake yielded numerous wall-mount largemouth bass in its early days. The lake’s appearance has changed today as the standing timber has thinned and shoreline development continues to sprout everywhere, but visiting anglers still have a good chance of catching that once-in-a lifetime bass from “The Rock”. The lake’s bass population has also evolved throughout the years so now anglers have a multiple choice of largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass to pursue in the 43,100-acre reservoir. “That makes the lake really unique because you can catch 4- and 5-pound spotted or smallmouth bass and also meanmouth (a cross between a spotted and smallmouth bass),” says Brian Snowden, a local guide and two-time Bassmaster Classic qualifier. Table Rock features an array of water clarity from its three major tributaries: James, White and Kings rivers. “You can fish stained water if you go up the James and the Kings rivers and you can fish the clearer water on the lower lake and the White River stays clear,” discloses Snowden. The lake also contains plenty of bass-appealing structure, such as long gravel points, creek and river channel bends, rock ledges, bluffs and humps. Although the flooded timber has dwindled, bass still seek cover in the remaining hardwood pole timber and the petrified cedar trees. Since anglers can fish a variety of depths and structure and cover in a wide range of water clarity, bass fishing remains good throughout the year at Table Rock. Its deep clear waters make The Rock an excellent wintertime bass fishery. While wintertime cold fronts can shut down fishing for some anglers, the local experts overcome this problem by concentrating on bass in deep water. Even if they have to break through ice at the ramp, local anglers can consistently catch deep-water bass throughout the winter. The lake’s clear waters also make this reservoir ideal for sight fishing in the spring and finesse tactics such as split-shotting and drop-shotting. Night fishing for bass is also excellent from late spring through fall on the lower end of the lake. Spring and summer rains will darken the waters in the upper reaches of this reservoir, so anglers still have opportunities to pitch and flip jigs and do some power fishing with spinnerbaits and crankbaits. In addition to its excellent bass population, Table Rock has experienced a growing crappie population in recent years. The lake has always been filled with massive schools of white bass and plenty of hand-sized or larger bluegill. Goggle-eyes have become so abundant recently that some of the guides are taking their clients out to catch these tasty panfish. My travels as an outdoor writer have given me the opportunities to fish many of the best rivers, natural lakes and reservoirs in the country and I’ve discovered that The Rock ranks right up there at the top as a multiple-species bass fishery. I rate Table Rock as the best lake in the state for giving an angler a chance to catch a mixed limit of largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass in one day. Four state record catches prove that Table Rock contains plenty of big fish. Table Rock yielded the state record spotted bass, a 7-pound, 8-ounce heavyweight caught by Gene Armaund in April 1966 and the state record hybrid black bass (a cross between a spotted and smallmouth bass) weighing 5 pounds, 10 ounces was taken by Mark Fann in March 2004. Scott Flood caught the state record white bass weighing 5 pounds, 6 ounces in March 2002 at The Rock, and the state’s largest paddlefish weighing 139 pounds, 4 ounces was snagged at Table Rock in the same month and year as the white bass record. For information on shows, lodging and attractions in the Table Rock Lake or Lake Taneycomo area or to receive a free vacation guide, call the Branson/Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce and Convention & Visitors Bureau at 1-800-BRANSON or visit the Branson/Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce & CVB web site at www.explorebranson.com.
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