Corona Lake's catfish bite has remained very good to excellent with a lot of quality stringers of mixed blue catfish and Silver King channel catfish reported over the past week. Both types of catfish are being planted twice a week, and tilapia are now included each week, too.

The best catfish reported was a nine-pounder landed by Bob Schem, Walnut Grove, that topped off his seven-fish, 31-pound stringer caught on mackerel in the tree line. Doug Lang, Rosamond, was fishing nightcrawlers at the dam to land a 7 1/2-pound cat, along with a holdover 3 1/4-pound rainbow. Richard and Max Maxwell, Los Angeles, had an eight-fish 31 1/4-pound stringer topped off with a 6-pound, two-ounce cat, all on shrimp fished at mid-lake from a boat. Eric Holter and Joe Dzugas, both Corona, had 10 catfish for 32 pounds total fishing mackerel behind the bait shop.

A few bass also continue to show, and there has been a decent bite on bluegill and tilapia on small worms or nightcrawler pieces. Cindy Miller, Rancho Cucamonga, landed a six-pound bass on a nightcrawler with Gravy on two-pound test off J.D.'s Point.

Corona Lake is also hosting five Biggest Catfish Derbies every weekend. Entry fee is $5 for any of the five permit time frames - from 5 to 11 p.m. Friday, from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, from 5 to 11 p.m. Saturday evening, 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, and from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday evening. (There will be no derbies for the mid-day special at noon or the 24-hour fishing pass holders. All of the derbies feature a 100 percent payout of the whole pot to the angler catching the biggest catfish. If 20 anglers enter at $5 each, the biggest catfish caught among those 20 anglers wins that angler the whole $100 pot.

Anglers are reminded that Corona and its sister water Santa Ana River Lakes are the only waters in Southern California being planted with blue cats this season, and fish to 20 pounds will be stocked. Anglers can expect to see blue catfish to 40 pounds or more as these fish age -- both in SARL and at the hatchery. SARL has exclusive rights to over 300,000 of these blues and that number will just increase in the next few years. Tilapia are also being planted each week.