he Rose Parade only lasts one day, but the parade of rose and crimson rainbow trout out of Santa Ana River Lakes has been non-stop for three weeks, and the lake's dedicated band of anglers are still marching to the beautiful music big trout make when they strip line off reels against the drag.

The biggest rainbow reported during the first week of 2013 was a 15-pound, two-ounce trout caught by Frank Bin, Las Crescenta, while fishing a gold Kastmaster off the east shore of the big lake. Alex Escobar, La Habra, landed a 15-pounder fishing rainbow PowerBait at the pump house from shore. Ernie Agame, San Pedro, landed a 13 1/2-pounder at the Bubble Hole on chartreuse PowerBait, while Bonnie Henderson, Long Beach, caught a 13 1/4-pound rainbow on a nightcrawler at the road. Mitchell Deckert, Riverside, was fishing a white jig just 15 feet from shore to hook and land a 13-pounder at the Bubble Hole. Andrew Navaro, pictured caught a nice 12 lb 8oz trout. There were 12-pound rainbows landed by Drew Navarro, Orange, on a Lip RipperZ jig near the boat dock, and by Lawrence Bland, Ontario, on a silver Kastmaster off the north shore of the big lake.

The big rainbows are showing up every day, and they are a component of the huge trout stockings each Thursday. There are videos of each stock posted on the The Lakes' website (www.fishinglakes.com) so you can see the size of the fish that go in. What you'll see, in addition to the trophy fish, are thousands of pounds of pan-sized rainbows averaging about a pound or better. The smaller trout are keeping stringers full all around the lakes' complex. Five-fish stringers weigh from five to 10 pounds, and the bite has been wide open on any of the floating baits rolled in the new Hatchery Dust, which is finally available at The Lakes tackle shop and in fishing tackle stores throughout Southern California. The action is also good on small trout jigs and plastics.

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. 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.