Fished the City Dump today! (Irvine Lake)

[etucker1959]

Let me start off with the facts and then the fish report and end with the Conspiracy theory! Lol

The facts are this and their not going to change this year! (wishing thinking isn't going to work either) They have signed a 1 year lease and what the rules are now are set "IN STONE" for this year! So don't be wishing for Night fishing, Float tubing and most importantly boating this year to return! I wouldn't even hope for more then the 3 day a week being open to change this year either. So I got that out of the way!

Fish report!

I knew opening day would produce some good catch's for some people. The problem is where do you start with no information given! So I opted to scout the first day and fish the second day in a productive spot! I found a good spot the first day, so we were off to the races the 2nd day right when they open. We in our spot caught 2 catfish, 1 2 year old catfish that was born there and 1 8 lbs Channel catfish. The people next to us, caught 2 2 yr old catfish and 1 15 pound channel catfish. So our area was ok to fish for catfish there! I didn't hear or see any other catfish caught around us. I did see some Bass caught around us too, so my 3 miles of hiking yesterday did pay off! Lol Overall today it was pretty tough fishing for most people! This is not the Irvine Lake of old and I doubt it will change much this year! If you want a boat load of fish to take home, Irvine Lake is not the place for you!

Conspiracy theory!

Did they set up Irvine Lake to Fail on purpose!

It is not a user friendly lake! You have to park and walk a fair distance to get to fish! (family's and causal fishermen hate this already)

They basically set it up where you can't take any fish home. The Bass are C&R only and you have to release any catfish over 24 inches. (which most of the eating size are) No trout yet (let's see how that goes?) and the Crappie never bit near shore in the past. That only leaves Bluegill to take home and trust me people were bagging them up! (so they won't last long)

They only allow you to fish with 1 pole. It's hard enough to catch any fish from shore to start with and now they tie 1 hand behind your back so you can't use it!

They the workers are in your face all day! They don't hand out a rules sheet when you drive in, but they walk the shoreline all day to make sure you aren't breaking any rules!

Their patrol boat drives by every 30 minutes or less, right over your lines and scares all the fish away! I literally could hit this guy with a cast every time he drives by. (that's how close he is!

Someone else said, they gave the lease to an Rock promoter who is not a fishermen! So he is either screwing things up on purpose, so after 1 year he can say Irvine Lake was a failure to fishermen, but I've got something else in mind for the place. Or it was so grossly mis managed the powers can say, "we tried" but running a successful lake is hard to do!

It looks like it's going to turn into a hard core lake for the serious fishermen and everyone else can go suck lemons! I like it, but I'm a fish O'haulic!