Table Rock Lake is an excellent lake for boating and fishing. It gets a lot of attention due to all the tourists that visit the Branson area every year. It has very clear water, which makes the fishing a little more difficult. If you know how to fish clear water, you should be able to catch a lot of fish here. It’s known as a good action lake with some trophy fish potential.
Primary Species of Fish
Largemouth Bass, Smallmouth Bass, Spotted Bass
Most anglers come here to target bass. The fishing can be very good for smallmouth bass, largemouth bass and spotted bass. This lake is known as a numbers lake with some trophy potential. If you know what you’re doing and you know how to fish clear water, you can catch a lot of bass on a trip here.
Largemouth Bass
Table Rock Lake is known for its excellent largemouth bass fishery. It’s definitely a numbers lake with some big bass potential. If you know how to fish clear water, you can definitely catch a lot of bass here.
Smallmouth Bass
There is also a very good smallmouth bass fishery on Table Rock Lake. It wasn’t always the case here, but smallmouth bass have become one of the more abundant fish in the lake. There are good numbers of them here and some big fish too.
Spotted Bass
Spotted bass help make the bass fishery on Table Rock Lake flat out awesome. Spotted bass always seem willing to bite and with so many of them in the lake, it’s a lot easier to catch fish when fishing here. Most anglers just fish for bass and they will end up catching largemouth bass, smallmouth bass and spotted bass. If you want to target spotted bass exclusively, fish deeper like you would for smallmouth bass.
Secondary Species of Fish
Bluegill, Catfish, Crappie, Striped Bass, Walleye & White Bass
Just because these fish are listed as secondary doesn’t mean that you can’t catch a lot of them, because if you hit it right, you can do very well on crappie, bluegill, white bass, catfish and even striped bass. Don’t expect to find a bunch of walleye, but they are here too.
Bluegill
Bluegill and other sunfish can be found throughout Table Rock Lake. Anglers target them around docks in the spring and out on the drop-offs in the summer and fall. There will always be some fish shallower around all the shoreline cover on this lake.
Catfish
Table Rock Lake is the big draw here for most people as anglers target a variety of fish on the lake. There are good numbers of catfish in Table Rock Lake with some big fish too. Most anglers don’t target them, but they are here in fishable numbers and big catfish live here too.
Crappie
Crappie are here in good numbers as well. Many anglers target them in the spring when they are easy to find around all the shoreline cover. In the summer and fall, they are harder to find, but if you know how to fish clear, deep water lakes, you may have a shot to find some of these schooling fish out in deeper water.
Striped Bass
Striped bass are here in very low numbers, but don’t be shocked if you catch one because they are in this lake too. Most anglers will end up catching striped bass while targeting other species of fish with bigger crankbaits or swimbaits.
Walleye
Table Rock Lake is definitely more of a bass lake. That doesn’t mean that you can’t target some walleye on a trip here.
White Bass
White bass can also provide some excellent action when fishing Table Rock Lake. In the spring, they will run up the creek arms to spawn and anglers usually catch them in large numbers. From summer through fall, if you can find them schooled up in open water, you can also do very well on white bass.