2026 Elite Series Stop #6 · August 15
Bull Shoals Preview
The Bull Is Back at Full Pool—and Ready to Test Everyone
Bull Shoals has a funny way of making anglers look brilliant and completely lost—sometimes within the same hour. If there is one dependable Bull Shoals pattern, it is that there is no dependable Bull Shoals pattern.
Those winners have used frogs, buzzbaits, squarebills, giant worms, jigs, Carolina rigs and finesse presentations. Bull Shoals rarely gives the whole field the same answer.
Saturday at a Glance
This is a completely different lake from the one MoYak faced in 2025. Last August, Bull Shoals was approximately 12 feet high. Anglers fished flooded cover, strange back current and newly submerged objects—including bass caught around a flooded bathroom and stop sign.
This time, much of that extra shoreline cover is gone. Following nearly a week of hot, sunny weather, stable summertime structure should matter more than chasing freshly flooded water.
Six Years of Bull Shoals Winners
| Year | Winner | Length | Margin | The Story |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Dane Lewis | 83.50″ | 2.25″ | Abandoned his original plan and found the winning frog bite on a lake 12 feet high. |
| 2024 | Patrick Bowman | 79.75″ | 0.25″ | Won a September grinder by only a quarter-inch. |
| 2023 | Troy Enke | 90.00″ | 3.25″ | The best recent late-summer bag; 4.73 fish per angler and 60% of the field limited. |
| 2022 | Tommy Probst | 87.00″ | 1.00″ | Adjusted after the early topwater window and edged Chad Davison. |
| 2021 | Jason Yiznitsky | 93.00″ | 3.25″ | Won a high-water spring event in stained, warming water with reaction baits. |
| 2020 | Adam Isaacs | 87.75″ | 0.50″ | Camped on one point with a 10.5-inch worm and caught a last-minute 19-inch upgrade. |
Expect a photo finish. Across all six events, the average winning margin was only 1.79 inches. Three were decided by an inch or less. In 2024, the top four anglers were separated by exactly one inch.
What the Bass Boats Tell Us
The national trails offer surprisingly little guidance for an August event on Bull Shoals. We found no verified August Bull Shoals stop in the accessible Bassmaster Elite, Open or College schedules, nor in the FLW, BFL, Red Man, TBF or modern Major League Fishing archives. Their major visits have clustered in spring and early fall.
That makes a local U.S.A. BASSIN event from August 18, 2019 especially useful. It was a genuine late-summer grinder:
Williams and Williams won with five bass weighing only 8.80 pounds. Second place caught three fish for 6.44 pounds, while third place brought five to the scales for just 6.10. Five of the 12 teams blanked. View the complete 2019 results.
Estimated kayak translation
Using a fisheries-standard largemouth bass length-weight relationship, the winning team’s 3.33-pound big fish estimates to approximately 18.1 inches. The other four fish averaged 1.37 pounds, or about 13.7 inches apiece.
Estimated winning total: approximately 73–76 inches.
Why this remains an estimate
Weight cannot be converted precisely without each fish’s species, individual weight and body condition. Bull Shoals produces largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass, and lean late-summer fish may be longer than a standard-weight table predicts.
The 2019 result supports the lower end of our expectations without outweighing six years of direct MoYak history.
What the Past Winners Teach Us
The early window can carry the day
Adam Isaacs caught five fish in about ten casts between 7:15 and 7:45 in 2020. With full sun and a forecast near 100 degrees, anyone finding an early shallow or topwater window must capitalize immediately.
Know when Plan A is dead
Dane Lewis planned to crank, chase schoolers and drag wood in 2025. None of it materialized. He played the day by ear, found a frog bite and won. Bull Shoals rewards the angler who adjusts first.
Cooler water repeatedly matters
Creek arms with color, springs, bluff shade, deeper channel swings and areas with current or oxygen could offer a few degrees of relief—and a few more active bass.
Full pool does not mean easy
Normal water removes acres of tempting shoreline habitat and can concentrate both fish and anglers on obvious points, channel swings, docks, timber and offshore targets.
The Elite AOY Race Hits the Drop-Score Stage
Bull Shoals is not merely Stop #6. It is the first tournament at which the Elite Series’ two-drop format begins changing the practical standings.
