- VIEW EVENT VIDEO -  Healing and Reeling Big Trout Tournament

Over $9,000 raised for Project Healing Waters veteran's group during weekend

trout tournament at Santa Ana River Lakes
 

Over $9,000 was for Project Healing Waters during this past Saturday's "Healing and Reeling Big Trout Tournament" at Santa Ana River Lakes.
"This special event was designed to give back and honor the gallant men and women in the nation's armed forces who have given so much to protect our country and our freedoms," said Craig Elliott at SARL.
 

Project Healing Waters is dedicated to the physical and emotional rehabilitation of disabled military service personnel through fishing, education and outings.

"The Project focuses on rehabilitation of veterans by offering them the opportunity to hang out on the water with friends, have some great fun, and some fantastic fishing," said Elliott "And this event was lots of fun and there were lots of fish caught. The veterans and our anglers can't wait for next year's event."

The winner of the big-fish event was Tobias Wildman or Carson with a 15-pound, 10-ounce rainbow he caught on a nightcrawler. Jim Anderson, La Puente, was second with a 14-pound, 15-ounce trout caught on corn dough bait, while the third place price went to Jay Lamori, West Covina, with a 13-pound, 12-ounce trout, also caught on corn-flavored dough bait.

The event has over 50 major sponsors who donated prizes to the post event raffle, including including Shimano, Western Outdoor News, Davey's Locker, Turners, Eagle Claw, John Deere, Panther Martin and many, many more.
"The raffle took two hours to complete, there were so many prizes," said Elliott.

The huge trout plant for the tournament also made the trout action excellent both before and after the tournament fishing day. The biggest trout of the week was a 16 1/2-pound rainbow caught by Alex Castro, East Los Angeles, on Sunday while fishing with green PowerBait at the pump house. David Rochin, Fullerton, landed a 14 3/4-pound trout on a TK Worm near the boat dock, and Mathew Estrada, Norwalk, landed a 14-pound, two-ounce rainbows on a garlic-flavored dough bait off the east shoreline of the big lake. Andy Rivera, Covina, had a 14-pound, one-ounce rainbow on chartreuse PowerBait, also near the dock, and Scott Nakata, Garden Grove, landed an 11 1/2-pound trout on a green jig off Levitz' Corner.

 The trout have been averaging from one to three pounds and many stringers have had kicker fish from four to 10 pounds or better. The trophy rainbows have been major parts of every plant put into The Lakes this season. A typical stringer of trout was a 15-fish catch reported by Mark Mitchell and Jose Tirado, both Los Angeles, that weighed in at 22-pounds, six-ounces. Their big fish was a 4 1/4-pound rainbow.

The top bait continues to be the new Hatchery Dust rolled onto the outside of just about any floating dough bait, but the Power Mice Tails, small trout plastics, and trout jigs are all producing lots of fish.

There are hefty plants of rainbows each week, and those plants always include a large component of trophy trout topping 10 pounds. Next week (April 18), anglers will also see the largest plant of Lightning Trout of the season in preparation for a weekend trout tournament held in conjunction with Phil Friedman Outdoors radio. More information is available on The Lakes' website at www.fishinglakes.com.
 

The warmer weather is also turning on the catfish bite in SARL's Catfish Lake, but few anglers are targeting the cats right now. One pair of anglers had 11 catfish to 4 1/2-pounds.
 

Santa Ana River Lakes is open seven-days-a-week. Fishing is allowed from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. on day passes or from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. on an evening pass. Each of these passes is $25. Seniors pay only $23 with a $20 special on Wednesdays. All of these passes have a five-fish limit. For kids 4 to 13, a three-fish pass is just $12. There are 24-hour passes offered on Friday and Saturday night on weekends nearest the full moon each month for $75. An angler can bring his or her spouse and three kids 17 years or younger on that $75 permit, and all can help catch the 15-fish limit. Camping at SARL is thrown in for free. For Santa Ana River Lakes fishing information, call 714-632-7830 or log on at www.fishinglakes.com.

Quality trout limits are the
rule for Corona Lake anglers

The cooler days this past week have kicked the trout action into high gear at Corona Lake for both shore and boat anglers. The warm weather had been pushing the trout out of the shallower shoreline areas into deeper water where they were less accessible to shore-bound anglers, but that changed over the past week and the limits were common for everyone. Big trout topping 10 pounds are still included in each week's trout plant at Corona Lake, while the bulk of the fish are nice, stringer-filling one to two-pound rainbows. The best bite continues to be on floating dough baits rolled in the new Hatchery Dust, with Power Mice Tails, small trout worms, small jigs, and inflated nightcrawlers all close seconds.

The big fish of the week was a 14 1/2-pound rainbow landed by Terry Weelborg, Lakewood, while fishing a Mice Tail at the dam. Paul Rodriguez and Chase Shope, both Fontana, caught a total of 24 rainbows, including one at 10 1/2-pounds. Typical five-fish stringers were posted by James Eslkamp and Anthony Moronez, both Rancho Cucamonga. Their stringers weighed 10 1/2 and 11 1/2 pounds respectively and their top fish were 4 1/4 and 4 3/4 pounds. Both were fishing garlic chartreuse PowerBait at the dam. Jacob Kennedy, Norco, landed five trout for a total of 14 pounds and his big fish was a six-pounder caught on PowerBait off the dam shoreline.

The catfish are also beginning to stir and showing in good numbers for anglers targeting the cats. Mike Bradshaw, Mira Loma, landed five cats on mackerel for 20 pounds total, and his best fish was a 6 1/2-pounder.

 Corona Lake is open on a seven-days-a-week schedule. Fishing is allowed from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. on day passes or from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. on an evening pass. Each of these passes is $25. Seniors pay only $23, with a $20 special on Wednesdays. All of these passes have a five-fish limit. For kids 4 to 13, a three-fish pass is just $12. The 24-hour passes are only sold the weekend nearest the full moon. The 24-hour passes cost $75 and have a 15 fish limit. An angler can bring his wife and up to three kids 17 and under and all can help fill the 15-fish limit on one of these passes, and camping is free at Corona with a 24-hour pass. For Corona Lake fishing information, call 951-277-4489 or log on at www.fishinglakes.com.