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Branson Area
Trout Fishing Opportunties
This page was updated 5/1/09


Branson is much more than a vegas-style show & theme park tourist destination now days. It is also a very popular location for corporate trainings and seminars. Regardless of the reason you find yourself in Branson, if you are a trout fisherman, you must figure out how to sneak away for at least an afternoon to try your luck on Lake Taneycomo. Send the rest of the family to Silver Dollar City for the day while you supposedly must stay at the motel due to stomach gripes. Tell your boss you got lost and ended up in Arkansas -- that's why you're a day late to the seminar. Whatever excuse you must fabricate, it is your duty as a trout enthusiast to get on the water. To find Taneycomo's "headwaters", which is actually the tail-water pouring through Table Rock Dam, find your way onto Highway 165, the road that crosses the dam. To avoid the traffic, you can access 165 from Highway 65 south of Branson. On the north side of the dam, you'll find the entrance to Shepherd of the Hills Hatchery. There are a couple of gravel parking areas near the hatchery entrance and easy access to get down to the water. This is a good place to start.

Other trout waters in the area include Roaring River State Park and the Roaring River White Ribbon Trout Area, both about an hour East of Branson, and Crane Creek about 30 minutes north. Both of these smaller streams are also well worth the trip.

To find Roaring River, head south from Branson on Highway 65. Turn right onto Highway 86, and take 86 West to Eagle Rock. The road will cross Roaring River at Eagle Rock. The fishing in this section can yield both Roaring River trout and Table Rock bass. If you continue on a short distance further, you'll be able to turn left onto Highway F. There are several access roads on your left that will lead you down to Roaring River's White Ribbon Area, or stay on F to find the State Park.

To find Crane Creek, take 76 West out of Branson looking for Highway 13. Take 13 North to the City of Crane. There is conservation department land upstream and downstream from Crane, but there are fish throughout the creek. There are even some exceptionally "spooky" fish in the city park, but you really need to be on your game to hook one. These are the only fish on this river that get any kind of fishing pressure, so they don't exactly play by the same rules as the fish in the wilder sections of the creek.

Yes, Roaring River and Crane Creek definitely deserve more attention than they are getting. To be honest, though, people generally only leave Taneycomo to visit Roaring River or Crane Creek when the Lake is too crowded for their taste or is flooded due to massive electrical generation by Table Rock Dam. Even those who are turned off by the occasional crowds and intermittent flooding will find it difficult to leave, however

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