The same thing happened in Bull Shoals, where in the 1980s stocked rainbow trout fed both walleyes and stripers. In fact, an angler named William Sligar set the state record for stripers on Bull Shoals in 1987 with a fish that weighed 53 pounds.

Trout failed to thrive at Lake Norfork because of a temperature-oxygen squeeze that occurs in hot weather, when most of the lake's oxygen is pushed near the surface where it's too warm for trout to live. Even though the deep water was cold enough for trout, there wasn't enough oxygen to support them.

An early casualty of that phenomenon was a promising lake trout fishery that was just coming into its own before it was suddenly wiped out. Lake trout are a separate species that inhabit deep, cold northern and western lakes. In the early '80s, the AGFC stocked "lakers," and they did well for about three years. People started catching a lot of lake trout in the 7- to 9-pound range, and a number of anglers began specializing for them, especially at Greers Ferry. Low dissolved oxygen problems hit a little worse than usual for a spell, and the lake trout went looking for oxygen. They found it by coming through the dams. Many were cut into chum in the turbines. Those that made it through simply exploded when they suddenly went from 150 feet deep to less than 20.

Once in a while, an angler catches a monster lake trout on Greers Ferry, but otherwise that's an extinct fishery.

Stratification wasn't as severe on Bull Shoals, so the AGFC decided that Norfork would be a striper lake, and Bull Shoals would be a trout lake. That arrangement has worked out well. Lake Norfork is an excellent place for catching big stripers, and Bull Shoals is a popular draw for trout fishermen.

"Bull Shoals developed an avid following that remains," Armstrong said. "People planned vacations to come to Bull Shoals to fish for trout."

Which is why the marinas chose to continue the program on their own. Anglers catch about 5 percent of the trout stocked on Bull Shoals, compared to 30 percent of those stocked on the White River below Bull Shoals Dam. Obviously, it's not cost-effective for the AGFC to stock large numbers of trout in reservoirs, but there's enough demand to maintain that fishery on a smaller scale.

Despite the perils and limitations, sufficient numbers of rainbows survive successive years to attain substantial growth. In addition to the 30,000 11-inch rainbows stocked into Bull Shoals annually, there are enough fish in the 4- to 6-pound range to keep anglers interested. They also provide a necessary element of surprise.

While catch-and-release fishing is the norm below the dams, no such ethic applies to rainbows caught in Bull Shoals Lake. During the summer, a released trout would have virtually no chance of survival, as you'll most likely catch it deep in cold water and then fight it through warm water for a considerable distance. After it spends a minute or two in the blazing sun as you get the hook out, releasing it would be wasteful and cruel.