Official Kids Mag

By Clay Henry Shane Pierce has a servant's heart. That comes across in an interview probably as much as it does on a guide trip on Table Rock Lake or the tailwater below that is Lake Taneycomo. Sitting on a bench in front of Bass Pro Shop at Branson Landing, one of the elite fishing guides on those two Ozark Mountain fisheries unintentionally provided the lead (or the clincher) for the story. "No one could have written this script," Pierce said of his journey to become a fishing guide. "It sure wasn't in my plans." The plan was to become a veterinarian after he left home in Hutchinson, Kan., and pointed a truck toward the Rocky Mountains. After working as a horse ferrier, then selling ads for radio and then a trade tabloid, Pierce headed for Branson where he fell in love with the fishery on family vacations as a kid. "I was in Colorado," he said. "I worked as a vet tech, shoed horses and played cowboy a little. I loved working with the horses. I did ferrier school and I loved it. But it was hard work. My body just gave out." And, there were other jobs that mostly paid the bills for a growing family. But when he got to Branson in 2005, the growing area offered a new way to use his awesome people skills. "I could always sell, so I thought I'd get my real estate license," Pierce said. "I had sold advertising for the radio station and for a trade magazine. I just had that gift. "And, real estate was booming in the early 2000s here. It was going well until the recession and the crash in 2008. I was keeping two builders busy and then it all disappeared." All along Pierce, 51, kept his bass rods handy, fishing in jackpot tournaments and also several regional circuits with Tucker, his brother. They cashed lots of checks, but knew they couldn't feed a family as pro bass fishermen. But with the housing crash came the realization that maybe fishing could help the budget while the market took a few years to rebuild. "I started asking the marinas if I could guide and it all just started to fill in days," he said. "I've been making a living guiding Table Rock and Taneycomo since 2009. It's been incredible. "I sure didn't plan it, but it beats anything I've ever done. I can tell you my office is the most incredible place in the world. "Now, I have not been to every bass lake or every trout river, but I've been to enough to know what we've got here in Branson with these two fisheries is pretty special. We've got pristine water, hills, trees, wildlife and a great place to live." No one argues. Pierce stays busy from March through Thanksgiving most years. It's every day on one of the two fisheries, and sometimes both. "That's the most incredible part of it, it can be a summer day when we start on Table Rock near the dam for smallmouth early in the morning, then switch to Taneycomo below the dam about 9 a.m.," he said. "You catch bass and just about the time it starts to get hot (weather), you switch to the tailwater with those cold flows. Then we catch trout and they go home with both. "How do you beat that? I don't know any place where it's so easy to hit both spots in the same day. That actually works pretty well because there gets to be a lot of boat traffic on the lake as the day goes along." Branson waters perfect office for Shane Pierce rust Boys this youngster from the kunefactor family proudly displays a rainbow trout. photo by shane pierce 44 • June & July 2020 • officialkidsMag.com

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