FISHING FROM SHORE A POPULAR WINTER SPORT AT LAKE CASITAS.

Byline: David Greenberg  Staff Writer

OAKVIEW - Dozens of fishermen are expected to rise before dawn Wednesday and head out to Lake Casitas, which will be newly stocked with 1,700 one-pound trout just waiting to be caught.

Regular trout ``plantings'' at Casitas ensure that anglers who flock to the 254,000-acre-foot lake each weekend stand a good chance of catching their five-fish limit.

It's one of the most popular inland water fishing spots in the area,'' said Bill Wadlington, a Casitas Municipal Water District ranger. ``It's kind of challenge to go out there and see if you can catch your limit.

A lot of people buy yearly permits because they like to fish a lot. It's an outdoor experience that people really like.''

Under a three-year, $90,000-contract that expires this winter, the Mount Lassen Trout Farm in Red Bluff stocks the lake with about 2,000 pounds of fish nine times each winter. This week's planting will be the sixth since Nov. 20.

Winter is a popular time for shoreline fishermen - about seven of the lake's 27 miles of shoreline are accessible by roads - because the fish generally lurk in the warmer shallow waters.

``During the summer, the fish head for the deeper water when the lake warms up,'' Wadlington said. ``The fishermen have to have a boat because that's the only way they can get out to the deeper water.''

For that reason, many fishing enthusiasts arrive at the lake by 8 a.m. every other Wednesday to watch as a ton of trout is dumped into the lake, officials said.

``They have better chances of catching something when the trout have just been planted,'' said Sara Link, a district reservationist.

Other fish-breeding operations, such as the Fillmore Fish Hatchery, also stock the lake periodically with trout.

State law requires a fishing license for anyone 16 or older who wants to fish.

The lake is also home to other species of fish, such as bass, red-ear perch and catfish. But they are stocked far less frequently because their breeding practices ensure their population levels rarely get too low within the lake, Wadlington said.

``The bass, for instance, lay about 10,000 eggs each,'' he said.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo: (1 -- color) Cole Roberts, 12, nets a trout reeled in by his father, Randall Roberts, on a fishing expedition Sunday at Lake Casitas. The lake is stocked with trout every other week during the winter.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer

(2) Fisherman crowd the shore by the boat launch area at Lake Casitas. About seven of the lake's 27 miles of shoreline are accessible by road.