Bullards Bar Reservoir

I’ll still give this place 5 stars despite the water is receding, it’s not the places fault. I was very glad we came here instead of the Delta for Fathers Day. This place is perfect in many ways. The mass of trees that encircle the water makes my solitude complete. The many many many places to fish, wide area to swirl the kids in tubes in circles, go water skiing, just chill in the corner & chill & do nothing, eat sammiches in the middle of the sea foam colored green transparent water, this place is wide & huge enough to do all of that. As Hubby says, in comparison to Collins Lake you for sure cannot see end to end. You won’t bump into drunkards or ghetto unfabulous rap blastin folk while squeezing past boats. that is unless you purposely get that close. I have only been here once so perhaps my words may not be entirely correct, however Hubby has gone here multiple times & says he loves this place cuz he says it’s this peaceful every time he has came. Can I get a Whoop whoop for a place that consistently offers peace?! And if you wanna make a baby, this place just may be perfect. Just sayin’. Especially at night. Think stars at as your only light & no one around. WOW. This is just random, but that dam whose top is a road is just amazing to me. It is like as tall as a sequoia tree or taller & maybe as wide as Godilla & his wife & kids standing side by side. It is that wide, & it is pretty stinkin amazeballs to see. I was thinking while we were fishing so close to it you can hit it with your lure, how in the world did they build this thing? I mean it is HUGE?! Like, how did they make it so smooth & so wide? As I naively imagine thousands of peoples little hands forming this monumental creation, as they smoothed out the wet cements sides from far east to far west meticulously. Little by little I presume, but it really is amazing to see a man made structure so behemothic & amazing. Maybe what I would feel seeing the Golden Gate up close & personal.
Besides this, the general store, gasoline filler uppers, boat rental, floating toilys, boat docking rentals will bring you back to a semi civil feel. Store sells ice cream (a Dibs, 2 orange sherbet pops, a Magnum & Snickers ice cream cost $ 13 & some change), shirts, plastic pirate swords (so kids can fight off & raid opposing ships of course), snacks & random schnuff. Outside, at the adjacent 7 or 8 tent covered tables people or dogs can enjoy their grub & shade. You can pet the resident Labrador mixed dog, Rosie. She may chase your 2 year old if he/​she is holding food though, but she appears harmless. Call her & she may come to you. Upon docking we seen 2 gas pumps, which kinda floored me cuz I was surprised this place seemed to have everything. A random dude heard me say to my 3 rambunctious littles, «Ooh look at the fish!» Literally, 30 huge carp or catfish near the docks, swarming in our direction. Obviously, they were pets or frequently fed, they were so fearless. Random dude told me about the coins inside that we get for free to use on the machine to get free fish food. That was super nice of him. Before we left I had to tinkle & the several floating bathrooms reminded me of Fantasy Island. It was clean & stocked & I was very glad it wasn’t smelly like State Fair portopotties. These may have just been cleaned before I went in. The lady cashier & I exchanged casual convo. I wondered how stinkin far she had to drive to get to work today? No houses in sight on the way there. Did she live in a tree house? Or maybe a houseboat. Either way seemed like a fabulous way to live.
Parking & unloading the boat was easy & non-​rushed despite that the parking was full. I couldn’t figure out who all the cars belonged to considering there were so many cars. But that’s the nice thing about this Lake. it’s so big you can’t find anybody! Hubby loves this place to camp but I was like no way. not this city girl. no hook ups, u must be smokin crizzle. Maybe one day when I am an avid camper.
I give it this though. for being out in the wilderness, it is clean! Especially that cool looking floating potty way out in the water. They also have 2 level houseboats for rent, circled floatation devices & other stuff.
Definately would come again. Next time I would leave the kids at home. Kids & peace just aren’t a suitable mix.
The end.

Recently rented a houseboat at Emerald Cove Marina. The people were great, the houseboat had problems. We lost a half day waiting for them to fix the boat only to have it fail again once we were out. They ended up sending two guys out with a different boat and transferred all of our stuff over to the new boat.

Spiders, man. Lots of ‘em.
I’m not sure if it’s just that we were there when all hell broke loose or if it’s a usual thing, but the spiders were alive and kicking’ and goddamn everywhere. We’d go to sleep at night having rid our cooler area of webs and colonies only to wake up the next morning with a friggin’ Marine Corp level impenetrable canvas of webbing covering everything once again. The more high-​maintenance folks in our group were shrieking (yeah, the dudes too). It was a nice menagerie of species too, all of them jumped, all of them looked menacing, but none were poisonous and no one in my party came home with bite marks.
But still… spiders, man.
Other than that, this watering hole is great! Warm water, generally calm, very picturesque, and seems to be a fabulous fishing spot. Get here early on the weekend if you want a place to camp that isn’t on a 30+ degree slope. With the drought as bad as it is, the water line is down… WAY down.
Bring drinking water and umbrellas/​shade tents, there’s zero natural shade near the water.
And binocs, Bald Eagles have taken up residence in the area… so cool.

