Rockbridge Trout Ranch

An Ozarks secret is what you'll find at Rockbridge. It's off the beaten path a little bit, but when you get here you'll find Ozarks hospitality is alive and well with a staff that will take care of you. Yes, this is a private trout park so it's not cheap like the 4 State Trout Parks. But if you want to fish without drama, you want a good meal after your done, and you just want to relax and enjoy your time off this is a great place to do so.

I can't fish worth a dang at the other State Park trout parks, I'm mainly there to sit on the banks and look at the scenery and the fish swimming past my hook. But at Rockbridge I've had a lot more luck in catching fish. My first fly fishing success was here thanks to a staff member who helped me figure out what I was doing wrong.

I've spent the night in their cabins and was pleased with how clean they were, and I slept very well. There's also a lot to explore around the place including the old mill. But when you come here, you absolutely must check out the restaurant if you love trout. If you want your trout prepared perfectly, this is where you'll experience just that. And their smoked trout? My pithy words in an online review can't do it justice. It's just not possible as yes, it's that damn good!

4 solid stars (4.5 is what I want to rate it). But shhh, don't be telling everyone about this wonderful place. Let's keep it to ourselves!

What an incredible place for you to unplug.

I was not looking forward to coming with my husband for his 50th-I am not really into fishing.
However, I fly fished for the first time at the dam and caught 3 fish in 1.5 hours.
(2nd year now we have returned)

The rooms are basic but just being that close to the Barn (open bar) restaurant and gift shop was perfect. You can watch others catch fish from above at the barn and dam area.
The restaurant is extremely good for such a remote place.
They allow catch and keep (turning in each day and they weigh and filet for you) or Catch and release. Each different cost-well worth the C&K

Service and staff is all incredible!

My family and I love this place for catching Big Trout. My youngest son caught a 6 Pound Rainbow, he was so Proud. Great place for families who enjoy Trout Fishing and enjoy outdoors. Great Family Time. The staff here are so Friendly and always Helpful. Nice little store for fishing gear. Nice restaurant. Friendly People. Planning several more trips here this year.

Service was absolutely terrible. Never got our water refilled, never cleaned our appetizer plates off., the waitress never came back to check on our group. She didn't know anything about what that's on tap or in bottles. It was so slow and the food is overpriced. Portions are very small for what you pay. Will never go back.

This is not the spot for you if you cannot take a no-tech or low-tech vacation. There is no cell phone service and spotty wi-Fi. The scenery is spectacular and the fishing is amazing. You can rent large houses that hold 15 people or just get a small room in small block motel style rooms.

The rooms are clean. You will pay a little more for a room with a fridge. However, I recommend that you bring your own pillow, seriously.

The restaurant in the lodge is middle of the road and the sole reason for the 4-star rating. But you can get their trout served and prepared in numerous ways. I did love the trout salad, the trout pate, and the smoked trout. Skip the fried trout sandwich as the breading is completely bland.

The lounge/bar is located in the old grist mill and has a view of the falls. The hours are odd at best so if you are heavy into constantly imbibing, I recommend BYOB. The bartenders rock and if you are trout fishing, it's a moral imperative to drink some Trout Slayer ale.

If you forgot some fishing tackle or other fishing essential, they have got you covered. And the prices are way less than you would expect for an out of the way location. They were right in line with Bass Pro on a lot of items.

You keep what you catch, they clean it for you (gill and gut or filet), charge you a nominal price per pound and flash freeze the cleaned trout so you can transport your prize catch home.

This was the most relaxing, sporting vacation ever. I had so much fun fishing and hiking that I never got to horseback riding or skeet shooting. Oh well, next trip. This place is on my annual vacation list now.

