Best Ozark Lake To Build A Retirement House?

[moguy1973]

If you want something on the water I would think the easiest to do that would be on the upper ends of LOZ, like Camdenton Sunrise Beach or the Gravois Branch...

[Guest]

RPS, I know Hot Springs pretty well, has great potential...glad you mentioned it.

Gavin, don't tempt me!!

TrophyFsher, is Tenkiller a highland type reservoir?

Yes, it's an ozarks lake. Clear and deep by the dam, stained to clear midlake, and green stained river. Tenkiller is 4 times smaller than table rock, but has bigger smallmouth. I think the LMB virus in combination with the Illinois rivers high fertility rate, boosted the size of those mainlake smallmouth.

I've noticed the okie crowd doesn't fish deep enough. There's stupid fish out there deep that nobody's fishing for.

Cold gray winter days produce the best chances at giant smallmouth at that lake.

[Feathers and Fins]

Sorry I have to laugh, most threads like this ive read from other areas people are telling guys where not to move. Here it becomes which one has the best fishing best tourism etc. If that doesn't say something about how great these Ozarks are im not sure what else could. So much beauty so many choices.

[Mitch f]

Yes, it's an ozarks lake. Clear and deep by the dam, stained to clear midlake, and green stained river. Tenkiller is 4 times smaller than table rock, but has bigger smallmouth. I think the LMB virus in combination with the Illinois rivers high fertility rate, boosted the size of those mainlake smallmouth.

I've noticed the okie crowd doesn't fish deep enough. There's stupid fish out there deep that nobody's fishing for.

Cold gray winter days produce the best chances at giant smallmouth at that lake.

Big, stupid fish...what a combination! Gotta check that lake out even if I don't move there! Thank you

[Gavin]

Think you need a big motor coach....Go where you want with your boat in tow...Drop the boat at the Marina, rent a small vehicle, then go set up camp.

[skeeter]

An old,but very true statement in Real Estate is "location, location, location". Inquiring which Lake is best for your requirements varies greatly with the available property. The Corps managed Lakes all have a required "set-back" distance from the water's edge that is highly changeable and not logical at all. Some locations (there's that word again) you can't even see the water until the leaves fall of the hardwoods and others you never see the water because of the "wall" the dratted Cedars have grown up to form. Other locations on the same Lake are "Grandfathered" and you are allowed to clear cut and mow right to the water's edge and they have a gentle slope down to the water. Those Grandfathered places are mostly very old and not in the best shape but if you have the financial means, you can purchase one of those properties, tear down the old structure and start new with updated construction from the ground up and that can actually be far less expensive than trying to re-hab an old strutcture that was poorly built to begin with. good luck and tell the Wife she'll love it once she grows used to it.

[Al Agnew]

Funny how different things turn on different people. The ocean does nothing for me...I gotta have land on both sides, and it has to be hilly or mountainous land. And lakes don't do much for me. I want to be on moving water.

I've been looking for a couple of years, and will be looking for years more, for the right location in the Ozarks. We're spoiled by our place in Montana. It's right on the river, so close that I can walk out the door, walk across the yard, down a 15 ft. bank, and be on the water in a pretty darned good spot to catch some trout (and lots of whitefish). The house needs some remodeling but overall is in good shape, and is about the right size for a couple who don't want to have a mansion to take care of. The nearest neighbor, other than the residents of the cemetery next to our 6 acres, is up at the end of the 1/8th mile road, and they are nice people, and we can't really see their house from ours. Only one other house is about that close, and we can't see it either. In fact, we can't see much of anything but the north end of the Absaroka Mountains, a cottonwood covered island on the other side, and the river. And to top it off, we're only two miles from town, close enough to ride our bikes to the grocery store, and 35 minutes to an international airport and a city big enough to buy anything you need, if you can't find it in our town.

So...we'd love to have something similar in the Ozarks...on a river big enough to jetboat, not far off the pavement, close to a town with a grocery store, no more than an hour from a city with an airport....out of the flood plain, of course, and in fact probably on top of a bluff and set back far enough that it can't be easily seen from the river.

Which, of course, pretty well means the Meramec, somewhere between St. James and St. Clair, preferably around Sullivan or Steelville. We've looked at a few places, and the problem with most of them is...the neighbors. Why is it that the development along the Meramec and other Ozark streams seems to be dominated by trash heaps and meth labs? I'm thinking more in the line of finding a decent sized chunk of land and building a small house right in the middle of it, somewhere close to a boat ramp on the Meramec.

I also have to convince Mary that we CAN find such a place...she's ready to move to Montana permanently, while I still want to spend half the time there and half here.

[ness]

We've always talked about a place of our own, but there are just so many negatives that I doubt we'll ever pull the trigger. I don't want to maintain a place, and I don't want to feel like I have to go somewhere with the limited open time I have, especially at this point in my life. When I figure out the costs of owning and maintaining, or dealing with problems, break ins, and people -- well it just seems like I've got better things to do. And if you don't own everything in sight, or build in a planned area, you never know what's going in next door. With the networks of vacation rentals like VRBO out there, I can take advantage of other people's mistakes. We've done that several times in around the country, often with word-of-mouth recommendations from friends.

We like to travel to new places, and return to a few old favorites too. Lots and lots of places we'd like to see. I like the freedom of mixing it up if I choose.

So that's a bit of a hijack, but hey, we're on page two and it was time.

[gotmuddy]

why cant you live on a river and be up the hill enough to not get flooded?

If I had to pick a lake it would be BS. There are plenty of rural places around the lake.