Tablerock Question

[akdoc]

Hi all, I am heading to tablerock in 2 weeks and staying in the Shell Knob area of the lake. I haven't been to tablerock and want to know what I need to look out for up there, any shallow areas that aren't obvious? Thanks in advance!

[lightning59]

Great part of the lake, not as much boat traffic compared to where I am(Kimberling) The water is up, use Campbell Point Boat dock as a resource for high water dangers. PM me I will be happy to answer any questions and help you have a great time.

[zad0030]

Keep a good distance from the shoreline as there are many submerged trees and stumps

[murphini]

Agreed on earlier points: we have put in at Campbell Point/Shell Know and over in Kimberling City areas.

You'll love it, here are the pros & cons:

Pros:
Lake curves so much you'll always be able to find shelter from wind blowing from any direction.
Water very clear
More natural beauty compared with LOZ seeing docks everywhere.
Boat traffic there is SO MUCH LESS than Lake of the Ozarks
Mostly you'll see your depth gauge go like 5ft, 15ft, 35ft, 90 ft.... Just stay away from shoreline.

Cons:
Know where gas stations are. They are far apart
In our experience, the on water restaurants shut down early--like 9pmish. And Shell Knob has some but not a lot of restaurants. Know what you are going to eat or be prepared to eat at where you are staying
TableRock has "point markets", not Mile markers like Lake of Ozarks.
Driving from OP, the last 15 miles or so to Shell Knob are roller-coaster-ish.

Hopefully we can hook up at Hillsdale this summer.

[MoneyPity]

Shell Knob area has the smoothest water on the Lake. Your biggest issue is watching for floating logs if you go into the back channels. There are 2 marina's in the area. One at Campbell Point and the other down the Kings River Arm I think in Oakland. If you head past Shell Knob and head towards Arkansas the marina before or just at Arkansas is the Baxter dock.

The Marina's are about 10 miles apart on the lake and it is worth getting a couple of maps. The maps divide the lake into 2 sections. Kimberling City and north to ShelllKnob and beyond and other for Kimberling to the damn area and beyond.

We now go to Bullshoals. Less crowded, more glass and plenty of places to tether the boat near a beach and relax with tunes , labs and relaxation. We are hoping in ways that we still have boat in July so we can take our ten hour trek down and enjoy a week.


ShellKnob is a blink town. Blink a couple of times and you miss it. It does have Pizza Hut Pizza where you dock the boat and walk up a bunch of stairs to Pizza Hiu but is a nice diversion. We found over all our trips to head to Arkansas south of Shell Knob and hit the giant Walmart Store for supplies.

As Zad said give shoreline room early in the season because of stumps. The deeper into the Kings RiverArm you go look carefully for the stumps which are dangerous because they are at the waterline and in morning the floaters are in the water until traffic pushes them back to shore. Watch the depth gage when going around islands because some of them are rather shallow.

Don't go too far past the slalom course on the Kings River near Oakland. Stump city after it.

Were are you staying? The main body of water in Shell nob around the bridge and south can get rough but you can head to any one of many coves and find glass up there. We spent a lot of hours in the Shell Nob resort area before we found a resort we liked in the Kimberlking Area. I won't give reference to it now since it has gone down hill with two ownership changes in 4 years. The lake past Campbell Point going towards Kimberling City usually has lots of glass up there and is nice to swim off the boat away from the traffic.

Hardman Hollow and resorts in that Are by Shell Knob are nice. They are not the Ritz but they are typically clean and comfortable. Shell Knob IMO is the least crowded area of Tablerock. From Kimberling City to the damn does get rough due to open water and lot's of traffic especially cruisers.

Enjoy. It is worth the trip.

Marina Links
http://fishing.branson.com/marinas-boat-rentals/

PM me if you have any other questions. I have been going there for over 20 years . Nice clean clear water.

Murphini nailed it with his Pro's and Con's. Biggest thing is watch your fuel and typical consumption since Marina's are spread out along the lake.

The last few miles are roller coasters. Years ago we went down and I figured I would save distance by taking some back roads when towing my FourWinss with a Dodge Caravan. My mother in-law was behind us and said when I crested some hills you could only see the boat and the caravan disappeared over the peak. It was our last year towing with the minivan. It GVWR was OK but on 95+ days the air conditioning needed to be shut down on some long grades. The last time we used the Grand Caravan was the year where it was 100+ for a week or more. We landed up packing up and driving during the night to not have to deal with all the heat. We came up on cattle trucks and other livestock where they pulled off highway and took some animals out of the cars to cool off and in a few Missouri towns the fire departments hosed down cattle cars and pig haulers in town or in other cases at truck stops. It was sad to see animals that perished due to the heat that night.

Sorry to digress. Shell Knob is far better than the Lake of the Ozarks and the Ozark Mountains are kind of neat when fog burns off in the morning. The nicest thing is depending were you are at you might not see a boat for 1/2 hour at times.

Enjoy TableRock. If it's a long drive and say three to four hours more than the Lake of the OZarks I will drive the extra miles for the tranquility once there.

[akdoc]

Thanks for all the info guys. I am lucky to be staying with at a good friends Uncle's cabin. Supposedly it is a 6000 square foot place with a private dock! I'm not worried about pulling the boat down, we'll be towing with my brothers 2500 duramax. I need to find a lake map so I know where the channel is. The friends we are going with have been down there for years so hopefully they will know the ins and outs. I do like to take the responsibility on myself though.

Murphini, it looks like I may get on with Mike Walker and the walker project so I'll have plenty of boards for you guys to demo when we hook up.

[akdoc]

Wow, epic weekend. You table rock guys are lucky. The water was near perfect all weekend. There was enough traffic during the day that you couldn't really wakeboard but you could surf really easily. I'm sure we could have driven a ways and found good water but we still got some great sets in. I may change my lake alliance from Lake of the Ozarks to Table Rock. The extra hour drive may be worth it!

[lightning59]

Hey akdoc, PM if you get around Kimberling! there is a great on the water pro shop, fun to check out. Ski Shack is the name. Have a great week!

[zad0030]

Wow, epic weekend. You table rock guys are lucky. The water was near perfect all weekend. There was enough traffic during the day that you couldn't really wakeboard but you could surf really easily. I'm sure we could have driven a ways and found good water but we still got some great sets in. I may change my lake alliance from Lake of the Ozarks to Table Rock. The extra hour drive may be worth it!

Table Rock is nice, but Bull Shoals and Norfork are better