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Home › Waters › Arkansas › Bull Shoals Lake
Reservoir · Ozarks · Arkansas

Bull Shoals Lake Fishing Guides

48,195 acres and 820 miles of shoreline across the Arkansas and Missouri line, the largest of the White River lakes and the source of the trout water below it.

A small boat pulled up on a calm reservoir bank at sunset

Map of the Bull Shoals Lake

26 numbered points: 11 access points, 12 parks and conservation areas, 2 hazards, 1 USGS gauge. Tap a marker for details. Reviewed Sep 23, 2026.

Printable version →
  • Access / boat ramp (11)
  • Park / conservation area (12)
  • Dam / hazard (2)
  • USGS gauge (1)
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Points are curated from OpenStreetMap and state agency sources; confirm access and hours before you go.

Print it. Bag it. Bring it.Phones die, screens crack, and most of this water has no signal. Print this map, fold it into a zip-top bag or dry bag with your license, and you have a backup your electronics can’t give you. Every marker is numbered so you can say exactly where you are.

Open the printable map
All 26 points on this map
#PointTypeLat, LonNotes
1Bull Shoals Dam
USACE · White River		Dam / hazard36.36605, -92.57507Concrete gravity dam that forms the lake. The White River tailwater below it is a different fishery from the lake above, and is a separate water on this site.
2USGS gauge — White River at Bull Shoals Dam
USGS · at the dam		USGS gauge36.36572, -92.57485Lake level and dam release. Point is the roster coordinate; an OSM USGS monitoring-station node of the same name sits about 80 m away and confirms it.
3Bull Shoals Natural Park
day use · above the dam		Park / conservation area36.37118, -92.57655Day-use park on the shore just above the dam. OSM carries only the GNIS name (61083) and no facility detail, so nothing further is claimed for it.
4Boat ramp at Bull Shoals Dam Boulevard
Bull Shoals Dam Boulevard, Bull Shoals		Access / boat ramp36.37341, -92.57231Unnamed slipway about 0.9 km above the dam on the city of Bull Shoals side. No operator is mapped; the road is the whole of the identification.
5Point Return Public Use Area
USACE · Point Return		Park / conservation area36.38868, -92.56433Corps public use area on the point below Lakeview. OSM maps no ramp lane here, so it ships as a park rather than an access.
6Bull Shoals Public Use Area — park and boat dock
USACE · 140 Boat Dock Cove		Access / boat ramp36.38146, -92.59628Corps park at the city of Bull Shoals. Bull Shoals Lake Boat Dock, the concession marina, is on Boat Dock Cove 0.2 km away and is not separately mapped in OSM, so the two ship as one point.
7Highway 125 Public Use Area and Marina
USACE · AR 125 at the Peel Ferry		Access / boat ramp36.48979, -92.77295Corps park at the Highway 125 crossing, where the free Peel Ferry carries the road over the lake. Highway 125 Marina is mapped 50 m away and ships as part of this point.
8Boat ramp at Shore Line Drive
Shore Line Drive, Diamond City		Access / boat ramp36.47552, -92.91927Ramp on the Diamond City shore, mapped as both a node and a way at the same spot. A second unnamed ramp lane is mapped 0.7 km south-west at 36.4731/-92.9251.
9Lead Hill Public Use Area and Sugarloaf Harbor Marina
USACE · Lead Hill		Access / boat ramp36.47479, -92.92212Corps park with the Sugarloaf Harbor Marina concession mapped 40 m away; the two are one facility and ship as one point.
10Tucker Hollow Recreation Area
USACE · Cedar Creek arm		Access / boat ramp36.47618, -93.00712Corps recreation area on the Cedar Creek arm; an unnamed slipway is mapped at the same place and is this area's ramp.
11Drury-Mincy Conservation Area
Missouri Dept of Conservation		Park / conservation area36.56463, -93.07740MDC conservation area fronting the lake's Missouri arms. OSM maps it as two adjoining nature reserves, Drury and Mincy; point is the Drury tract, about 0.9 km back from the water.
12River Run Public Use Area
USACE · Forsyth, Missouri		Access / boat ramp36.67451, -93.11268Corps park at the head of the lake in Forsyth, below the Powersite dam. A second GNIS record for the same area sits 0.4 km east and was merged into this point.
13Ozark Beach (Powersite) Dam
