Corona Lake has excellent catfish action and a bonus plant of eight to 20-pound cats is slated to go in this week for the official catfish season kickoff. In addition, there is fair to good fishing for bass, bluegill, and tilapia. Even the odd trout is still showing in the catch.

The catfish bite has been good on a variety of baits with mackerel doused garlic Nitro Gravy, nightcrawelers, and shrimp with Gravy all good bets. The best action for catfish has been in the south end of the lake in the flooded trees.

Stan Williams, Fontana, caught the top catfish this week at 16 pounds. Williams was fishing with mackerel from boat. Joe Soboloski, Riverside, landed three, near-identical 12-pound catfish in for a total stringer weight of 36-pounds. Fred Offeney, Riverside, landed a nice stringer of 10 catfish totaling 43-8 on mackerel dipped in garlic Gravy at the south end of the lake. Rick Kizzee, Los Angeles, caught a stringer of catfish totaling 39-pounds with a seven pounder topping the catch. Kizzee was fishing with cut mackerel.

The trout bite has slowed and are only being caught by anglers fishing deep water. Some bass are showing for anglers targeting them. The tilapia are starting to show in much better numbers, especially for anglers fishing the south end of the lake, and bluegill are showing up right along with the tilapia, mostly on nightcrawler pieces.

Catfish will be planted weekly all summer long. This season each plant will have trophy cats from eight to 15 pounds, with an eight to nine pound average on the trophy fish. The average cat will be in the two-pound range. In addition, carp and tilapia will be part of the loads at least every other week, and the lake has already been seeded with 1/2- to pound-sized tilapia. The tilapia planted this size last year, grew into the 2 1/2-pound range by late summer.

Corona Lake is open seven days a week with fishing 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 $20 passes has a five-fish limit. The popular 24-hour fishing passes are now offered every Friday and Saturday night. These passes have a 15-fish limit and cost $60. The family special, where mom and up to three kids 12 or under can help dad catch his limit, will apply on these all-night passes. For more Corona Lake fishing information, call (951) 277-4489 or log on at www.fishinglakes.com.