Blue Bank Resort — Hotel in New Madrid

Left a day early because it sucked that bad. On their Facebook page, I gave them two stars. Now, they get one star. They blocked me on their page for my negative feedback. Hey, I'm just being honest.

First, the good:

The dockhands and maids work their tails off and are very friendly. Well, all of the staff, for that matter is friendly to some degree. I brought up those 2 groups because I get a feeling they arent treated well based on observation.

The views are amazing. The resort is gorgeous outside.

• The rooms are clean but crammed. They are very dated. Walls are stained. My room had a king and queen bed with log frames, which looked nice, but due to their size, you could open the door but not get around the door or bed. Now imagine that when carrying your belongings to the room. The doors should open out instead. But hey, Im not expecting to stay at a fancy hotel. It didn't bother me that much but is worth mentioning to others.

Now the bad:

The service. The food was terrific but service sucked. I waited over an hour for my food one night and someone forgot to actually print my order for the cook. So I waited another 20 minutes for food. It took over an hour for someone to check for us?

The cost vs. what you get. Ok, yeah, I knew ahead of time. Anyone who books does. Some oversights worth mentioning:

You get 4 days and 3 nights with the package I got. Like any hotel, you check in the afternoon the first day and out by 11 the last day. You can still fish the last day, though. So either you load all your stuff up ahead of time and go out all day and not be able to clean up later because you had to be out of your room or you only go out in the morning and not get a whole day you paid for.

Non resident license and reelfoot usage fee was like $55 per person for 3 days. So either the first day you fish after you check in or forgo that day and fish the last and run into the dilemma I previously mentioned.

Either way, you can only fish 3 days (more like 2.5) due to the package and the fishing license. Unless you get the more expensive license to get that extra day.

The fishing. "Wait, what?" Yeah I hear it now. Im sure in April and May it probably is awesome. Maybe the time I went (literally left there yesterday) is off its mark. I fish a lot up north and this time of year is so great for fishing. The terrible rain off and on one day and high winds the next day didnt help. But really? Not one bite? Even on anyone's worst day you should be able to catch a gill without trying. They say the bluegills are on beds now, but IDK. I spent a lot of time watching other guests come and go and the only people catching anything at all were with guides. And not even that much was caught. Not the resort's fault fish weren't biting. Just added frustration the resort gave me.

Asian carp found their way in. I dont think TN's conservation department realizes the severity of what this invasive species is capable of doing to native fish.

The boats are decent enough for use. The outboards are quite a bit underpowered. Bring an anchor or two because none of the boats have them and you will definitely need them.

Other things worth mentioning:

Trolling motor rental is $35 a day. Again, you will need one. Or bring your own.

Bring your own minnow buckets, cricket cans, etc.

Bring food unless you are eating at the restaurant every day. As far as I saw they dont do breakfast. Nearest town with restaurants and places like walmart and such is 25 miles away.

There isnt much else to do around the area if the weather is bad and you cant fish.

Pay attention to the weather for the lake before you get there. It may be better to eat your deposit than pay everything and take a chance youll get out on the water for a full day.

Recap:

Restaurant service sucks. Amenities suck.

Fishing wasnt great when I was there but that dont mean you wont do well.

Pretty pricey for what you are getting. Ill just stick to my local sports club and catch crappie and gills with much less effort...