After five events, Micah Funderburgh leads Chad Davison by 57.25 points. Tyler Alexander is 106.25 points back, followed by Richie McMichael and Johnathan Dominguez. But once an angler records a sixth score, only the best five count. A strong Bull Shoals finish replaces that angler’s lowest result.
| Place | Angler | Total | Behind | Score to Beat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Micah Funderburgh | 1,867.50 | — | 323.75 |
| 2 | Chad Davison | 1,810.25 | 57.25 | 299.75 |
| 3 | Tyler Alexander | 1,761.25 | 106.25 | 303.75 |
| 4 | Richie McMichael | 1,726.50 | 141.00 | 284.75 |
| 5 | Johnathan Dominguez | 1,704.75 | 162.75 | 297.75 |
| 6 | Zach Woolverton | 1,699.75 | 167.75 | 276.50 |
Richie McMichael and Zach Woolverton have even more replacement upside because they are carrying 284.75- and 276.50-point finishes. A Bull Shoals Top 10 could add roughly 90 to 120 points to either angler’s best-five total. Jason Shifflett, currently seventh, is carrying a 258-point finish and may have the most immediate upward mobility among the established contenders.
A mediocre finish may disappear, while a big day can erase most of a deficit in one shot. Every upgrade Saturday affects two leaderboards—the tournament standings and the AOY race.
The Race for the Taney 20
The championship is not the only line that matters. The Top 20 in the final Elite AOY standings earn invitations to compete in the Taney 20 next spring, turning the middle of the leaderboard into a second postseason race.
Trevor Motzkus currently occupies 20th with 1,271.75 points, but only 61.50 points separate him from Sam Young in 26th. More importantly, the raw standings compare anglers with five scores against anglers with only four. Bull Shoals will fill that missing fifth score for several contenders, so the bubble could move dramatically before anyone calculates the final Pomme drop.
| Place | Angler | Total | From 20th | Bull Shoals Opportunity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 | Trey Dawson | 1,305.75 | +34.00 | Replaces a 181.75 low score |
| 20 | Trevor Motzkus | 1,271.75 | Cut line | Bull Shoals becomes his fifth score |
| 21 | Troy Enke | 1,260.50 | -11.25 | Bull Shoals becomes his fifth score |
| 22 | PJ Coley | 1,251.50 | -20.25 | Replaces a 211.50 low score |
| 23 | Noah Whitten | 1,236.25 | -35.50 | Bull Shoals becomes his fifth score |
| 24 | Troy Nydegger | 1,221.00 | -50.75 | Bull Shoals becomes his fifth score |
| 25 | Mark Dalton | 1,218.75 | -53.00 | Replaces a 167.00 low score |
| 26 | Sam Young | 1,210.25 | -61.50 | Replaces a zero |
The apparent bubble is not the real bubble
Motzkus, Enke, Whitten and Nydegger have only four scores. Every point they earn at Bull Shoals goes directly into their total. Enke’s 11.25-point deficit is especially misleading: almost any scorable finish moves him ahead of today’s cut line before considering what Motzkus does.
One big day changes everything
Mike Keafer is carrying a zero and already owns a 402.50-point win. Emily Motzkus and Jeff Craven have only four scores, while Andrew Fallert is carrying a 160.25. One Top-10 result could pull any of them into the fight.
They are not only fishing for a Bull Shoals check. They are fishing to keep Taneycomo on next spring’s calendar.
Anglers to Watch
Micah Funderburgh
Safe Pick
Second here last year with 81.25 inches and leading the season standings after another strong finish at Truman. His Carolina-rig and finesse-jig success makes him dangerous if Saturday becomes a patience contest.
Chad Davison
Proven Threat
Second by one inch in 2022 with the 22.25-inch Big Bass—and an All-American Kayak Series winner on Bull Shoals. Few anglers combine his lake history and big-fish ability.
Zach Woolverton
Dark Horse
Sixth in 2023 and third in 2025. Last year he abandoned flooded buck brush and found fish deep near the dam. Normal water and bright sun could favor that offshore experience.
Troy Enke
Past Champion
The 2023 winner owns the best MoYak Bull Shoals bag of the last five late-summer events at 90 inches. A sixth-place finish in the 2024 grinder gives him consecutive Top 10s here.
Patrick Bowman
Grinder
His 79.75-inch victory in 2024 proves Saturday may not require a giant total. If the bite turns stubborn, Bowman knows how to keep collecting small but valuable upgrades.
Dane Lewis
Defending Winner
Lewis did not win because Bull Shoals followed his plan. He won because it did not—and he adjusted faster than everyone else. The 2025 Rookie of the Year returns as a proven improviser.
What Could Win Saturday?
The winner is more likely to identify what is happening in one section of this enormous lake and resist the urge to chase reports from somewhere else.
2026 Prediction
Saturday will be hot. It may be slow. And if history holds, the difference between taming the Bull and getting thrown will be measured in fractions of an inch.
