Fished in the Wood at Irvine Lake
Another day another week at the Vine. I've written close to 100 Fish reports on FNN over the years. Sometimes it appears, I've painted too Rosy of a picture of our fishing adventure. (when others tried to repeat it, they were very disappointed!) So I want to say both good and bad about the New Irvine Lake. It really is a new lake that occupies the same body of water as the Old Irvine Lake did! (their not similar at all!) In the old day's, if you want to sink the boat with trout and catfish and yes sometimes even crappie, the old Irvine Lake was the place to do it! Not any more!!!!! For great trout fishing where you sink the boat with limits for everybody, we still have Lake Wohlford! (thank god for that!) The New Irvine Lake so far is a pretty tough nut to crack, for everything but Bluegill!
So let's go over the good and the bad about the place.
Let's start with the Bad.
I'm a little suspicious on why they gave the fishing concessionaire to a Band promoter who really doesn't appear to know anything about fishing! We know he knows how to put on a Rock show but for fishing, I'd rather have like to seen someone like the people at SARL to get the job! Especially since the Lake is going to close to fishermen again in 3 years for re piping the place. I'm sure their is going to be a lot of Lotta Pluzea going on when the place is closed to fishermen!
The having to walk to your fishing spots is going to discourage certain people! Yes for Seniors they do offer rides in their golf cart, but why not clear the roads to vehicle traffic. That was never a problem with the old Irvine Lake, so why is it now?
That 1 pole stuff as got to go!!!!!! This is where I don't like a Band promoter in charge of fishing decisions! It's hard enough to catch any fish there now and your going to tie one hand behind your back! I'm estimating that 99-100% of the crappie fishermen are getting skunked now. About 90-95% of the catfishermen are also getting skunked. The Bass success is only about 30%! So why do you limit the fishermen to just 1 pole? Makes no sense at all!
The Good part of the new Irvine Lake.
It's the Fairest lake I've ever been too! Where everybody get's equal opportunity to get to fish the best spots! (what do I mean by that?) Most lakes have only a few choice spots on shore or in a boat to fish and everybody in the know wants them! So what do some over anxious anglers do? They camp out in front of the place all night, to make sure they get that choice spot! DVL on a trout plant is the worst, but they do it at SARL also and the old Irvine Lake allowed it to happen too! I'm to old to sit 9 hours in my car waiting for them to open up the place. The New Irvine Lake doesn't allow that kind of stuff! Everybody at Irvine now parks their car in the parking lot and at 7:00 pm sharp, they open the gates to everyone at the same time. Since all the spots are .5 to about a mile away, you can't run to any spot but everyone walks about at the same pace. So everyone gets there at about the same time! (very fair)
The staff at the lake are mostly Orange County Regional park personnel! So they screen them pretty good and they are some of the nicest people your going to meet!
You can't beat the price! $5 a car load and they take the Orange County Regional park season pass. So I'm practically fishing for Free for Trophy catfish!
Plus no fishing License required! (for the casual angler it's ideal!)
Now on to the fishing!
The first thing you have to decide is, which way to go and how far your willing to walk. Me being me, I go to the ends! Lol So this weekend after getting 3 Trophy catfish between us fishing one side, I decide to try the other side at the very end of course! Lol One of the very nice Park employees gave me a ride the last half of the journey, so it was easy breezy! In talking to Trolly, he said the smartest thing if your targeting these Trophy catfish. You're here for "ONE BITE ALL DAY!" (unless your Evoked!) That kid hit the Jackpot with 10 Trophy catfish! A real interesting thing I noticed on both shorelines. (unless your in the super shallow area) If their are Bass fishermen around you and their catching some Bass. It's a good Trophy catfish area too! It must be the food source around that attracts both species of fish.
If anyone knows me, I'm a grinder when it comes to bait and tackle. If it's working, I won't switch till it stops working! So I set up at 7:20 PM with the secret bait and at 7:40 I get a nuisance bite. It wasn't a Trophy catfish bite, they bite it like a Tuna on Wicked Tuna! The whole rod goes bendo and it's trying to pull your rod into the lake! At 8:00 PM I get my 1 bite on an Trophy catfish! The whole rod goes bendo, and the fight is on! I'm fishing in the sticks, so I brought my Kelp cutter rig. Braided line and a heavy short floro leader. That stupid catfish is wrapping me up in all kinds of sticks, glad I had my special rig. It's a nice 8 pound Channel catfish and that makes our quota of 4 Trophy catfish this month. I'll see next week if we can keep the streak alive! I'm going to go back to the opposite shoreline next week, I think it has more potential. Only time will tell if I'm right!
Conclusion and an overall Fish report.
One of the big complaints I have is the 1 pole limit. As I'm fishing for the 1 bite all day on these Trophy catfish. It would be nice to entertain myself fishing for the other species that inhabit the lake. I'm seeing the Bass guy's to my left catching some Bass and I'm seeing Bass boil right in front of me. A father and son came next to me and started fishing for Bluegill's with worms. They had decent action on small Bluegills and nice size Redear's. On releasing a small Bluegill, a decent Bass ate it 2 feet in front of them in a massive boil! See why I would love to fish with another rod?
Starting next week I am going to start bringing some Bass gear with me. So don't be surprised on occasion, I mention catching a decent Bass! Tight lines till next week!
