Six more trout over 15 pounds caught at Santa Ana River Lakes
There continues to be a steady procession of giant rainbow trout being caught at Santa Ana River Lakes, and the overall trout bite is simply wide open with lots of limits of one to two-pound class trout being caught every day.
Bill with 19.8 lb trout !!The big rainbow this past week was a 19 1/2-pounder caught by Bill Kamio, Westminster, fishing an orange Power Mouse in the dock area of the big lake. Kory Allen, Garden Grove, landed an 18.4-pound rainbow drop-shoting a plastic trout worm, while Trac Nguyen, Roland Heights, caught a 17-pounder on a Power Worm. Frank Guzman, Downey, topped of his four-fish catch with a 16-pound rainbow fishing a green jig on one day and landed a 15-pounder another day on a Sierra Slammer jig another day. Augie Smith, Irvine, landed a 15 1/2-pounder on yellow jig.
The best action continues to be on floating baits rolled in the new Hatchery Dust additive or Power Mice Tails, trout plastics, and small trout jigs. Bright colors have been the best in the floating baits or lures this past week, with chartreuse and orange the hot colors.
Santa Ana continues to be get a huge plant of trout each Thursday that features tons of pan-sized rainbows along with a large component of bigger trout from five to 15-plus pounds — and there will be more trophy fish planted this week for the weekend tournament.
That tournament is the Lip RipperZ Hatchery Dust Challenge set for Saturday. This is another big fish/blind bogey 50-50 tournament with added money in the big fish category when the winning fish are caught with Hatchery Dust. These tournaments have become very popular at SARL because everyone has a shot at a share of the prize money with 10 different blind bogey cash awards totaling half of the entry fee pool, and then the biggest four trout divide up the other half of the entry fee pool. This means 100 percent of the entry fees are paid back to anglers in an every split between the big fish and blind bogey portions of the event. There is also added money if you catch one of the four biggest fish using Hatchery Dust. The entry fee is $20, in addition to the regular lake fishing fee, and more information and complete tournament rules are available at The Lakes website, www.fishinglakes.com.
Anglers should also mark off the following weekend on their calendars, too. That week, SARL will get a huge plant of Lightning Trout, one of the most popular trout planted at The Lakes each year. The plant will coincide with this month’s two 24-hour fishing days on Friday, Feb. 22 and Saturday, Feb. 23. Anglers can purchase 24-hour passes those two nights for $75. With the family special, an angler can bring his or her spouse and three kids 17 years or younger on that $75 permit, and all can help catch the 15-fish limit. Camping at SARL is thrown in for free.
Santa Ana River Lakes is open seven-days-a-week. Fishing is allowed from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. on day passes or from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. on an evening pass. Each of these passes is $25. Seniors pay only $23 with a $20 special on Wednesdays. All of these passes have a five-fish limit. For kids 4 to 13, a three-fish pass is just $12. There are 24-hour passes offered on Friday and Saturday night on weekends nearest the full moon each month. For Santa Ana River Lakes fishing information, call 714-632-7830 or log on at www.fishinglakes.com.

Trout bite remains hot at Corona Lake

Anglers continue to take home quality stringers of rainbow trout at Corona Lake. Five-fish limits of trout averaging from one to two pounds have been the norm for both shore and boat or float tube anglers over the past week, and the top fish was a 10 1/2-pounder caught by Jimmy Whirl, Temecula on green PowerBait. The best shore action has been from the cove behind bait shop all the way to the dam with the best action in the deeper water in this stretch. Anglers fishing from boats or float tubes are getting most of their fish from the dam to the upper end of the lake along the main channel. Floating dough baits or Power Mice Tails rolled in the new Hatchery Dust, scent-doused nightcrawlers, small trout jigs and trout plastics have all been good baits for the trout. Francisco Alvarado and Jonathan Herrera, both Corona, had a pretty typical double limit of 10 trout that weighed in at 13 pounds and was topped off with a 2 1/2-pound rainbow. The stringer was caught on rainbow PowerBait near the boat dock. The catfish are little fished, but Steve and Victor Fimbres, from Mexico, had six catfish to five pounds from shore behind the bait shop with trout entrails. Heavy weekly plants of rainbows averaging around a pound are made each week, and those plants always have a hefty component of rainbows from five to eight pounds along with super trophies topping 10 pounds and going well up into the teens. Corona Lake is open on a seven-days-a-week schedule. Fishing is allowed from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. on day passes or from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. on an evening pass. Each of these passes is $25. Seniors pay only $23, with a $20 special on Wednesdays. All of these passes have a five-fish limit. For kids 4 to 13, a three-fish pass is just $12. The 24-hour passes are only sold the weekend nearest the full moon, and those two days will be Feb. 22-23 this month. The 24-hour passes cost $75 and have a 15 fish limit. An angler can bring his wife and up to three kids 17 and under and all can help fill the 15-fish limit on one of these passes, and camping is free at Corona with a 24-hour pass. For Corona Lake fishing information, call 951-277-4489 or log on at www.fishinglakes.com.