Bull Shoals Lake

Bull Shoals Lake straddles the Arkansas-Missouri border in the Ozark Mountains, a vast freshwater reservoir created by the Bull Shoals Dam on the White River that offers beginner divers access to some of the clearest and most visually interesting inland diving available in the mid-South. The lake's exceptional water clarity, characteristic Ozark geology, and surprisingly diverse freshwater fish community create a dive experience that demonstrates the underwater world's ability to captivate wherever good conditions and interesting terrain exist. The White River's renowned clarity, which made the area famous for world-class trout fishing long before divers discovered the underwater landscape below the lake's surface, translates directly into exceptional diving conditions. The limestone geology of the Ozarks produces water that is naturally filtered and clear, and Bull Shoals Lake maintains this heritage with visibility that consistently impresses freshwater divers accustomed to the murky conditions of many inland bodies of water. On good days, the lake's natural amphitheater of submerged limestone bluffs, original river channels, and flooded Ozark terrain is visible in impressive detail. The submerged landscape at Bull Shoals tells the geological story of the White River valley before the dam created the lake. The original river channel, now far below the surface, still traces its way through the reservoir, and the limestone bluffs that lined the river in its natural state remain as underwater walls and ledges that create the vertical topography that divers find most interesting. These geological features are reminiscent in character, if not in biology, of the wall diving that ocean divers seek, with the limestone faces creating clear underwater reference points for navigation and habitat structure. Cold-water fish species in Bull Shoals provide encounters that ocean divers rarely experience. Rainbow and brown trout hold position in the current below the dam, their streamlined forms and powerful swimming ability making them impressive underwater subjects. Smallmouth bass and other Ozark native species inhabit the shallower sections of the lake, while less commonly encountered freshwater species reward attentive divers who scan the bottom carefully for the cryptic creatures that blend with the limestone substrate. Bull Shoals Lake represents the inland diving that the American heartland offers to those willing to explore beyond the obvious marine destinations, a site where the Ozarks' natural clarity creates freshwater diving of genuine quality.