Missouri Fishing Public Access
Here is a good starting point for finding public places to fish across the state for all species. We will constantly update and add places as time goes by so check back often.
Missouri Public Fishing Access for Counties Beginning with A-C
Missouri Public Fishing Access for Counties Beginning with D-L
Missouri Public Fishing Access for Counties Beginning with M-P
Missouri Public Fishing Access for Counties Beginning with R-W
Finding public fishing access in Missouri is fortunately a relatively simple prospect. In many states, because of increasingly less friendly laws with regard to access, getting to good fishing waters can be tough. In Missouri the picture is much brighter and getting brighter all of the time.
In Missouri, public fishing access is divided into a number of jurisdictional frameworks. First, federal law states that navigable waters are public. We won't get into the legalities of what constitutes navigable here, but suffice it to say that just about every sizable stream and river has public access. This means that if you can get to the river or stream, you can walk up and down it to fish. So getting on the stream is key.
Big Piney River
Getting to a stream or public lake comes in the following forms. First, federal lands offers much public fishing access. The lands on Forest Sevice lands like Mark Twain National Forest offer many access points. There are also access points from National Parks and obviously the National Scenic Riverways. Another source of Federally managed public fishing access, is on Army Corps of Engineers lands like Truman Lake. Finally, there are many access venues from state run properties such as state parks, conservation areas, and Missouri Trout Parks.
What we are doing is arranging this information into a form where you can search for fishing accesses by county. We have listed many public fishing access points in each county and have done our best to give a brief report on fishing prospects at each area. We also have given driving directions to each along with maps in some cases. This is a work in progress. We are working on the A-C counties and will add pages with the rest of the counties as we can. We will also continue to add properties with Missouri fishing access as we are made aware of them.
Many of these areas have special regulations and the Mississippi River nearly always has fishing regs that differ from other area water bodies. The MDC has little tolerance for ignorance as an excuse for violations of wildlife codes. So...visit mdc.mo.gov before you go and get the lowdown on regs in the area you wish to visit.