Anaheim Lake's catfish bite has remained very good over the past week with light fishing pressure and lots of limits of two-pound average catfish.

Due to an large numbers of coromorants, the best action remains in deep water where the fish retreat during daylight hours, but they do move up at night and can be caught in much shallower water then. Shrimp and mackerel have been the best baits, but the marshmallow-meal worm (M&M) combo, nightcrawlers, or one of the prepared baits have also been good. Adding a prepared scent like Love Sauce, Bite On, or Gravy to the baits is improving the strike ratio.

The bubble hole and the hump directly between Catfish Island and Honker Island remain the top spots, but most points along the whole west side of the lake and the deep water off Trout Island are also good bets. Shore fishermen capable of making long casts to deeper water are having just as good success as boat anglers during the day, and the shore night action is very good as the fish move up tight to the banks.

For the second week in a row a nine-pound catfish was the top fish landed. Pedro Villa, Anaheim, landed this week's nine-poun der fishing the M&M combo in the northwest corner of the lake. Daniel Fraysure, Lakewood, had five catfish for a 10-pound total stringer and his best fish was a 3 1/2-pounder, while Rex Gadia, Westminister, landed four catfish to three pounds.

The weekend Catfish Derbies continue to be held each Friday, Saturday and Sunday. 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 are 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 10 anglers enter at $5 each, the biggest catfish caught among those 10 anglers wins that angler the whole $50 pot.
Anaheim Lake continues to receive twice-weekly plants of catfish and tilapia on Tuesday and Thursday and will through the rest of the summer fishing season.