Trout action is simply off the hook at Corona Lake. Amid an excellent trout season, Corona Lake will host the huge Lip RipperZ Hatchery Dust Takeover tournament this coming Saturday, March 2. This is a 50-50 tournament with a 100 percent payback of all entry fee money into two parts of the event. The first part of the event is a traditional big fish competition with payouts to the top four heaviest trout. The second part of the event is a blind bogey event with the 10 anglers catching trout weighing the same or closest to the 10 bling bogey weights will win.

Tournament entry fee is $20, in addition to the usual Corona Lake fishing fee. There is also $250 in added money if the top four trout are caught on any Lip RipperZ product, and the first 150 anglers who enter the event and buy a bottle of the new Hatchery Dust product at the tackle shop or have a receipt from the purchase of Dust at a local retailer will get a free Hatchery Dust t-shirt.

Complete information on the tournament is available at The Lakes web site at www.fishinglakes.com. The tournament is being staged during some of the best trout action of the season at Corona Lake, and plants of Lightning Trout last week and bonus plants of trophy fish this week are staged to make this one of Southern California's best fishing events of the year.

The big fish of the week was a 19 pounder caught by Frank Hernandez, pictured of La Puente using a black rooster tail from a float tube. Another big 15-pounder caught by Doug Whiting, Glendora, while fishing a yellow and green Nitro worm near the boat launch for his best-trout ever. A 14 1/2-pounder was caught by Jimmy Shelton, Orange, on a Thomas Buoyant in the back of the lake by the flooded trees, while Phoeuy Nguon, Moreno Valley, had a 13-pound rainbow on a jig off the shore near the boat dock. Todd Stevens along with Ross and Gerald Lawrence, all Corona, topped off a pair of 24-hour permits with a 13-pound rainbows fishing jigs at the dam. The 30-fish mixed stringer of rainbows and Lightning Trout weighed in at 50 pounds. There were also 12 1/2-pound rainbows reported by Ross Lawrence, Corona, on green PowerBait and Tim Haley, Las Vegas, on a jig from his float tube.

Overall, the bite has remained excellent with a lot of limits of one to two pound trout on floating dough baits rolled in Hatchery Dust, garlic-scented nightcrawlers, Power Mice and other small trout plastics, and small trout jigs. The best bite for shore anglers is still from the cove behind bait shop all the way to the dam. Boat and float tubes are getting most of their fish from the dam to the upper end of the lake along the main channel, with the area off the boats docks especially good this past week.

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.