Volume and quality. That's how the official trout season opener this past week at Santa Ana River Lakes was billed, and that's exactly what anglers saw with a veritable parade of nice stringers of trout coming out of this popular Orange County fishing complex. Five varieties of rainbow trout were planted, from the popular Nebraska Tailwalkers, Ruby Reds, and Sierra Bows to the giant Super Trout and newly-developed Big Bad Reds.

As of Monday, the biggest trout of the opening weekend was a 17 1/2-pound Mt. Lassen Super Trout landed by Dave Beaver, Anaheim, fishing near the boat dock with a small trout plastic fished drop-shot style on Friday. Carlos Sanchez, Tustin, weighed in a 12 1/2-pounder he caught off the north shore on a chartreuse garlic floating bait.

Many anglers anchored five-fish stringers with rainbows from four to eight pounds. Dan Hom, Cerritos, had a 17 1/4-pound stringer topped off with a nine-pounder. Tim Meyer, Huntington Beach, landed five rainbows for 18 pounds and his best fish was a five pounder. The catfish bite was also good in the Catfish Lake with some impressive stringers of fish landed. Jesse La Pena, Rowland Heights, had five cats for 56-pounds, two-ounces on shrimp in the Catfish Lake. His biggest fish was 14-2 and the smallest was 9 1/2-pounds. Alvis Andrews, Cerritos, had a 14-pounder on mackerel in the Catfish Lake, while Joyce Woodall, Norwalk, landed a 10-pounder on shrimp off the west shore.

Massive trout plants will continue this week for the Thanksgiving weekend to keep this action sizzling. The best bite has been on floating dough baits with added scent and then jigged back toward shore to add motion and a scent trail to entice the trout. Even on Monday this week, some anglers were reporting limits of five trout in less than two hours of fishing.