Beginning with a stocking of 600 four- to six-inch rainbow trout in 1948 in the Norfork Dam tailwater located in North Central Arkansas, a fishery soon developed which was entirely new to the area. With the completion of Bull Shoals Dam in 1952, investigations began which soon showed that the native fishery was destroyed for many miles below the high dams. A trout stocking program carried on in conjunction with an investigational project produced such excellent trout fishing that the area became nationally famous within a few years, and a modern trout hatchery was constructed just below Norfork Dam by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the purpose of producing trout for stocking the White River and its tributaries. By 1957 trout were being stocked in 91 miles of tailwater streams which supported 47,792 man days of fishing, generating $684,732.00 worth of business to the fishing service operators alone.
