Every year thousands and thousands of people go to Branson for their vacation. It’s the show capital of the United States with a multitude of live shows and theatres; in addition to Silver Dollar City, White Water, Shepherd of the Hills, zip lines, the Branson Landing, historical downtown Branson, boat excursions, movie theaters, wineries, and so much more.  It seems like everyone is thinking Branson and not just for shows and shopping in the unique downtown area. Anglers are thinking of fishing due to the proximity of Lake Taneycomo and Table Rock Lake. Lake Taneycomo is renowned for its trophy brown and rainbow trout fishing while Table Rock Lake is famous for its smallmouth, largemouth, spotted bass, and crappie. One professional fishing guide who guides on both Lake Taneycomo and Table Rock Lake is John Sappington owner and operator of Fishingguidebranson.com.

Sappington has been guiding for over 15 years on Lake Taneycomo and Table Rock Lake in Missouri. “I started out guiding a long time ago and have always enjoyed taking serious anglers, couples or families out fishing; I love to watch their expressions when they hook and land a fish especially a trophy sized rainbow or brown trout on Taneycomo, catch a big bass on Table Rock Lake or a mess of crappie,” said Sappington. Sappington’s guide service, FishingGuideBranson.Com, (www.fishingguidebranson.com or phone (417) 434-2823) is unique in the fact he guides on both reservoirs and for a number of different species. “I have fished for trout on Lake Taneycomo forever and always loved to figure out how to catch them even when they are not generating,” Sappington continued, “when someone calls for a trout fishing trip I try to figure out if they are trying to catch a trophy sized brown or rainbow or if they just want to go out and catch a lot of trout. Knowing that is important because the majority of trophy trout are caught October thru January; however it’s not uncommon to catch a trophy sized trout any time of year. Last year in my boat we caught over 400 20-inch trout.”

 Sappington keeps it simple when fishing for trout; he uses spinning tackle most of the time, but often guides anglers wanting to fly fish. “I take out all skill levels of anglers with any type of tackle; some are serious and bring their own equipment while others just show up and use my gear,” explained Sappington. Sappington’s boat he guides with on Lake Taneycomo is a 21-foot Ranger with a 150-hp Yamaha four stroke jet. Its wide beam allows for Sappington to take out up to 6 anglers at a time. “Since there is no closed season, I can take anglers out trout fishing year round,” said Sappington.

 
While Sappington loves to guide for trout, he also loves to guide anglers on Table Rock Lake for slab crappie and big bass. “It would be hard to guide for just one species of fish being so close to Lake Taneycomo with the trophy sized trout and Table Rock Lake with its great crappie and bass fishing,” said Sappington. Sappington who guides out of  a big 20-foot fiberglass Ranger boat powered by a 225-hp Evinrude outboard on Table Rock knows how to put anglers on schools of crappie and big bass. Before Sappington got into guiding seriously for a living, he was a professional bass angler. In fact most anglers remember Sappington as the M&M’s FLW Tour Pro who always had a big smile on his face and having a successful angling career that included winning the prestigious 2002 FLW Cup Championship.

Just like guiding for trout, Sappington supplies all the tackle for crappie and bass fishing. “Anglers can bring their own, but I have quality equipment that is all set up and ready to go if they don’t or just want to use my tackle,” said Sappington. When fishing for crappie, Sappington utilizes both live bait and artificial lures. “Some days we will catch crappie on rods  rigged with jigs, but we always catch fish using silver bullets aka  minnows!,” said Sappington. Sappington noted that the peak time to catch the crappie shallow was early in the springs and after that he chases them out to deeper water. If Sappington is not guiding for trout or crappie, he is probably guiding someone for bass. The rich, fertile water of Table Rock Lake seems to make the largemouth, spotted, and smallmouth bass grow bigger than in the other White River Chain of lakes. “Table Rock Lake is definitely blessed with an abundances of good sized bass. It’s obvious with all the major bass tournaments on the lake that you can catch them here,” said Sappington.

Thinking Branson? Think about fishing Lake Taneycomo or Table Rock Lake. Although it would be easy to attend a live show, go to a theatre, check out Silver Dollar City, White Water, Shepherd of the Hills, or go down to Branson Landing before or after spending a day out fishing because of the close proximity. It’s a year round fishery with no off limits or closed season. No wonder so many anglers think Branson.