The bite on channel and blue catfish to six pounds has been very good this past week at Santa Ana River Lakes thanks to twice-weekly plants of these popular gamefish. Full stringers of cats from 1 1/2 to three pounds have been the rule, and there have been a lot of kicker fish in the bigger sizes.

The top catfish reported this past week was a 7 1/2-pounder caught by Jose Magana, La Habra, fishing the marshmallow-meal worm (M&M) combo at the bubble hole. That fish topped off his 11-fish stringer. Jesus Flores, Baldwin Park, had four catfish to 6 1/2 pounds on mackerel in the Catfish Lake. That cat also won him the $195 winner-take-all jackpot on Father's Day. Ruben Felix, Anaheim, landed four cats to six pounds fishing chicken liver off the north shore. The total four-fish stringer weighed 16 3/4-pounds.

A couple of the better stringers reported included a 10-fish catch posted by Craig Joachim and Jack Fabian, both Anaheim, that weighed 21 1/2 pounds and included one four-pounder, and a nine-fish, 13 3/4-pound stringer weighed in by Chico and Tyler Sandoval, both Torrance.

The best action has continued to be on mackerel, shrimp, or the M&M combo with fish showing out of all three lakes.

SARL 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 SARL and its sister water Corona Lake 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.