Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Recently retired and built a lake house on Table Rock. Was out fishing at 5:30AM this morning on Table Rock Lake in SW Missouri. Couldn't help but stop and notice the world around me. Beautiful sunrise and calm water.

I am retired too, an the only thing I have against it is you get no "Days Off"

I was thinking of heading down there when I retire hopefully in 5 years. Actually was just going to start looking for something on the water as well. Any areas you would recommend to start looking ? Need to see what kind of prices for water front homes . Up by me the water fronts are ridiculous , which I imagine is the same most everywhere.

Hard to beat Gods handy work.

Smoker62: Kimberling City area is highest priced area due to traffic and shopping. I'm about 25 miles West in Golden, MO. Lots of lake front available in this area and reasonably priced. Lots, new construction and existing homes. Shell Knob is another good area just up the lake from me.

Thanks for the tip. I was looking in the Kimberley area for lack of knowledge and they were somewhat pricey but not what I am used to up here. Iwill look nat the areas you menton. Is there any part of the lake to stay away from i.e. higher raffic than others ?

I know on our 24,000 acre lake , there are areas where we stay away from because of high tourist traffic .

Most traffic will be from Kimberling City area South and East towards dam and State Park. Lots of campgrounds around Kimberling City and it is a wide part of the lake. Lots of houseboats, jet skis and weekend/rental boaters. That end of the lake also hosts more fishing tournaments.
I'm about 4 miles North of Arkansas line, 8 miles from Roaring River trout hatchery and about 14 miles from Eureka Springs, AR. Google them if you're not familiar with them. I'm also about 30 miles from Branson, MO. But I do my best to stay away from there except to visit Bass Pro Shop on the Branson Landing.

This morning I was back at same point as before and saw this. That old saying (get your ducks in a row) was not a myth. 2 other groups had passed by and this was as close as I could get to 3rd group.

Thanks Tully !

Nice. Makes me want to retire to the lake today.

Over the past few years I noticed something. Fishing in spots where I enjoy the scenery is more important than even catching fish sometimes!

One of the reasons I enjoy fishing with my family or by myself is that I don't feel I need to run around finding fish to please guests that are up for a limited time. I can sit back and chill and enjoy nature.

Tully wrote:Recently retired and built a lake house on Table Rock. Was out fishing at 5:30AM this morning on Table Rock Lake in SW Missouri. Couldn't help but stop and notice the world around me. Beautiful sunrise and calm water.

Looks great, retirement still a couple years away for me, but I visualize that type of morning all the time when I retire.......cant wait. Buddy just retired and said the best thing is you can almost through the clock away, eat when your hungry, sleep when your tired....and fish, after 40 years the time and day don't really matter.....there all holidays

Smoker, since Table Rock is a Corps of Engineers lake you are prohibited from building any permanent structure below what the Corps has determined is the 500 Year flood level. So, water front may mean you have no one in front of you to the water, but it also may mean a trek down to it.
That having been said, TR is a beautiful place. Tully can certainly fill you in.

Here at Lake of the Ozarks, a permanent structure (home) may not be built below (if I remember correctly), the 662.5 feet above sea level mark. There was lots of anguish and confusion a couple of years ago when FERC got involved with Ameren UE's shoreline management plan, mainly because there were some homes that were built below that level. I believe most of that is now straightened out, emphasis on MOST.
When I walk out my back door I have about a 40' walk to the seawall where my dock sits. I then have another 40' walk to get onto the dock. I can be in my boat and fishing in less than 10 minutes after walking out my back door.
There are places on LOTO where it's no fun to be out on a busy weekend in anything less than a 30 footer. Up where we live we only get 3 busy weekends and those are the major holidays.

Bass what part of LOTO do you live on?

Personally I like Table Rock Lake better due to it being a really pristine lake but your exactly right about proximity to the water and boat. We will probably buy on one of those two lakes in the next few years. Obviously being from Columbia I can be at LOTO in about an hour and it takes 4 hours to get to Table Rock. My biggest concern with LOTO is the issue you mentioned regarding being busy and I know in the main channel on busy weekends you can have 6-8 foot swells with those idiots driving Ocean Liners at 70 mph. This is the primary thing holding me back from LOTO. I guess what I am asking is from a resident what are your thoughts about a retired couple with a 25 foot Tritoon on LOTO? Thanks!

Snowman, we're near the 55 mile marker on the Osage. One thing I notice when we go down the lake is that for every 5 miles closer to Bagnall Dam we get, the traffic seems to increase by a good 10-15%. I have not gone past the 31 MM (the confluence of the Osage and Big Niangua), but I've heard so many stories from people who live between the dam and about the 25 MM on the Osage about not being able to even be on their dock after about 9:30 in the morning.
Don't know how familiar you are with LOTO, but there are 5 arms, with the Osage being the longest. The Niangua splits into the Big Niangua and Little Niangua, The water clarity is the best of all the arms, but it's pretty developed and can get busy on the weekend. If you are a fisherman, there's some pretty good smallmouth bass fishing on these arms. The Glaize arm also has Party Cove, so you can imagine what traffic is like there on weekends. The Gravois arm tends to be pretty shallow at the upper ends and the lower part is very, very busy on weekends.
Make sure, if you are looking at lake front property, that you check the amount of water under the dock closest to shore! Ameren UE drops the lake every winter and if you don't have at least 6' of water under the front of the dock, you could wind up with part of the dock on dry ground for several months.
Any other questions, pm me. I'll try to answer them. I believe there's another forum member on here (OldPharte) who lives here full time and might like to weigh in.