Internet special coupon fills up Corona Lake for Friday evening and 24-hour fishing, 46-pounder landed
Special Extended for all 24-Hour Fishing in September.

Get to Corona Lake early if you want to fish on an evening or 24-hour pass on Fridays. Because of the half-price-plus Internet coupon special ongoing through September, the lake's parking lot has been full and anglers turned away on Friday evenings.

But the fishing has remained good, in spite of the crowds, and there have been some impressive catfish caught in the past week. The biggest fish was a huge 46 1/2-pounder landed by Melissa Welford, Norco, while fishing with mackerel from a boat on Saturday. She had lost two monster cats the week before and finally landed one of the big fish.

Alan and Mike Rowe, Alta Loma, caught 10 catfish that weighed in at 38 1/2 pounds, including a 7 1/4-pounder. Frank Golden, Elsinore, landed a seven-pounder to top off his 24-pound, five-fish stringer. Andrew Griffen, Fontana, landed 11 catfish for 28 pounds, including a six-pounder, while Carlos Carranza, Rialto, had three cats to 5 1/2 pounds. Donny Price, Moreno Valley, and Mike Price, Corona, caught seven catfish that weighed 19 1/4 pounds, including a 5 1/2-pounder. Kurtis McKinney, Los Angeles, caught six cats for 18 pounds, and his best fish was a five pounder.

The best action has continued to be for boat anglers fishing JD's Mackerel or shrimp, cut mackerel, or nightcrawlers doused with garlic, shrimp or anchovy-flavored Gravy.

Sturgeon are still very slow, but the tilapia and carp bites are pretty good for the anglers targeting them. The tilapia are running from one to nearly three pounds and showing on nightcrawler pieces, while the carp are best on dough baits.

The Corona Lake's "anglers' pocketbook stimulus package" is ongoing through September, and it is packing the lake on Friday evenings and through the night as anglers snap up discount passes. Designed to keep a little extra money in anglers' pockets, the coupons offer huge discounts on regular day, evening, and 24-hour passes on Fish Day Fridays. But to get the discount, you have to download a coupon from the lakes web site. With this coupon, the regular $22 day or evening pass is only $9.95 and the 24-hour pass is just $29.95, well below the regular $60 price. And anglers can still bring the wife and up to three kids to help dad catch the 15-fish limit on that 24-hour pass. This represents more than a 50 percent discount on both the 24-hour and regular day and evening passes. Remember that catfish and tilapia are planted each week at Corona Lake, and light crowds for the past month obviously have kept catch rates down and stockpiled fish in the lake. The good action and quality fish are starting to reflect that.

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 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 24-hour passes are sold every Friday and Saturday and are NOW only $29.95, through September. Anglers can bring a spouse and up to three kids to help fill the 24-hour pass 15-fish limit. Don't forget to download the coupon to get this 50 percent savings on Fridays, and every 24-Hour Fishing Session through September. Corona Lake fishing information, call 951-277-4489 or log on at www.fishinglakes.com