Back in the Saddle again at Irvine Lake!
At the beginning of the trout season this year, I quickly realized they wanted Power Mice and Night crawlers more then Power bait this year! So for the first few weeks I was doing very well there on trout. (caught them all on Mice tails) Then about a month ago, we had that heat wave where it hit 90 degrees for a few day's. I the told myself self, "If anything would turn the catfish on in winter time, a heat wave should do it!" I was right!!!! It did turn them on and I caught several nice catfish fishing with the GF in the back. (That was short lived however) Then I tried toying with the Bataan Death March spot a little, (too much competition there) So I decided to go back and try the West shore for trout. (in the mean time, I got a good Carp and Catfish report on the West shore in a new area) I sent a buddy of mine to check it out and he came back with not only a good report about the Carp and maybe a Catfish or two there, but also wide open trout fishing going on there too! I was really stoked, Irvine Lake was going to be pretty good again. (at least that was what I thought!)
So on Super Bowl weekend I headed down to Irvine with high hopes! (this was Saturday) I meet the best trout fishermen in line and he told me he got easy limits on Friday on trout. Great I thought! When the gate opened I was doing double time in my walking to get a good spot! The gentlemen in front of me who I call the best fishermen there because he's there every week, was literally running at times! (this is a man in his mide 50's doing sprints for up to a mile in dirt!) Talk about a hard core fishermen! Lol I'm doing double time and I never stopped walking fast till I got too my destination. Low and behold, he ended up in the same place where my buddy killed them a week before! (talk about having your pulse on the place)
So I started off fishing the bait I thought would do the job with high hopes. (Mice tails) The best fishermen strikes with a couple of quick fish and his buddy gets bit on the other side of me. (I'm sandwiched in the middle and I'm getting nothing!) This goes on all morning! I eventually stick my tail between my legs and ask them or more importantly ask them to show me what their using for bait. Those things are you kidding me, once I see the bait! I haven't used those things in 20 years and I thought the u know what's are the improved version of those things! (For now, we will call them the secret baits) One of their friends felt sorry for me and gave me a couple of them. Sure enough I got bit on them! On the way going home I stopped by the Longfin tackle store and risk my life to buy those stupid things!
Now I'm looking for some payback on those trout!
On Saturday the place was packed, but Sunday was the Super Bowl. So I know a bunch of people would want to watch that game. So I reasoned if I get there at noon on Sunday. I will catch people leaving and I can get a really good spot! Sure enough I got the exact spot I wanted! I haven't fished those baits in 20 years, so I was going to experiment around to figure out how these things fish best! In 3 hours of fishing, I got 7 bites and 4 fish landed. I could say, "I missed some of the bites on purpose" to see how they eat those things. Now that I have my confidence back, "I thought how to best exploit those things this coming weekend!" Friday was going to be tricky, it was going to rain in the morning and then clear up. So do I want to try to Bum Rush the spot in the morning and fight off the Riff Raff that surely will be there. (getting cold and wet in the process) Or wait till 10 am when it's dry and squeeze into a good spot! (remember I got the secret bait and they don't!)
I chose to wait till 10 am.
When I got there of course, their was 3 groups of professional fishermen fishing both sides of the spot! (what else is new!) The smaller group on the right side had the secret bait and the bigger group on the left didn't! The bigger group on the left was fishing 2 poles each and was using the old baits. (Mice tails and Night crawlers) The smaller group was using 1 pole each and the secret bait. (everyone else around the lake was cannon fodder and not doing that great that I could see) The bigger group got their limits fishing all day and smaller group according to another source got double limits! Well, what did you do Mr. Smart Guy you all must be wondering!
It started off slow for me, because I miss calculated the range of where the fish were! The week before I fished on the right side of the spot and it's a far medium cast to the fish. On the Left side it's a bomb cast! Fortunately for me, I've got 3 of the sweetest long casting trout rods they make. (Lomis and Okuma rods are what I use) On my first bomb cast, I caught a trout in 2 minutes of my bait hitting the water! After that it was party down! I was getting bit pretty quick and that group of professionals to my right, with 6 rods in the water to my 1 was getting outfished slightly! I got a limit of trout including some missed bites in under 2 hours once I figured out the range! Now here is the best part, "THE FISH ARE THE BIGGEST THEY BEEN ALL SEASON!" Last week they were mostly dinks. This week their was a lot of nice fish caught. My biggest was 3 pounds and I caught a nice hook jaw and a couple of 2 pounders too! I'm going to try a little bit more fishing there this weekend, but I already made my catch for the week! So everything else is just gravy.
p.s. I'm not going to tell the spot or the secret bait for the Lurkers to steal for nothing! But if you're a long time personality on here, just send me an pm and I'll tell you what you need to know!