head of the lake · Taney County		Dam / hazard36.65938, -93.12482The upstream limit of Bull Shoals Lake. Above it is Lake Taneycomo, a different water with its own regulations; a USGS gauge sits at the dam.
14Shadow Rock Public Use Area
Forsyth, Missouri · Swan Creek		Park / conservation area36.68478, -93.10157Public use area where Swan Creek meets the head of the lake at Forsyth. OSM carries only the GNIS name and no facility detail.
15Beaver Creek Public Use Area
USACE · Beaver Creek arm		Park / conservation area36.63951, -93.04379Corps area on the Beaver Creek arm. A second GNIS record under the same name sits 1.1 km east and was merged into this point.
16Kissee Mills Public Use Area
USACE · Kissee Mills, Missouri		Park / conservation area36.67284, -93.02462Corps area on the upper Beaver Creek arm, about 0.6 km back from the water at normal pool.
17Woodard Launching Area
Taney County, Missouri		Access / boat ramp36.59895, -93.09990The name is the only evidence of a launch here: OSM maps no ramp lane and names no operator. Worth a call before hauling a trailer to it.
18Buck Creek Public Use Area
USACE · Buck Creek, Missouri side		Park / conservation area36.48673, -92.79461Corps park opposite the Highway 125 ferry crossing. Buck Creek Marina operates on this arm but is not in OpenStreetMap and could not be placed, so it is left off rather than guessed.
19Jones Point State Wildlife Management Area
Arkansas · Marion County		Park / conservation area36.44562, -92.70433Wildlife management area on a point of the Arkansas shore, re-typed here from conservation area to park. OSM carries only the GNIS name.
20Spring Creek Public Use Area
USACE · Spring Creek arm		Park / conservation area36.53618, -92.61322Corps area on the Spring Creek arm, on the Missouri side of the state line. OSM maps no ramp lane here.
21Boat ramp at Missouri Route HH
Route HH, Ozark County, Missouri		Access / boat ramp36.53204, -92.60467Unnamed slipway between the Spring Creek and Pontiac areas. No operator is mapped; the state route is the whole of the identification.
22Pontiac Public Use Area
USACE · Pontiac, Missouri		Park / conservation area36.51006, -92.60822Corps area at Pontiac on the lake's long eastern arm. OSM carries only the GNIS name and no facility detail.
23Oakland Public Use Area
USACE · Oakland, Arkansas		Park / conservation area36.44396, -92.63044Corps area at Oakland on the Arkansas shore. OSM maps no ramp lane here.
24Ozark Isle Public Use Area
USACE · Oakland		Park / conservation area36.43062, -92.64878Corps area on the isle below Oakland. GNIS carries a second record for it misspelled 'Ozard Isle' 0.25 km north-west; the correct spelling is used and the two are one place.
25Boat ramp at Howard Creek Road
Howard Creek Road, Baxter County		Access / boat ramp36.40379, -92.51064Ramp on the Howard Creek arm above Lakeview. The slipway is unnamed in OSM and the reverse geocode returns only the road.
26Lakeview Public Use Area
USACE · Boat Dock Road, Lakeview		Access / boat ramp36.37673, -92.54711Corps park at Lakeview, the closest access to Mountain Home. A slipway is mapped on Boat Dock Road 0.3 km north-east and is this park's ramp.

Guides on the Bull Shoals Lake

Claimed profiles take booking requests. Unclaimed profiles are built from public records so the river is never empty; the guide can claim or remove one any time.

About the Bull Shoals Lake

Bull Shoals is the biggest of the White River impoundments: 48,195 surface acres and more than 820 miles of shoreline behind a 252-foot dam near Mountain Home, spread across the Arkansas and Missouri line. It is also the oldest of the group, and the lake most people picture when they picture an Ozark reservoir. Long timbered arms reach back into the hills, the main lake is wide and deep and clear, and there is enough water that a boat can fish all day without seeing the same bank twice.

Black bass are the mainstay. Largemouth use the brush and buckbrush of the creek arms, smallmouth work the clear main-lake rock and are the fish that brings anglers here from a long way off, and spotted bass fill the middle ground on points and channel swings. Walleye are a serious fishery on Bull Shoals rather than an afterthought, taken on the spring runs into the upper arms and by trolling flats and points through the warm months. White bass school hard in spring and again in autumn, and striped bass hold in the deeper open water of the lower lake.

