Good Tailwalker trout action at Santa Ana River Lakes this week
The big Nebraska Tailwalkers are showing off at Santa Ana River Lakes, and the bite on these rainbows has been good to excellent this past week with a lot of fish in the five- to seven-pound class.

Top Tailwalker was an 8 1/2-pounder that topped off and eight-fish stringer caught by James and Sam Ratanan, Ontario, while fishing nightcrawlers off the sandy beach. The whole stringer weighed in at 25 pounds.

A rainbows at 7 1/2 pounds was caught by Jerry Stanley, West Covina, as part of a five-fish limit weighing 17 1/2 pounds on orange Power Bait off the sandy beach. Richard Huntley and Tanner Janssen, both La Habra, had rainbows at 7 1/2 and 6 1/2 pounds fishing Lip RipperZ near the boat ramp. James Neal, Ontario, also had a 7 1/2-pound Tailwalker fishing corn-flavored Nitro Bait near the pump house.

Mike Sergeant, Buena Park, had a 10-fish stringer that weighed 29 pounds, including a seven-pounder, with all of his trout caught at the Bubble Hole on rainbow Nitro Bait.

The average five-fish, single-pass limit weighed in at 12 to 16 pounds with an awful lot of 3 1/2-pound Tailwalkers in the mix. Top baits have been the rainbow and chartreuse Nitro Bait or inflated nightcrawlers spiced up with Nitro Gravy.

Santa Ana River Lakes is currently being stocked with Nebraska Tailwalkers in alternating weeks with Mt. Lassen Trout Farms trout, and each of the Lassen plants will have trophy rainbows from the teens into the 20-plus pound class. This is a Lassen week.

Santa Ana River Lakes is normally 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 passes is $22. Seniors only pay $20, with a special $17 pass sold on Wednesdays. All of these passes have a five-fish limit. For kids 4 to 13, a three-fish pass is just $9. The once-monthly 24-hour passes remain just $60 with the next 24-hour fishing coming up Martin Luther King weekend Jan. 16-18 -- three nights of all-night fishing thanks to the Monday holiday. These passes have a 15-fish limit. For Santa Ana River Lakes fishing information, call 714-632-7830 or log on at www.fishinglakes.com