Important Dates to Ozark Trout Anglers
(excerpted from Ozark Trout Tales, by Steve Wright)

1947	Bull Shoals Dam construction begins. Commercial power generation starts in 1952.
1948	Arkansas Game and Fish Commission experimentally stocks 600 rainbow trout (4-6 inches long) in the Norfork Tailwater in July. Within one year, 2 - 3 pound trout are caught. By the end of the second year, 6 - 8 pound trout are caught.
1955	On August 4, Congress authorizes construction of the Norfork National Fish Hatchery as mitigation for the loss of the native warmwater fishery in the White River Basin. Construction is completed in 1957.
1959	During the first year of record keeping, Arkansas' rainbow trout mark is broken four times from June 11 through October 2, increasing from 11 pounds, 3 ounces to 15 pounds, 8 ounces. Two state record brown trout are caught - 10 pounds, 13 ounces, then 12 pounds, 2 ounces.
1960	Beaver Dam construction begins in November. Commercial power generation starts in May 1965, and the overall project is completed in June 1966.
1972	Troy Lackey lands an Arkansas and North American record brown trout weighing 31 pounds, 8 ounces from the Bull Shoals Tailwater.
1977	Leon Waggoner breaks Lackey's records with a 33 pound, 8 ounce brown trout from the Bull Shoals Tailwater.
1985	Arkansas' cutthroat trout record is broken four times, increasing from 3 pounds to 9 pounds, 9 ounces.
1988	August proves to be the best month for big brown trout in Ozark history as three 30-plus-pounders are caught in the North Fork River, near its confluence with the White, including a new state and world record 38 pound, 9 ounce fish by Huey Manley.
1992	Howard "Rip" Collins sets new world and state brown trout records with a 40 pound, 4 ounce fish caught in the Greers Ferry Tailwater.