The first full week of January is starting with a bang in Southern California … if you like catching rainbow trout close to home, that is.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has scheduled hatchery trout deliveries at lakes stretching across the region during the week of January 4 to 10.
These cold-loving fish will strike your bait, lure, or fly with wild abandon, but I suggest you don’t wait too long because the smaller lakes and park ponds that dominate these winter-stocked waters tend to get fished down pretty quickly. It’s not that you won’t be able to catch a trout or two a week or two from now, but your odds will be best now through the weekend.
Whenever I do one of these reports, I almost always get some comments from people who don’t like fishing for stocked trout. Or maybe they just don’t like fishing in a city park pond. I get it, I’d rather hike into a high-mountain stream or bust a bass on a topwater lure.
But I still remember the thrill of catching trout at Eisenhower Park and other local ponds as a kid, and that helped me become the fishing addict I am today. Still, decades later, stocked trout are often my go-to when taking out newer anglers because they almost always catch fish.
Love them or hate them, leave a comment about what you think about local stocked trout fishing.
For trout newbies, a great thing is that they are easy to catch. Probably the simplest way to get the job done is to get a jar or two of PowerBait, whether in the dough or egg version. Worms, salmon eggs, scented marshmallows, and other baits also work well. Fished raised in concrete ponds aren’t sophisticated.
I personally like catching trout on lures such as spinners and spoons. Some favorites of mine are Panther Martin and Worden’s Rooster Tail spinners and Acme Kastmaster and Thomas Buoyant spoons.
If you’re more advanced, and have lots of casting room, fly fishing is a more challenging way to catch trout.
If you need more help to catch trout, here’s a link to our free article with a simple how-to guide to trout fishing.
The list below of locations being stocked this week is divided by county so that you can more easily find a likely fishing spot close to you. Do remember that at times stocking plans can change due to a variety of reasons, but if you check out a location and see a fair number of anglers there, it’s likely to be producing fish.
In a few cases, we have more in-depth articles about a location, so it will be linked to those pages on this Best Fishing in America website.
Besides the lakes and ponds listed below, CDFW continues to regularly stock sections 4 and 5 of the Kern River in Kern (and some in Tulare County), including more plantings this week. I hired a Kern River local to write up his best advice for our Kern River Fishing Guide.
Kern County
Brite Valley Reservoir, Tehachapi
Ming Lake, northeast of Bakersfield
River Walk Lake, Bakersfield
Los Angeles County
Belvedere Lake, East Los Angeles
Lincoln Park Lake, Los Angeles
La Mirada Lake, La Mirada
Hollenbeck Park Lake, Los Angeles
Orange County
Carr Park Lake, Huntington Beach
Centennial Lake, Santa Ana
Eisenhower Park Lake, Orange
Laguna Lake, Fullerton
Huntington Park Lake, Huntington Beach
Riverside County
Bogart Park Pond, Cherry Valley
Cahuilla Park Lake, La Quinta
Little Lake, East Hemet
Rancho Jurupa Park Pond, Riverside
San Bernardino
Cucamonga Guasti Park Lake, Ontario
Glen Helen Park Lake, San Bernardino
Mojave Narrows Regional Park Lake, near Victorville
Prado Park Lake, Chino
San Diego County
Chollas Park Lake, San Diego
Lake Jennings, Lakeside
Lake Murray, San Diego
Lake Wohlford, EscondidoSan Luis Obispo County
San Luis Obispo County
Atascadero Lake