Fished the Santa Ana River in it's urban stretch past Riverside. I took my fly rod with me and wanted to practice casting. The water was very muddy and moving pretty quickly. Still spotted several carp, including one very large one that was leaping near the brush. I am still learning to properly cast with the fly fishing gear but it was a lot of fun.
Video:
http://youtu.be/OjtxCXyfaTs
Ran into another angler and also into a large catfish (at the end of the video). Didn't know there was that many catfish in the Santa Ana River, this guy was about 2ft long. Plenty of water to explore on this stretch, but finding nicer spots was tough. Still, it was a fun trip and there was plenty of room to cast a fly.
Has anyone else fished this area on the Santa Ana River? I'm still interested in fishing the spot just below the Prado Dam, I've seen anglers there recently but can't seem to find public/legal access.