The catfish action continues to hum along at Santa Ana River Lakes with many anglers reporting nice stringers of fish averaging two to three pounds and many of those catches are anchored with Silver King cats from five to 10 or more pounds.

The big fish reported this past week was a 13 1/2-pounder caught by Tom Shih, Orange, while fishing with a nightcrawlers and four-pond test at Three Pipes.

Ivan Calara and Crissa Truitt, both Long Beach, had a stringer of cats topped with an eight-pounder from the Catfish Lake on the marshmallow-meal worm combo. Jeff and Bruce Granse, both Placentia, landed nine cats for a 19 1/2-pound total with a 6 1/2-pounder their big fish. They were fishing mackerel at the Bubble Hole. A five-pound cat was landed by Shonda Green, Compton, on mackerel at the boat dock.

Typical five-fish stringers weigh from 10 to 14 pounds. Santiago Palacios, West Covina, had 10 cats for 21 1/2 pounds on shrimp at the road. Jerry Kisner, Buena Park, landed five cats for a 10 3/4-pound total on the marshmallow-mackerel combo at the road.

The best action has continued to be early and late in the day or during the Friday and Saturday 24-hour fishing. The fish are showing all around The Lakes' complex on a wide variety of baits, with shrimp, mackerel, and either the marshmallow-meal worm, marshmallow-shrimp, or marshmallow-nightcrawler combos all working. Anglers using one of the prepared scents or paste baits also seem to improve their bite ratios. The catfish plants are each week on Tuesday and Friday, with trophy cats added each week, also on Fridays.

The tilapia are also being stocked each week and some are real quality fish to 2 1/2 pounds and most are one to 1 1/2 pounds.

Anglers fishing dough baits or nightcrawlers are also getting a few nice carp. The best fish this past week was an eight-pound, 10-ouncer reported by Javier Alonzo and Armando Gonzalez, both of Ontario.