Irvine Lake big-fish explosion topped by massive 20-4 rainbow, biggest of the season so far

Here's this week's Irvine Lake fishing report, written by veteran angler Steve Carson:

The action on big trout exploded this week at Irvine Lake, reported Jimmy Getty at the Pro Shop. "We had a monster 20-4 rainbow weighed in; it’s our biggest trout of the season so far,"  Getty enthused. "It was caught at Boat Dock Cove on an orange 3-inch Berkley Power Trout Worm by Mario Garcielita of Whittier, who saw the fish jumping around a couple of times during the afternoon and did not give up in trying to hook it. He was using just 2-pound test line and landed the fish in about 10 minutes."

Getty continued, "There were too many big trout between 5 and 8 pounds to even keep track of this week; we had over 100 trout above 5 pounds on Saturday and Sunday alone! The trout bite overall has been very good, and it is about a 50-50 ratio of bait fish to troll fish for the boat anglers. The bite for shore anglers has also been very good at Boat Dock Cove and Woody’s Cove. We are also seeing a few more brown trout showing up on the stringers."

Productive baits this week were Power Bait, Gulp! and nightcrawlers for bait dunkers. Trollers stayed with the reliable firetiger-color Rapala Countdown in CD03 and CD05 sizes. Hotspots included Boat Dock Cove, Trout Island, Woody’s Cove, the west shoreline and Santiago Flats.

Bass anglers are still finding decent numbers of 2- to 6-pound largemouth. Most of the fish are located at 25 to 40 feet in the traditional deep-water hard-structure spots off the Red Clay Cliffs and Rocky Point, and are hitting on jigs and Carolina-rigged plastics. A fair number of bass also have moved up into all of the newly flooded vegetation and are biting on crankbaits at about 15 feet.

Extra gravel has been added to open up the road to Trout Island for vehicle traffic again. Anglers are cautioned to call ahead for up-to-the-minute road conditions, as things can change quickly during and after rainstorms. With the road to Trout Island rebuilt, the Kids Lagoon again exists as a separate entity. Families with children ages 12 and younger found decent action on trout in the 1- to 3-pound class in the lagoon. Surface water temperature in the main lake is 61 degrees.

This coming weekend’s tournament will be a "2 for $22" special deal. Enter the tournament on Saturday, weigh-in at least one fish of any size and earn a pass to come back the next day for free. Tournament winners will be determined by cumulative weights from both days.   

Outstanding catches of the week included:

-- Mario Garcielita of Whittier, 20-4 rainbow trout on a Power Trout Worm at Boat Dock Cove.
-- Galinda Cooper of Pasadena, 13-2 rainbow trout on an SC Shiner at mid-lake.
-- Sam Tagaloa of Orange, 13-0 rainbow trout on a mini jig at Boat Dock Cove.
-- Raul Talingo of Orange, 12-0 rainbow trout on Power Bait at the flats.
-- Trent Dubuque of Fountain Valley, 12-0 rainbow trout on Power Bait/nightcrawler at the south shore.
-- Brent Johnson of Anaheim, 10-10 rainbow trout on Power Bait at the west shore.
-- Gene Case of Fallbrook, 10-8 rainbow trout on a Rapala at Boat Dock Cove.
-- Jiang Chun of China, 10-6 rainbow trout on a sabiki at Boat Dock Cove.
-- Alfonzo Cervantes of Los Angeles, 10-4 rainbow trout on Power Bait at Trout Island.
-- Bob Nordstrom of Placentia, 10-2 rainbow trout on Rapala at mid-lake.
-- Nick Northrup of Lake Forest, 9-4 rainbow trout on a Flickershad at mid-lake.
-- John Gilabert of Santa Ana, 9-0 rainbow trout on a Rapala at the west shore.
-- Hubert Zamora of Long Beach, 6-8 steelhead on a Rapala at mid-lake.
-- Ricardo Zepeda of Newport Beach, 3-8 brown trout on Power Bait at the south shore.
-- Dan Kadota of San Pedro, 3-6 brown trout on Power Bait at Boat Dock Cove.
-- Timmy Ho of Rosemead, 5-5 largemouth bass (released), on a Bevy Shad at Trout Island.
-- Hubert Zamora of Long Beach, 5-trout limit totaling 35-1, on Rapalas at mid-lake.

Photo: Mario Garcielita of Whittier bested this 20.4 rainbow trout, fishing Boat Dock Cove with an orange Power Trout Worm. Credit: Irvine Lake

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Comments

[Steve Carson]

Hi Kylie,
Irvine Lake stocks a small number of steelhead-strain fish [about 5-percent of the total].
These fish have been readily available commercially for many years, but do cost somewhat more than regular rainbows.
All rainbows can "theoretically" become steelhead, but this process takes awhile in the wild, and the steelhead-strain fish can make the fresh/salt transition much more easily.
Using them has become more common in the last few years, since the DFG's new "Pre-Stocking Evaluation Protocol" now requires use of them for stocking purposes in waters where there might be interbreeding with local wild steelhead populations.
In fact, the DFG just issued a press-release this week outlining this practice being started up in tributaries of the Russian River.
Also, steelhead don't technically need to ever reach salt water, they just need to migrate downstream into a larger body of water.
There are even a few "landlocked" populations of steelhead in California that are totally self-sustaining, as well as the more famous ones that exist in the Great Lakes.

[Kylie]

listed as one of the top catches of the week is a 6-8 steelhead.... can someone tell me how you can have a true steelhead in Irvine Lake????