Of the 12 trout over the 10-pound mark reported by anglers fishing at Santa Ana River Lakes this past week, four of the rainbows topped 20 pounds and two others were in the 19-pound class. The biggest fish posted was a whopping 22 1/2 pound rainbow landed by Jim Soliz, South El Monte, while fishing rainbow Power Bait at the boat dock.

Other monsters included a 21 1/2-pound rainbow landed by Alex Flores, Downey, on a nightcrawler off La Palma Point, while Ayaz Uddin, Anaheim, was fishing a Lip Ripperz at the boat dock to land his 21-pounder. Mike Valedez, Orange, was also fishing a small, white jig to get a 20 1/2-pounder, also at the boat dock.

Ed Locke, Sr., Long Beach, landed a 19 1/4-pound rainbow on green Power Bait at Three Pipes, while Pedro Villa, Anaheim, was fishing a mini jig near the boat dock to catch his 19-pound trout.

If you want to catch a big trout, March is the time to do it here," said Jim Davis, lake manager. "We will be having double stockings of big fish each week for the rest of the month."

Those plants will include more of the huge 20-pound and bigger rainbows. In addition, Davis, said SARL would also be planted with steelhead trout this week and each of the next two weeks.

The warm weather has also turned on the catfish bite, although few anglers are fishing the cats. The best baits have been trout guts in the big lake or the usual catfish baits fished in the Catfish Lake. The same pair of anglers -- David and Pancho Garcia, both of Santa Ana -- have been fishing trout guts and bringing home stringers of cats to 7 1/4 pounds each week. This past week's stringer of 14 fish weighed in at 30 1/4 pounds.

Santa Ana River Lakes 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 lake's 24-hour passes will be available one weekend a month on the Friday and Saturday night nearest the full moon. The next 24-hour fishing will be March 30-31. These passes have a 15-fish limit and cost $45.

For Santa Ana River Lakes fishing information, call (714) 632-7830 www.fishinglakes.com