A bumper sticker on the back of Mike Craig’s white SUV urges us to “Save A Chicken, Eat Catfish.”



That encouragement is moot now that Mike and his wife Linda have closed the doors to one of the lake’s few remaining icons — the Happy Fisherman.

A bumper sticker on the back of Mike Craig’s white SUV urges us to “Save A Chicken, Eat Catfish.”

That encouragement is moot now that Mike and his wife Linda have closed the doors to one of the lake’s few remaining icons — the Happy Fisherman. It’s believed that only Bentley’s Restaurant on Bagnell Dam Blvd. is older — by one year.

According to the restaurant’s website, which it shares with the Craigs’ other endeavor Jake Culpeeper’s, the Happy Fisherman served between six and eight tons of catfish every year.

For 37 years, the Craigs have owned and operated the Highway 54 landmark, which has become a generational favorite.

“She ran a good race all of these years,” Linda said in retrospect. “We’ve had lots of incredible customers and staff.”

The restaurant has had only two cashiers in its lifetime, and three of the most loyal employees — Maxine Stout, Marge Adams and Adel Dickelman — total more than 100 years of service for the Craigs. When the doors closed for good late last year, the Craigs were forced to lay off 18-20 employees, which was one of the most painful aspects of the decision. Three of those went to work at Jake Culpeeper’s on Osage Beach Parkway near Rt. KK.

“We felt the Happy Fisherman had run its course,” Mike said in explaining the decision. “This dog got too old to hunt,” he laughed.

A downturn in business started about four years ago, and that was a major reason the Craigs decided to close the doors.

“The public just wasn’t responding in numbers enough to cover the overhead,” Linda explained. “We did have our glory years,” she said. “When business started to dwindle, we tried to bring it back. But in the end all we could do was give it a decent sendoff.”

Since it opened in 1975, Happy Fisherman “was a success from day one,” the Craigs said. There were several years that the restaurant served more than 100,000 guests. They estimate that in their tenure as owners, some three million diners went through the doors including several famous football and baseball players. George Brett from the KC Royals and Dan Dierdorf from the St. Louis football Cardinals, among others graced the seafood restaurant.

The Happy Fisherman was somewhat of a lone duck in the early years. There were few restaurants at the lake, and much of the land surrounding the restaurant was undeveloped. That has changed obviously, and the lake now sports dozens of restaurants, many of which are national chains.

The Craigs seem to have had a golden touch when it comes to restaurants. They have dotted the landscape with several over the years including the Village Smorgasbord, Roosevelt’s, the Grapevine, The Cracked Crab at Mike Finks, Bagnell Station, Sneaky Pete’s, The Lakeside Bar and Grill, The Mexican Air Force and today Jake Culpeeper’s Cattle Co.

“When we went into a property, if it didn’t work for one use, we could put it to another use. As a matter of fact,” Linda explained, the Happy Fisherman was originally the Aquarama, an underwater theater. It’s been the best of all worlds for us. When we did fall on our face, we were never afraid to get up and keep going.”

The Happy Fisherman is laced with memorabilia, including the five large fiberglass clams out front that used to feature dancing mermaids during the years the building was Aquarama. The pieces of history are being slowly dismantled, and the Craigs have had requests from former customers for particular mementoes. For the meantime, however, the handmade salad boat in the middle of the restaurant remains an anchor for the iconic restaurant.

Mike and Linda aren’t slowing down, they say. They’re just redirecting their energy to what they refer to as “Jake’s” the steakhouse near Rt. KK. Mike still dabbles in antique and classic cars in the Car Barn just behind Jake’s.

“We’re just very busy with projects,” Linda said.

The lake is home to the Craigs, and they plan to stay put.

“It’s been good to us all these years,” they agreed. “The public has been faithful to us as well, and for that we are grateful.”











