Starting its trout season nearly a month earlier than normal, both Santa Ana River Lake and Corona Lake will receive plants of one-pound Sierra 'Bows from this week on Thursday. This begins the weekly trout stocking program at both lake complexes.



Sierra Bows will be planted again Oct. 14, and then they will be joined by the Nebraska Tailwalkers on Oct. 20 for the Tailwalker Opener. There will be another plant of Sierra Bows on Oct. 27. All of these initial plants will be of pan-sized fish in the one to two-pound range.

The first plants of the super trophies will go in November 3rd, when both lake complexes are planted with Tailwalker trophies up to 15 pounds. These are fish that are conditioned in fast-water raceways before being planted, and these will be the biggest, hardest-fighting rainbows ever planted at either Santa Ana River Lakes or Corona Lake, according to Doug Elliott.

"These fish are real line-strippers," said Elliott. "There have never been fish of this size that fight this hard ever planted in Southern California."

The weekend after the Tailwalker trophies are stocked, both SARL and Corona will get plants of some of the biggest Sierra 'Bows ever produced by Mt. Lassen Trout Farms -- fish that are bigger than 20 pounds but with full tails and pink meat.

Anglers can get more information on the trout plants program from The Lakes web site at www.fishinglakes.com. Videos of all this season's trout plants will be posted on The Lakes' You-Tube page as soon as they take place, so you can actually see the fish being planted.

Both lakes also continue to have very good catfish action after plants of whiskerfish last Wednesday. Jim Barnett, Redondo Beach, had a six-pound cat to top off his stringer at SARL while fishing mackerel off the Sandy Beach. Ed and Anna Homister, Los Angeles, landed 10 cats for 22 1/2 pounds, including a 5 1/2-pounder, while fishing nightcrawlers off the east shoreline at SARL.

Both lakes are 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 available every Friday and Saturday night are $60, and anglers can bring a spouse and up to three kids to help fill the 24-hour pass 15-fish limit. Camping at the lakes is free with the 24-hour pass. For Santa Ana River Lakes fishing information, call 714-632-7830 or log on at www.fishinglakes.com.