I couldn't check in here because cell service was NILL, which was hard for a workaholic like me. However, that forced me to sit calmly in a chair for a few hours and read my book while I watched my son fish with his grandma nearby, so that's probably necessary and worthwhile anyway, right? Rooms were clean and comfortable, food in restaurant was decent (though service a bit slow) and everybody there was totally friendly. Fishing is not really my thing, but I enjoyed my two nights there and would probably return for another try at unplugging :)

The quality of food here has gone way down and it was mediocre to begin with and extremely overpriced. The one star rating is for restaurant manager specifically and the cook, not bakers, waitstaff or rooms (which I have seen multiple times when my relatives stayed here).
I ordered the breakfast "wraps". The tortillas were disgusting, extremely hard and tough. Obviously very stale like had been in fridge 2 mos. and exposed on the edges to open air. The cook claimed that the toughness was from toasting it. Tortillas do not get hard and tough (I mean hard, not crunchy) from toasting. Super dry. Tasteless filling, tiny portions. "Hash browns" were obviously frozen, no seasoning on them. $9 minus tax and tip for a tiny gross meal.
The only good part was the sausage, all 2 tsp. of it in the "wraps".
Restaurant mgr. would not comp my $9 order, took off 10%, then 25% when I insisted. I have not had this degree of bad service in years anywhere. And I never make complaints in a restaurant till today. My complaint was made out to be my inability to believe that a super-stale tortilla was "toasted". Gaslighting at its finest. Additionally, my whole family was there and it took 30 minutes to get our meal and it arrived at room temp, not hot.
The trout and meats are good, wait staff good (this was no fault of our waitress who was caught in the middle with an inept manager), nice ($$$$) accommodations, baked goods like bread and desserts are homemade and consistently high quality.
As another reviewer mentioned, the side vegs are usually out of a can, no seasoning.
For the money you get much higher quality meal at a Subway and their tortillas are not
stale. You are paying for ambiance, which is lovely.
I have been a customer over 20 years and recommended many people to come here, which I will no longer do due to my treatment today. I have had mediocre food here before and never complained but to be gaslit by telling me I don't know a rock hard stale tortilla when I eat one, well, I guess that's the hill I'll take my last stand on.
This could have been fixed by comping a $9 meal and an apology which I never got from anyone, not even "sorry it wasn't to your satisfaction".

This place saved our sanity. My wife and I couldn't remember when we truly had a vacation without stress. This place provided it. Clean, large, comfortable rooms and no cell phone service to distract from the peace. Very minimal internet but available if you absolutely need it. Friendly service and absolutely beautiful scenery. The trout were huge and fun to catch. Nice little bar with great bartenders. I could go on with how great this place is and how perfect our vacation there was for us. If I had to find a not great. It would be the food at the restaurant. Not great, but we weren't there for the food.

I really enjoyed lunch at Rockbridge. They have some interesting trout dishes -- fried trout and trout salad sandwiches. They were really yummy. We also enjoyed some wonderful desserts. They brought out a tray full of amazing looking desserts. I ended up getting apple cobbler ala mode. It was really yummy. This is a great restaurant to enjoy a meal at on a warm Saturday!

After lunch, we walked around and enjoyed the lovely scenery. The old mill there is fun to check out. I have not fished there yet, but I was talking to two guys that were fishing. I mentioned having fished at Bennett Springs before, and they both said they liked Rockbridge much better. While we were talking to them, they caught three fish between the two of them. In general, the fish they people were catching seemed larger than the ones that I've seen caught at Bennett Springs. The only drawback seems to be that it's more expensive than Bennett Springs. The guy we were talking to had about 5 good-sized trout, and he said that it was probably about $50 worth. He said they will clean and freeze them for you though. As someone who cannot clean a fish, that service is great, and that in combination with the fact that the fish are a good size and there are plenty to catch makes Rockbridge seem like a great alternative to Bennett Springs. I'll definitely have to grab a pole before I go down there again.

I went there with high expectations and left with high disappointment. I expected to receive a fresh hot fluffy baked potato and it was cold and waxy, indicating to me it was probably yesterday's potato. I wanted to end the meal with warm Gooseberry cobbler and was disappointed to find a quarter inch of sugar layer under a quarter inch of crust and maybe a dozen gooseberries. Disappointing to say the least, but Doris our waitress was excellent!