Writing this review because I saw a 2 star review regarding the marina and the staff and I disagree.
We rented the Performance Patio boat which turned out to be really cool! I really could not believe you could wake board behind a patio boat, but we did.
The Performance Patio boat feels like a big, powerful luxury Mercedes when you drive it. It is surprisingly quiet and smooth at high speeds. It is actually easier for both the boarder and the driver to pull people up. It just delivers such a nice, smooth acceleration of power. Perfect for beginner boarders and drivers alike.
Of course, experienced boarders will not like the fact that there is no wake to jump using the patio. That is a tradeoff. it also does not turn very tight, so looping around to pick people up takes a bit longer.
But the trade-​off of having a boat you can board on, AND, be super big and comfortable and quiet is really great.
Staff at the marina were very nice to me. Boards, skis, lifejackets, tow ropes are all given out free of charge. Check-​in and check-​out was a breeze.
We camped at Schoolhouse Campground a few miles from the marina which was nice. Festive, fun at night, but not too party crazy. A nice balance. Potable water and flush toilets, but no showers or electricity in the bathrooms. No real lake access from Schoolhouse Campground. You have to drive to Dark Day day use area. Even from there, the hike down to the water was way too far. The boat launch was the only option for getting close.
Note that Bullards Bar is not that great if you don’t have your own boat or rent one. There really isn’t a good beach anywhere, especially with the water level so low. The first day (when we did not have a rental boat reserved), we went to the Dark Day boat launch just up the road from Schoolhouse Campground. There we could drop off some inner-​tubes, inflatable rafts, chairs and an ice chest. We hung out there for a few hours. But if that boat launch is really busy, it may not be so fun. When we were there, it was mellow.
But basically, get yourself a boat to really enjoy Bollards Bar.

Our family loves Bullards Bar!!! Every summer we come up for boat in camping and never want to leave. The water is always clean and beautiful and it’s always fun cruising around the lake to find a spot to camp. The lake has a nice atmosphere and is family friendly, which is great since our son is four. Whether we are just relaxing on shore or out on the boat exploring the lake, we are always having a great time!
The marina is great too! They always have what we need, and the girls who work there are very friendly. Last summer we rented the MB sport and a pontoon for the weekend. After we had everything loaded up, someone came up to inform us that the pontoon had been double booked, instead of shorting us, the let us take out the party cruiser for the weekend instead and for the price of a pontoon. This party cruiser was amazing!!! It had a BBQ, toilet, stove and a patio on top!!!
Bullards Bar has always treated us great! We leave with smiles on our faces and tons of great memories!!! Can’t wait to see what summer of 2014 brings!

Went here this past Sunday, Rented a pontoon and never had to sign so many papers in my life to rent a boat… It even says u are signing your legal right away??? she didn’t even know what that meant. And all the people who run the place have very bad additudes. the lady at the window acted like she was sorry she was there and hated every moment of being there. when u drive in to the Emerald cove marina u have to drive down this big hill to load off your stuff then have to go park your car all the way back up the hill and walk down and u need to find a wheel barrel to load your stuff and when u ask where they are they say somewhere around here??? and walk down this very long dock to get to our boat. The only person who was nice and this was at the end of the day coming back in to the dock was the lady in the store and the guy when u come back in to doc your boat… Oh yes the boat cost 200.00 dollars for 4 hours and they don’t tell u that u have to pay for the gas u use Till after u sign everything and they show u to your boat. They don’t show the ugly pontoon pic on there web site just the nice looking ones that cost 400.00 But the 26ft is what we got and and it was ugly it was hard to start the gear wouldn’t stay in neural. But on the good side the lake is beautiful. Color of the water is a beautiful greenish blue. Trees all around u very ice. That was my experiece

Went camping here over the weekend, had a pretty good time. The lake was very clear the water was awesome. Pretty steep hills leading to the water at most of the swimming ares and the beaches are mainly quartz and pretty rocky so wear your water shoes unless you dont mind cut up feet.
keep in mind this is a boating campsite — so with that it’s going to be a lot more noisy than regular campsites due to the mass amounts of bro-​at parties going on. They do have sheriffs that patrol pretty regularly but one of them was kicking it for like 30 minutes partying with these loud obnoxious group of people who were yelling and running through peoples campsites till 3am so I don’t think enforcement is that big. Not a calming place to stay… more like a drinking place to stay — so come with a party and bring your beer pong table.
They have bear boxes and firepits… nice little spot. Kinda expensive — as camping sites go but not bad.

Bullards Bar is a great spot for boating, rowing and swimming. Early in the season with the water high you are exposed to new channels and wildlife, and when temps warm and water lowers it is time to be pulled behind the boat or swim in the chilly but refreshing water.
There are boats to rent, a slip to dock, a store open on the weekends and several docks to park at.