Plants of trophy rainbows each of the past two weeks at Santa Ana River Lakes, and light fishing pressure because of the Christmas holiday and rainy weather have led to a heavy stockpiling of rainbows in these popular Orange County fishing lakes. The best news is that the bite is excellent. Because heavy runoff was diverted away from the lakes, the water level and clarity remain stable and anglers fishing scented nightcrawlers or chartreuse floating baits are putting a lot of quality trout on their stringers and a few sturgeon are also being caught. Top trout this past week was a 12-pound rainbow that topped off a five-fish 17 1/2-pound limit posted by Doi Luong, Chino, fishing green floating bait off La Palma Point. Alan Wedsman, Lakewood, landed an eight-pound trout as the top fish on his five-fish, 17 3/4-pound stringer, also on green floating bait. Mike Fry, Tustin, also had a limit of five fish that weighed 13 1/2 pounds and his best was a 4 1/2-pounder. John Allen, La Mirada, also landed a four-pounder to top off his three-fish, 8 3/4-pound catch.

The best sturgeon landed was a 100-pound class sturgeon battled for 20 minutes on 20-pound test line by Trino Magana, La Habra. The fish was hooked on a nightcrawler off the sandy beach. Stephen Rodriguez, Whittier, landed a 17-pound sturgeon at three pipes, also on a nightcrawler. The popular Nebraska Tailwalkers will be planted again this week, rain or shine, and anglers can always see the videos of these plants of The Lakes YouTube page. There is a direct link to this page off www.fishinglakes.com . 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 passes is $22. Seniors only pay $20. 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 available Friday and Saturday nearest the full moon through trout season. These passes are just $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