No one can remember anything like this. "It's kind of a once-in-a-lifetime experience," said Doug Elliott, who co-owns the Santa Ana River Lakes fishing concession with Bill Andrews. "I've been in the fishing business for 30 years and no one's ever offered me 100-pound sturgeon." But 100- to 150-pound sturgeon are exactly what was planted in Orange County's Santa Ana River Lakes and its sister water, Corona Lake in western Riverside County, on Wednesday this week. The fish are surplus broodstock fish from a sturgeon hatchery in Galt, and Elliott said they bought all of the huge fish available -- all 3,000 pounds of them.

"These are the largest freshwater fish anyone's ever going to catch, and we're making them all catch-and-release so everyone might get a chance to tie into one of these monsters," said Elliott. Everyone who lands one, however, will win a $200 prize package for landing and releasing the fish back into SARL. The package includes two free gate passes ($40 value), a free pontoon boat rental ($85 value), and a top-quality Eagle Claw graphite catfish rod, multi-ball bearing spinning reel, and spool of Lazer line ($75 value).

This isn't the first time sturgeon have come to Santa Ana River Lakes. "We know they'll do well because we've had 'em in there before," said Elliott. "Back then we planted them as five and six pounders and they grew up to, oh, 30 or 40 pounds." But when the first sturgeon over 100 pounds and change is landed at Santa Ana or Corona, it will become the largest freshwater fish ever caught in Southern California, beating even the largest blue catfish ever landed (which was just over 100 pounds). Trout and catfish regulars at SARL are looking at each other and wondering what baits to use and what type of tackle to use for the sturgeon. Elliott said that he's heard that anchovies, frozen shad, and roe from fresh-caught rainbow trout are all likely good baits for the sturgeon, and the question is whether or not they'll take baits fished on line heavy enough to land them handily. Sturgeon veterans from the Delta up north say 12 to 20-pound test line on beefy gear will do the trick.

In spite of all the buzz about the sturgeon, the trout action is still sharing center stage. The rainbow bite has remained excellent and there will continue to be weekly plants of the big rainbows for at least another month or two. In the past week, another dozen rainbows over 10 pounds were landed, including a pair of matching 17 1/2-pounders, one landed by Paul Dao, Orange, and the other by Andy and Ivan Galaviz, Arcadia. The Galaviz also had an eight-pound rainbow, and both of the 17 1/2-pounder were caught on Lip Ripperz plastics. Trout at 16 1/2 pounds were caught by Gene Lamanna, Tujunga, and Richard Ishikawa, Anaheim Hills, while Jess Flores, Rosemead, landed a 16-pounder. The rainbow bite has been best on small jigs and plastics, like the Lip Ripperz, but a good number of fish are also showing on floating baits -- both Nitro Bait and Power Bait -- in rainbow, yellow, and chartreuse or inflated nightcrawlers. Adding Nitro Gravy to all the baits will improve your catch rates. While Chris' Pond has been a hot spot this past week, the rainbows are still showing from all around the lakes' complex.

The catfish bite is also good, but few anglers are fishing the whiskerfish right now. Jimmy Suchy, Anaheim, and Tony Avila, La Habra, fished the Bubble Hole with the marshmallow-meal worm combination doused with shrimp Catfish Gravy to land 10 catfish that weighed 60 1/2 pounds. Quite a few catfish from four to five pounds have also been landed by trout anglers in the past week. 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 this Friday and Saturday (March 30-31), and 24-hour fishing will also be offered Easter weekend. These passes have a 15-fish limit and cost $45. For Santa Ana River Lakes fishing information, call (714) 632-7830 or log on at www.fishinglakes.com.