"This area does have good mayfly hatches, too, which provide recurring sources of food that trout prefer," said Dreves. "Some anglers will use those hatches to their advantage in picking good times to fish."

The increasing numbers of bigger trout in the upper 35 miles of the river, from the dam down to around Burkesville, are affected by having good habitat and cold water year 'round. But that's also greatly due to the management strategy being used in this stretch of the Cumberland.

The trophy management approach is aimed primarily at growing monster brown trout, like the 21-pound state record caught in 2000 by Thomas Malone of Crofton. It's really the only place where trophy management can be applied for this species, and it has worked amazingly well.

The stocking approach, along with the 20-inch minimum-size limit and one-fish daily creel limit, has created a fishery for big browns that is a shining star for the state compared to any of its fisheries anywhere else. Each year, the KDFWR stocks just shy of 40,000 brown trout at various locations in the Cumberland River to maintain a supply of fish.

Brown trout are not released at the dam, but rather from Helm's Landing (four-plus miles downstream), and then downstream for the next 30 miles or so. No browns are stocked in the first four miles or so because this portion gets the most fishing pressure. Biologists want to try to protect these browns from immediate harvest.

That way, more of these fish have a chance to get bigger before being caught. Browns are 9 inches long when released.

"We depend on the rainbows to provide for the demand for put-and-take fishing, which mostly occurs immediately below the dam in the first mile or two of the tailwater," said Dreves.

"Now that's not to say some browns won't move upstream and find a place to live. But it's largely going to be rainbows available down to Helm's Landing. Then after that point, both species can be caught.

In this particular waterway, the number of 8-inch rainbows released each year is 161,000. While that sounds like a huge number, Dreves says this rate is a little below what's received by some other well-known quality fisheries in the Southeast.

At times, he notes, the Wolf Creek National Hatchery also drops in additional fish. During some years, that may push the total number of rainbows up to around 200,000 fish.

"I think the lower rate may also have something to do with how quickly our trout grow and why this fishery has developed into one with a lot of trophy potential," he said.