Our experience at Blue Banks Resort||After driving 9 hours to Blue Banks Resort in Hornbeak, TN. We proceeded to check in on Sunday May 20, 2024. It took awhile as we needed to purchase our TN fishing license, which was no problem.|At that time, we were told that the guide we had arranged to be fishing with, (Billy) had passed us off to another guide. We had been told for months we were to be going out with Billy, the number 1 Guide for the area and the one you see in all the videos that get posted.|The room where we stayed was excellent, very new, and clean, and right on the water. We proceeded to the resort restaurant for dinner, which was fair at best the wait staff for the most part rather rude, the only time our waitress spoke was when she received a generous tip, which seemed to surprise her. |Next day: We were on time for the guide, and he had an older Skeeter for a boat, which was still OK with us as we have utilized many guides over the years. We proceeded down the shoreline with the guide using his live scope looking for what were old spawning beds along the shore. We never went more than ½ mile from the resort, never seeing anyone else along this shoreline, again, not a problem as he was the guide and you put your trust in them to know where the best spots are. |Along this path he did find 6 old beds well past their usage, spending about an hour on each one and checking a few on the way back to the resort.|As for equipment supplied by the guide: |One of the boats down posts did not function|Plenty of bait, Crickets|The reel I had been handed to use was broken, the handle could not be tightened and continued to become loose constantly.|The rod my son was given had the tip broken off so was short.|The combo my grandson was given seemed OK|The guide fished mostly with a smaller kids combo? Which he dropped overboard and had to retrieve at one point.|To say they encourage people to keep small fish would be an understatement.|5 inch Bluegills were kept and when a bigger 6 ½ inch was caught a picture had to be taken of the Whopper!!|Attached are photos of our catch after cleaning. 23 fish were kept. 46 barely bite size morsels.|We have hired many guides over the years and NEVER experienced an unequipped guide with poor equipment and every guide we have used would work to put us on fish, not just use their side scope to locate and catch small fish.|||NEXT Day:|We were told we would be in one of the larger boats since there were 3 of us, That did not happen!|The motors are all very new, the boats are not. To sit and fish from the front broken seat you had to sit cross legged or some other uncomfortable way. |The equipment given to us was a tube of crickets of which 90% were dead, a small paddle and two life vests (there was three of us?? And ice for our cooler. |We spent 8 hours fishing that day trying to locate fish. We caught one 7 inch crappie, one Drum and a 4 inch blue catfish.|When returning to the resort we went into the restaurant for a cold drink. We were asked three times if we were ordering food and we said no we just needed a cold sweet tea and a lemonade. After waiting for 20 minutes my son went to find a waitress, who then brought us our cold drinks, put them on the table and walked away without a word. 30 minutes later we had to hunt her down to pay for our drinks.|We decided to cut this trip short and leave the next day.|When returning our keys to the desk there was no question of why we were leaving early or if there was a problem, just a “Have a nice day” and he turned his back to us.|We did not see anyone bring in decent catches. |We did see Billy and his guide boat and in comparison, to what we were put it was like night and day difference. We were promised a guided day with Billy and that did not happen. ||Accommodations A|Wait Staff D RUDE|Restaurant C-|Guide D- Not what we were led to believe, or signed up for|Overall F||We know, live and learn,...

Our experience at Blue Banks Resort

After driving 9 hours to Blue Banks Resort in Hornbeak, TN. We proceeded to check in on Sunday May 20, 2024. It took awhile as we needed to purchase our TN fishing license, which was no problem. At that time, we were told that the guide we had arranged to be fishing with, (Billy) had passed us off to another guide. We had been told for months we were to be going out with Billy, the number 1 Guide for the area and the one you see in all the videos that get posted. The room where we stayed was excellent, very new, and clean, and right on the water. We proceeded to the resort restaurant for dinner, which was fair at best the wait staff for the most part rather rude, the only time our waitress spoke was when she received a generous tip, which seemed to surprise her. Next day: We were on time for the guide, and he had an older Skeeter for a boat, which was still OK with us as we have utilized many guides over the years. We proceeded down the shoreline with the guide using his live scope looking for what were old spawning beds along the shore. We never went more than ½ mile from the resort, never seeing anyone else along this shoreline, again, not a problem as he was the guide and you put your trust in them to know where the best spots are. Along this path he did find 6 old beds well past their usage, spending about an hour on each one and checking a few on the way back to the resort. As for equipment supplied by the guide: One of the boats down posts did not function Plenty of bait, Crickets The reel I had been handed to use was broken, the handle could not be tightened and continued to become loose constantly. The rod my son was given had the tip broken off so was short. The combo my grandson was given seemed OK The guide fished mostly with a smaller kids combo? Which he dropped overboard and had to retrieve at one point. To say they encourage people to keep small fish would be an understatement. 5 inch Bluegills were kept and when a bigger 6 ½ inch was caught a picture had to be taken of the Whopper!! Attached are photos of our catch after cleaning. 23 fish were kept. 46 barely bite size morsels. We have hired many guides over the years and NEVER experienced an unequipped guide with poor equipment and every guide we have used would work to put us on fish, not just use their side scope to locate and catch small fish.

NEXT Day: We were told we would be in one of the larger boats since there were 3 of us, That did not happen! The motors are all very new, the boats are not. To sit and fish from the front broken seat you had to sit cross legged or some other uncomfortable way. The equipment given to us was a tube of crickets of which 90% were dead, a small paddle and two life vests (there was three of us?? And ice for our cooler. We spent 8 hours fishing that day trying to locate fish. We caught one 7 inch crappie, one Drum and a 4 inch blue catfish. When returning to the resort we went into the restaurant for a cold drink. We were asked three times if we were ordering food and we said no we just needed a cold sweet tea and a lemonade. After waiting for 20 minutes my son went to find a waitress, who then brought us our cold drinks, put them on the table and walked away without a word. 30 minutes later we had to hunt her down to pay for our drinks. We decided to cut this trip short and leave the next day. When returning our keys to the desk there was no question of why we were leaving early or if there was a problem, just a “Have a nice day” and he turned his back to us. We did not see anyone bring in decent catches. We did see Billy and his guide boat and in comparison, to what we were put it was like night and day difference. We were promised a guided day with Billy and that did not happen.

Accommodations A Wait Staff D RUDE Restaurant C- Guide D- Not what we were led to believe, or signed up for Overall F

We know, live and learn,...