While the trout bite remains surprisingly good for anglers fishing deep water at the dam, the Corona Lake catfish bite exploded this past week in part because of weekly plants now going in and in part because of the warm weather that kicked up the water temperatures to the cats liking.

The catfish are showing all around the lake, but boat anglers fishing in the trees are getting a lot of fish on cut baits. The trout anglers are seeing the best bite on plastics worms, mice tail baits, and small jigs. John Smith, Norco, and Billy Brink, Moreno Valley, teamed up to landed 10 catfish for a 42-pound total stringer, including a 10-pounder. All were taken on J.D's Mackerel from a boat. Steve and Sylvia Benson, Rowland Heights, had eight catfish for 32 1/2 pounds, including one at five pounds. The pair also had four trout to 1 1/2 pounds fishing from the shore at the dam. Alex and Eric Cruz, Ontario, landed three trout to 2 1/2 pounds each fishing Lip RipperZ jigs and Love Sauce at the dam. The catfish season Grand Opening has been set for Memorial Day weekend and SARL will be heavily planted with blue catfish. Blues are the largest species of catfish in the United States, growing twice as big as channel cats normally planted in Corona. These cats are fast-growing and they get big. The best news is that thousands of pounds of these quality catfish will be planted for the big opener Memorial Day weekend, and they will be planted every week of the catfish season this year along with the Silver Channel Cats.