The catfish bite has broken wide open at Santa Ana River Lakes with limits of catfish common during the heat of the Fourth of July weekend at Santa Ana River Lakes.

If there was a common denominator for those limits, it was simply that most were caught on the marshmallow-meal worm combination bait. The biggest Silver King catfish reported was a 7 1/4-pounder landed by Santiago Osnaya of Anaheim while fishing the M&M combo at the road. The fish topped off his 17 1/2-pound limit. Jerry Kisner, Buena Park, landed five cats for 16 1/2 pounds total and his best fish was a 4-pound, 10-ounce fish, also on the M&M combo at the road. Kisner said the action was just "too easy."

Our photo shows one of the best stringers of the week was a 16-fish cat by Fernando and Rolando Castro of Lynwood. The pair caught 16 catfish that weighed 24 1/2 pounds, again on the M&M combo. Even the best sturgeon of the week, a 15 1/2-pounder caught by Pascual Huerta, Santa Ana, was landed on the M&M combo.