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Thread: The Dog day's of summer are upon us!

  1. #1

    Default The Dog day's of summer are upon us!

    This is the first time in recent memory, my summer fishing trips are being dictated by the weather! Their is still some fish to be caught in some of my favorite lakes. However, fishing in 90-100 degrees in an open boat is not my idea of fun! Last year in the incredible summer catfish bite we had at Lake Wohlford. I discovered that 84 degrees or less with some wind is ideal comfortable weather to be siting in an open boat! Good Luck in finding that in the last 30 day's. So I gave being clever a try with modest results. I found fishing very early in the morning from shore does work at some lakes like Lake Elsinore. Or going ocean fishing with the cool oceans breezes are nice, but that's not my favorite kind of fishing! I'm really into big Rainbow trout, Crappie in the larger size and of course my favorite Trophy Catfish! I've been Lucky so far this year and have caught 4 Trophy Catfish sorta by just dumb luck. Now I'm really going to target them and Irvine lake is the lake of choice. Besides it being close and cheap to fish, the weather is milder there then the other lakes on my fishing menu. So in the last month counting Sunday July 11 trip, I've made 4 trips there. I caught 2 real nice Catfish the first time I tried, but got skunked on the next 2 trips going back to the same area's.

    I do have a network of other fishermen fishing Irvine, so I can monitor the situation a bit more then just what I catch. While I was fishing for Trophy Catfish in the back, their were a few being caught by the boat dock on the West shore and a crap load of LMB. Then for whatever reason the Catfish stop hitting on the West shore and we are back to square 1. Just like General Lee found out at the battle of Gettysburg. After attacking on the right flank and then on the left flank and being unsuccessful, the middle area is where the enemy (Catfish) must be found! I had a buddy of mine who wanted to go and he agreed with that assessment. He got there a little before I did and made a Battan Death March to one of the farthest points to fish. I came down the old concrete boat ramp on the back side of Trout Island and saw where he was and where everybody else was fishing in the middle. Just about on every point somebody was fishing there, but except for a few Bass fishermen, they left the pond un fished. So that's where I was going to give it a try, where nobody was at! A gambling buddy of mine once said and it stuck with me. (Loser's gotta Lose) So I felt even more confident on my choice of spots. We have caught Catfish there before, so it wasn't just a wild shot in the Dark!

    Fortunately after trying several Catfish baits last year. (all Mackerel derivatives) We came up with the ideal Catfish bait and smell that I have all the confidence in the world in. (if their is any Catfish around, they will eat this bait) So I'm just going to call this the secret Catfish bait! Lol After arriving to my spot, I surveyed the water and found several promising holes to give a good try too. I made a nice cast and then just waited patiently. After a while more Bass fishermen showed up and they entertained me as I waited. They did catch 3 Bass off of the same bank, so their is life in there. I know what they were thinking about me. What is this Lazy stupid Catfishermen doing in here C blocking our good Bass area! Lol Just about the time their were about to leave, my pole and what my GF also does happened! Lol I was on and it was a Good one! This thing really fought hard, but I had hooked it on the right tackle and the result were predictable. (another good one landed for Eric) With out a scale it hard to judge these big headed Catfish, but he was some where between 15-20 pounds. After awhile my buddy showed up without any positive reports about the points in the middle. He left awhile later without us having any more bites, so I moved my pole way to the right. A weird thing happened, I thought I saw the line move a little bit. But the pole never bent over in the slightest. So when I went to reel it in, their was a 5 pound catfish on the line! So that was all the action I got for the day! (but I was very happy with the results and the weather) The nice part was, "once the wind started blowing" it was very comfortable to fish there right to closing time.
    Last edited by etucker1959; 07-12-2021 at 10:31 AM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2021
    Location
    Orange County
    Posts
    23

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    Ty for the report Etucker and as always your reports/stories are always entertaining to read and informative!
    I haven't fished Irvine Lake in a few weeks due to it being fairly hot there and the same LMB fisherman always hogging up that bock dock on the west shore.
    I still haven't really put in the time and the effort yet fishing trout island and East shore (where all the mini ponds are at). Would you recommend that area a try for LMB?

  3. #3

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    Quote Originally Posted by LocalParksGuy View Post
    Ty for the report Etucker and as always your reports/stories are always entertaining to read and informative!
    I haven't fished Irvine Lake in a few weeks due to it being fairly hot there and the same LMB fisherman always hogging up that bock dock on the west shore.
    I still haven't really put in the time and the effort yet fishing trout island and East shore (where all the mini ponds are at). Would you recommend that area a try for LMB?
    So you know about the Boat Dock bite!!! Lol To get a good spot there, you need to be Lance Armstrong with a bike to get one of those coveted spots. In the Mini pond I was fishing, 3 decent Bass were caught there on the North bank where it's feed from the Main Lake. But in talking to a person in the know about Bass fishing at Irvine. He told me their was a time of day bite in the back at the East shore. Mid morning and late in the afternoon the Bass bit really good I was told in the back. Take that for what ever it's worth!
    Last edited by etucker1959; 07-14-2021 at 10:13 AM.

