Opening Day observations

[etucker1959]

I'm surprised no one put up a fish report with all the locals hitting the lake. Well here goes nothing, first thing I want to say every thing I saw caught was between 5-10 lbs. We hit the lake Friday in Early afternoon, that was our first mistake. I've fished fresh planted fish to know there will be a mother load of biting fish somewhere the first day. Today was no exception, it was right off the first white buoy by the end of the boat docks in 15 feet of water. At least 7-9 boats got on it and killed it. I heard as many as 30 were caught per boat. It was a slaughter for those boats who got in on it. We got in the tail end of it and we caught some nice ones, but nothing like the people who were there first thing in the morning. The people who showed up late didn't really light the world on fire as far as I could see. Mackerel and Shrimp were the two best baits with Mackerel seemly doing much better. I'm sure in the days and weeks to come, people are going to get on some really good bites. Until next time tight lines.

[Hotbite909]

Yea! I was one of those people who showed to the party late. Congrats on the good bite.

[dattack]

I fished from 6am to 3 pm. I got skunked. lol. It was the boaters that killed it. Water was so low with so much weed that you really don't even want to reel in your pole. The shoreline guys really had it tough.
Got skunked the last two times at Irvine. I think Irvine lake isn't meant for me unless I rent a boat and I hate boating. lol

[Rooster]

My observations

That same spot the following day was empty.

Must have been a lot of poachers Friday because the patrol was checking boats and I have never seen that ever.
I loved seeing them working hard to make sure everyone was on a even playing field and those that weren't got caught :Bug Eyes:

I would suggest the backside of trout island launch ramp be taped off between the ramp & dock.

After frying my impeller at the swamp ramp we attempted to retrieve boat at the other ramp and found anglers not willing to move.

A simple sign or some tape could prevent a heated argument in the future.

[TwistedOrder]

I was there on my float tube going where I damn well pleased from 7am to 6pm.

Everything I caught was at least 6lbs
I threw a Double Digit cat back because ill be damned if im going to paddle around with a 12lb cat dragging me and my 2lb anchor.

the people in the boats were terribly rude and one threatened to pop my float tube if I didn't get out of his "Zone"
I responded with a promise to beat the living **** out of him and his friends and they motor'd off to a new location. Figures. Pussies.

All-In-All the staff was great, one staff duo patrolling gave me a ride back to the boat dock as they saw my kicking my way across 150yd of water in moderate wind.
They definitely stocked the big ones for the opener, but id much rather catch my limit of 2-3lbers instead of trying to fillet a 9lb super-blue with bones made out of steel.
EDIT:

Also, Found someones Fillet Knife. LMK if you need it back!

[troutdog]

I'm surprised no one put up a fish report with all the locals hitting the lake. Well here goes nothing, first thing I want to say every thing I saw caught was between 5-10 lbs. We hit the lake Friday in Early afternoon, that was our first mistake. I've fished fresh planted fish to know there will be a mother load of biting fish somewhere the first day. Today was no exception, it was right off the first white buoy by the end of the boat docks in 15 feet of water. At least 7-9 boats got on it and killed it. I heard as many as 30 were caught per boat. It was a slaughter for those boats who got in on it. We got in the tail end of it and we caught some nice ones, but nothing like the people who were there first thing in the morning. The people who showed up late didn't really light the world on fire as far as I could see. Mackerel and Shrimp were the two best baits with Mackerel seemly doing much better. I'm sure in the days and weeks to come, people are going to get on some really good bites. Until next time tight lines.

Nice report etucker, glad to hear you got in on the hot bite!

Banned Jr, Mr. Bendo and I were first on the spot, but that actually wasn't until about 11:30am....lots of fish C & R'd to fight another day. Hopefully a few of your bigger fish went back into the lake as well. 30 fish might be a bit of a stretch, but it was close to 20 easily. Thanks for posting up, this section is "withering" at the Vine :Wink:


TD

[etucker1959]

Nice report etucker, glad to hear you got in on the hot bite!

Banned Jr, Mr. Bendo and I were first on the spot, but that actually wasn't until about 11:30am....lots of fish C & R'd to fight another day. Hopefully a few of your bigger fish went back into the lake as well. 30 fish might be a bit of a stretch, but it was close to 20 easily. Thanks for posting up, this section is "withering" at the Vine :Wink:


TD
Thanks!!!! We always C&R all of our catfish. The first one we caught had a huge head and a medium size body. I can't wait to see that fish grow into the size of his head. lol

[gokuguy]

Late report as well...sorry, been working a ton lately and just haven't found time to post until now.

After months of non stop working listing/selling homes in this hot market of ours...my pops and I were able to sneak away for half a day of fishing for the catfish opener. We got to the lake around 6 am and set up at the flats, rigged up two poles with shrimp and two with pike mackerel. Long story short.....for about 3 1/2 hours we had no bites, no fish. During that time all the guys to our left and to our right were catching pretty consistently all morning. Of course it's really frustrating to not have any action while it seems everyone around us was reeling in fish after fish, so about 9:30 I re-rigged two of our longest poles, put a 2 oz sinker on it, and just launched the bait out as far as I possibly could chuck it.

That seemed to be the ticket as within minutes we had our first bite, and first fish on. Solid 7 pounder. From that point on, it took me and my pops about 2 more hours to limit and we called it a day around noon. Biggest of the day was just under 9.5 pounds..beautiful hard fighting fish.

All of our fish ended up being on pike mackerel, and only fish we caught were on the two poles that were rigged to be cast FAR FAR FAR! The other two poles that we weren't able to cast as far had no action in 6 hours of fishing.

Glad to hear the security was out patrolling. I didn't count but I'm pretty sure the groups on either side of us must of had at least quadruple limits per person...none being released that I could tell.

So if you're going to be on shore....just make sure you bomb it out there as far as you can get it...and check your bait regularly as the weeds are fairly thick.