Both Lightning Trout and channel catfish were planted at Santa Ana River Lakes this past week and the bite on both was very good over this weekend. The plants were the season finale for Lightning Trout and the season kickoff for catfish. While trout will continue to be planted at least through early May, regular plants of catfish will also be going into SARL as warm weather continues to heat the water temperatures. The first stocking of Big Bad Reds has been delayed until next trout season because the trout just weren't as big as anglers had been promised.

"When we sampled the fish, they just weren't as big as we'd hoped," said Craig Elliott with SARL. "So instead of giving anglers something less than we'd promised them, we're just going to wait until next fall when these trout are even bigger."

Elliott said the Big Bad Reds are going to live up to trophy trout anglers dreams. They are all full-colored, full-finned trophy rainbows that should be at least into the low teens by next fall's trout season. So instead of Big Bad Reds, anglers will see another huge plant of Nebraska Tailwalkers this week.

That plant should just keep the limit-style fishing going at SARL. Anglers are fishing with floating dough baits, small trout jigs, trout plastics, and inflated nightcrawlers, and adding garlic scent seems to help everything. The catfish have been best on the marshmallow-meal worm (M&M) combo. The crappie also continue to show around he docks in the big lake on small jigs tipped with Crappie Nibbles.

Trout will continue to be planted each week right through April 30, which is going to be this year's Angler Appreciation Day, the trout opener in the Sierra Nevada. Anglers who are looking for a way to save money by skipping the opener this year, Santa Ana River Lakes is offering two-for-one permits on Saturday, April 30, to help make that decision a little less painful. When you buy one permit, you get the second one free. You buy one permit and take your wife or fishing buddy fishing for free. Or maybe they will take you along for free.

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 pay only $20. All of these passes have a five-fish limit. For kids 4 to 13, a three-fish pass is just $9. There are 24-hour passes available the weekend nearest the full moon during trout season, with the next overnight fishing tentatively set for May 13-14. These 24-hour passes cost $60 and anglers can bring a spouse and up to three kids to help fill the 24-hour pass 15-fish limit. Camping at SARL is also free with a 24-hour pass. For Santa Ana River Lakes fishing information, call 714-632-7830 or log on at www.fishinglakes.com.