Missouri is home to some awesome fishing vacation destinations and due to its warm climate and excellent trout fisheries, you can fish open water in many places throughout the state year round. Take a look below to learn more about our featured Missouri fishing destinations.
Featured Destinations – Quick Links
| Branson, MO | Mississippi River |
| Bull Shoals Lake | Missouri River |
| Lake of the Ozarks | Ozark Mountains |
| Lake Taneycomo | Table Rock Lake |
Learn more about our featured fishing destinations below.
Branson, MO
Branson, Missouri has grown to become one of the most popular vacation destinations in the midwest. There is something to do in Branson for the entire family. There is plenty of entertainment with tons of live shows in the numerous theatres. There is plenty of shopping, restaurants and golf courses. Table Rock Lake and Lake Taneycomo keep boaters and anglers happy. Branson is one of the best family vacation destinations without the fishing. Tie in the fishing and this is an awesome destination for a fishing vacation.
Anglers have the option of fishing Table Rock Lake, Lake Taneycomo or even Bull Shoals Lake if you don’t mind a 45 minute to an hour drive from Branson. You can catch a variety of fish depending on what lake you decide to fish.
Bull Shoals Lake
Bull Shoals Lake is located on the border of Missouri and Arkansas. You can enjoy fishing, boating, hiking or just relaxing around the lake. This region has plenty of places to stay, boat rentals and restaurants so you can plan a trip here, but don’t expect to find bigger towns with tons of stores. This is an uncrowded destination, making it a wonderful place to get away from it all. Just plan accordingly with the things you will need for a week on the lake. Bull Shoals Lake is an awesome multi-species fishing lake. Many different species of bass are available to go along with walleye, catfish, trout and panfish.
Lake of the Ozarks
Lake of the Ozarks is an extremely popular vacation destination in Missouri. It is only about a 3 hour drive from St. Louis, making it a convenient getaway destination for those living in and around the city. The lake spans around 54,000 acres with over 1,100 miles of shoreline. It is an enormous lake and it is very popular for fishing and boating. There are plenty of other things to do here such as golfing, shopping, dining and just relaxing around the lake.
Lake Taneycomo
Lake Taneycomo is a man-made lake or reservoir on the White River in the Ozark Mountains of Taney County, Missouri. Its clear, cold waters provide anglers a year-round fast-action trout fishery.
Rainbow trout make up the majority of the fishery on Lake Taneycomo. The lake is stocked with tons of rainbow trout, which makes it fairly easy for anglers to catch their limit on a consistent basis. If you want to target bigger trout, you can fish for brown trout. You won’t find the brown trout here in as big of numbers as the rainbows, but there are enough of them in there to consistently catch some fish if you know what you are doing.
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River starts at Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota and ends in the Gulf of Mexico about 100 miles south of New Orleans, Louisiana. It covers more than 2,300 miles and flows through 10 states including 5 major cities. The fishery can be very good depending on what part of the river you are fishing. It will fish much differently up in Minnesota than it does down near New Orleans. There are several featured fishing destinations that we cover that include the Mississippi River as a good body of water to be fishing in that specific area.
Missouri River
The Missouri River begins at the town of Three Forks, Montana, where the Gallatin, Jefferson, and Madison rivers meet in the Rocky Mountains. The river then flows north, east and south where it eventually ends at the Mississippi River in St. Louis, Missouri. The Missouri River is the longest river in North America, flowing more than 2,300 miles. The fishery changes as it moves from the rocky mountains to St. Louis, Missouri. In the mountains, it is a world class trout fishery. As it flows through the Dakotas, it becomes an excellent walleye fishery with northern pike, catfish and other species too. Once the river flows into the St. Louis area, it becomes more of a catfish fishery, but other fish can be found there too.
Ozark Mountains
The Ozark Mountains are actually a series of plateaus that are located in Northwest Arkansas and they cover most of the southern half of Missouri as well. This area is beautiful and it is home to so many of our featured fishing destinations. You can find plenty of gorgeous lake, rivers and streams in the Ozark Mountains. Anglers target a variety of fish such as trout, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, spotted bass, striped bass, white bass, catfish, bluegill, crappie and more.
Table Rock Lake
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.
