Santa Ana River Lakes rainbow trout action has been excellent over the past week and the parade of big trout through the tackle shop from six to 12 pounds has been a long and steady one. The best news is that this week is when the really big trout are being planted for the long four-day Christmas weekend. The plant last week only held the "teenagers."

The largest trout weighed in the tackle shop was a 14-pounder caught by Victor Perez, pictured from Anaheim, at the Bubble Hole on garlic dough bait, while Taylor Ware, Corona, landed a 13-pound rainbow near the boat dock on rainbow dough bait. Ben Hinojosa, Orange, had an 11 1/2-pound rainbow and an eight-pound trout on two different trips to the lake topping his stringers each of those days. An 11 1/4-pound trout topped off the 23-pound stringer of rainbows posted by Jerit Cokeman and Andrew Ramsey, both Long Beach, fishing off the sandy beach with chartreuse dough bait. John Aslanyan, Studio City, fished a mini jig at the bubble hole for his 10 1/2-pound trout.

There were at least another dozen fish weighed in from seven to 10 pounds and most anglers weren't even bothering to weigh fish that size. "The fishing hasn't been like this in many years," said Craig Elliott at SARL. "The good old days are back."

The action has been good all around the big lake and Chris' Pond with the new water circulation system working exceptionally well and the fish well distributed throughout both of the lakes. The bite was good for shore, float tube, and boat anglers and there were no real hot spots.

Anglers fishing small jigs or trout plastics might be getting a little faster action than the dough bait crowd, but both tactics are getting a lot of fish. Top colors for both the jigs, plastics, and dough bait has been the chartreuse and greens, yellow, orange, and rainbow, and anglers fishing light leaders are having the best success. The fishing should stay this hot through the rest of December and into early January. There will again be huge plants of huge trout, not just these mere "teenagers," each of the next two weeks. Super trophies, along with the teenagers and the one-pounders, will be planted this week and next week, just before the long New Year's weekend. Many of these trout will run from 12 to 20 pounds, and some over that magic 20-pound mark are going to be in the mix this time. Santa Ana River Lakes will close 2 p.m. on Dec. 24 and remain closed all day Christmas, but it will go back to its seven-days-a-week schedule the day after Christmas, including the New Year's holiday. 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. The 24-hour passes cost $75 and have a 15 fish limit. An angler can bring his wife and up to three kids and all can help fill the 15-fish limit on one of these passes, and camping is free at SARL with a 24-hour pass.