  4. #4

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    How was the mud situation this time?

    I fished Castaic a few times the past week and with the water being dropped so quickly, there are some spots that are downright treacherous. There was a point where I took a step and I sunk down to my thigh. It was a rather scary moment as it took me a while to get myself out of that mess.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2021
    Location
    Orange County
    Posts
    23

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    Quote Originally Posted by DarkShadow View Post
    How was the mud situation this time?

    I fished Castaic a few times the past week and with the water being dropped so quickly, there are some spots that are downright treacherous. There was a point where I took a step and I sunk down to my thigh. It was a rather scary moment as it took me a while to get myself out of that mess.
    When I was there about 2 or 3 weeks ago, the west shore wasn't too bad. There was some spots that were muddy but not too bad. You would probably get at most ankle high in mud. The water was pretty low that the 1/4 or 1/3 of the boat dock on the west shore was now stuck on land.
    Last edited by LocalParksGuy; 07-14-2021 at 10:50 AM.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2021
    Location
    Orange County
    Posts
    23

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    Quote Originally Posted by etucker1959 View Post
    So you know about the Boat Dock bite!!! Lol To get a good spot there, you need to be Lance Armstrong with a bike to get one of those coveted spots. In the Mini pond I was fishing, 3 decent Bass were caught there on the North bank where it's feed from the Main Lake. But in talking to a person in the know about Bass fishing at Irvine. He told me their was a time of day bite in the back at the East shore. Mid morning and late in the afternoon the Bass bit really good I was told in the back. Take that for what ever it's worth!
    Yeah haha, I mostly head to that area whenever I go to Irvine Lake then when I leave, I make my way slowly along the shore back to the parking lot. I have only got to the boat dock twice this year, once before the prespawn of bass (cousin caught a nice 4 lber) and only 2 other regulars was there. 2nd time during memorial day holiday, all the regulars left to other lakes. It wouldn't be so bad if they shared it sometimes lol.

    I'll probably give the east shore a try this weekend if the heat doesn't hold me back haha. When I was there a few weeks ago, a fellow angler coming back to the parking lot told me he got quite a few too in that area while I ended up skunking.
    Last edited by LocalParksGuy; 07-14-2021 at 10:52 AM.

  7. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by LocalParksGuy View Post
    It wouldn't be so bad if they shared it sometimes lol.
    Wow, do they pee on the trash cans to mark their territory? LOL.

  8. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by DarkShadow View Post
    Wow, do they pee on the trash cans to mark their territory? LOL.
    No, they bring their Pit Bulls to do that for them.

    That reminds me, since the marina at Perris Lake is closed during this period for reconstruction, I have been fishing the launch ramp more often. However, twice in the past few months, I think a boat has intentionally run over my line and broken it. The second time was just last week. That was weird because they had just been talking to me in a friendly way and asked me if I wanted their leftover box of nightcrawlers. They looked like they were set to put the boat on the trailer (all the boats were supposed to be already in as it was after 8 p.m.), but the 3 guys suddenly all got in the boat, took off in it and headed for the other side of the docks where my line was. My line was snagged so it probably would have broken, anyway, but I could not move it because of the snag until the boat ran over my line and broke it.

    I think I will try fishing somewhere else next time.
    Last edited by Natural Lefty; 07-15-2021 at 11:30 AM.

  9. #9

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    We came up with the ideal Catfish bait and smell that I have all the confidence in the world in. (if their is any Catfish around, they will eat this bait) So I'm just going to call this the secret Catfish bait!
    Can said secret bait be used at Irvine Lake? I’m new here and saw that Irvine Lake restricts the types of bait used at their lake.

  10. #10

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    Quote Originally Posted by Itchin4Fishin View Post
    Can said secret bait be used at Irvine Lake? I’m new here and saw that Irvine Lake restricts the types of bait used at their lake.
    It's absolutely a Legal bait! Funny you should mention it, my normally supplier was out of it today and I went into a panic! Fortunately I found some in another market in Carson after getting lost for an hour, but I got it! I wasn't going to write up last week report, but because I had the secret bait and it worked really well again. I'll write up the report, because the secret bait is what made all the difference in the world.
    Last edited by etucker1959; 08-05-2021 at 04:17 AM.

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