Bull Shoals offers the best of the Ozarks

There are a lot of reasons why the Elite Series anglers have raved about fishing Bull Shoals Lake the last two years. At the top, of course, would be the fishing.

There are a lot of reasons why the Elite Series anglers have raved about fishing Bull Shoals Lake the last two years. At the top, of course, would be the fishing. While there haven't been any lunkers caught this year, there have been a lot of fish caught, even if not as many as last year.

 

But ranking a close second would be the scenery. Bull Shoals is both beautiful and relatively isolated. As you can see from this aerial photo I took several years ago, when the lake was higher and the trees fully-leaved, there are very few signs of civilization around this 45,000-acre lake on the White River.

 

The major population centers in the area all have a lake closer to them than Bull Shoals — like Table Rock in Branson and Beaver in the northwest Arkansas area.

 

Probably the only anglers that don't like fishing Bull Shoals are the guys that like to fish boat docks. With its 40-foot flood pool, keeping a dock on "The Bull" just isn't practical.