Crappie work the standing timber and sunk brush, bluegill are everywhere along the shoreline, and channel and flathead catfish hold in the old river channel.

Everything about Bull Shoals is tied to the pool. It has one of the widest operating ranges of any lake in the region, and over the last thirty years the first week of September alone has seen the pool anywhere from roughly 644 to 685 feet. That is a forty-foot spread, and it changes which arms are fishable, which ramps are usable, and where the fish live. Check the live reading below before you plan a day here.

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Pool right now

653.02ft NGVD29
  • 24 hours-0.14 ft ↓ falling
  • Storage3,003,900 acre-ft
  • For the dateAbout normal for the date

Reading taken 2h ago at the US Army Corps of Engineers gauge at Bull Shoals Dam (SWL). Elevation is the surface of the lake above the survey datum, not depth. Source.

Fished this water? Add a photo

Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Bull Shoals Lake.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Lake level alert

Tell me when the pool at Bull Shoals Lake ft (NGVD29)

Now: 653.02 ft pool elevation, read 10:00 pm CDT, Wed Oct 21, 2026 (The US Army Corps of Engineers gauge at Bull Shoals Dam (SWL)).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

Nine Corps of Engineers parks serve the lake: Beaver Creek, Buck Creek, Highway 125, Lakeview, Lead Hill, Oakland, River Run, Theodosia and Tucker Hollow, all booked through Recreation.gov.
Bull Shoals-White River State Park sits at the dam on the Arkansas side and has camping, a ramp and river access.
Mountain Home and Bull Shoals are the Arkansas service towns; Theodosia and Isabella serve the Missouri end of the lake.
Concessionaire marinas around the lake sell fuel and rent boats and slips.
The lake's operating range is wide, so ramp usability genuinely varies through the year; confirm the pool before hauling a big boat to a back-arm ramp.
The White River below the dam is a cold tailwater trout fishery under separate regulations, and generation schedules govern it.
Mountain Home Project Office handles shoreline permits, closures and current park status.

Seasons

Spring: black bass move shallow into the brush and walleye and white bass run the upper arms; this is the busiest and often the best stretch of the year.
Summer: smallmouth and spotted bass hold on deep main-lake rock, stripers work open water in the lower lake, and early and late are the productive hours.
Autumn: shad move back into the creeks, drawdown concentrates fish, and surface activity picks up through October and November.
Winter: clear cold water and deep, slow presentations for smallmouth and spotted bass; crowds disappear entirely.

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Questions

What species can you catch on the Bull Shoals Lake?

Anglers target Black Crappie, Bluegill, Channel Catfish, Flathead Catfish, Largemouth Bass, Smallmouth Bass, Spotted Bass, Striped Bass, Walleye, White Bass, White Crappie on the Bull Shoals Lake in Arkansas.

Are there fishing guides on the Bull Shoals Lake?

GuidedFloats lists 2 guides and outfitters on the Bull Shoals Lake. Claimed profiles accept booking requests; unclaimed profiles are built from public records and link to the business.

Where can you access the Bull Shoals Lake?

Nine Corps of Engineers parks serve the lake: Beaver Creek, Buck Creek, Highway 125, Lakeview, Lead Hill, Oakland, River Run, Theodosia and Tucker Hollow, all booked through Recreation.gov. Bull Shoals-White River State Park sits at the dam on the Arkansas side and has camping, a ramp and river access. Mountain Home and Bull Shoals are the Arkansas service towns; Theodosia and Isabella serve the Missouri end of the lake. Concessionaire marinas around the lake sell fuel and rent boats and slips. The lake's operating range is wide, so ramp usability genuinely varies through the year; confirm the...

When is the best time to fish the Bull Shoals Lake?

Spring: black bass move shallow into the brush and walleye and white bass run the upper arms; this is the busiest and often the best stretch of the year. Summer: smallmouth and spotted bass hold on deep main-lake rock, stripers work open water in the lower lake, and early and late are the productive hours. Autumn: shad move back into the creeks, drawdown concentrates fish, and surface activity picks up through October and November. Winter: clear cold water and deep, slow presentations for smallmouth and spotted bass; crowds disappear entirely.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Bull Shoals Lake?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Arkansas agency site: https://www.agfc.com/regulations/general-fishing-regulations/