Irvine Lake trouters score rainbows to 14-4
Here's this week's Irvine Lake fishing report, written by veteran angler Steve Carson:
The inclement weather that blew through over the weekend at Irvine Lake gave trollers the edge during the lake’s now-legendary "pre-frontal" period, reported Pro Team leader Marlon Meade. "One of our Pro Team members, Ken Lewis, had a monster stringer of trout that totaled 26-1, using a firetiger-color Rapala CD05. Lewis had 7- and 6-pounders as his 'kicker' fish. Saturday’s fishing was absolutely wide-open, with very few anglers on the lake."
Meade continued, "Lots of good solid catches are also being made on the Mice Tails and Pinched Crawler baits. Best colors have been the red/chartreuse and white/pink combinations in the Mice Tails, and adding a white Gulp! Garlic Salmon Egg to the Pinched Crawler has been a hot tip. They are working even better if you use a slow-crawling retrieve instead of just dead-sticking them."
Most of the trout on the stringers were quality-grade rainbows in the 2- to 5-pound range, with a light assortment of larger 'bows to 14 pounds, along with some exotic brown trout and steelhead to keep it interesting.
Trollers found good numbers of fish at mid-lake, Santiago Flats and along the west shoreline. Bait dunkers did best at Trout Island, Boat Dock Cove and Woody’s Cove.
Bass anglers are finding that the cold weather is holding their quarry in deep water, but good numbers of 1- to 5-pound largemouth are on tap for those skilled at deepwater tactics. This week’s whopper bass of over 8 pounds was caught down at 45 feet.
Some incidental crappie are still being caught by trout trollers, but no schooling behavior is happening with the slabs yet. Families with children age 12 and younger are finding decent numbers of 1- to 3-pound trout in the Kids Lagoon.
Outstanding catches of the week included:
-- Jeff Martin of Long Beach, 14-4 rainbow trout on Power Bait at Trout Island.
-- John Johnstone of Covina, 3-14 brown trout on nightcrawlers at Boat Dock Cove.
-- Rob Russo of Huntington Beach, 5-6 steelhead on nightcrawlers a Boat Dock Cove.
-- Joshua Williams of Los Angeles, 20-12 carp on nightcrawlers at the flats.
-- Don Spencer of Diamond Bar, 8-8 largemouth bass (released) on a jig at the west shore.
-- Ken Lewis of Long Beach, five-trout limit totaling 26-1, topped by a 7-1 rainbow, on Rapalas at mid-lake.
Photo: Bob Fowler of Seattle landed this lunker 12-pound rainbow on limetwist powerbait at Boat Dock Cove. Credit: Irvine Lake
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