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Thread: Diaster at Irvine trout opener!!!!!

  1. #1

    Default Diaster at Irvine trout opener!!!!!

    After concluding my Fall trophy catfishing with some spectacular results, I was really looking forward to the trout opener. The catfishing was nothing short of being called epic fishing. I not only found a new catfish spot, I learned some catfish behavior I never new about before. Catfish can be in a symbiotic relationship with feeding carp in the shallows. I'm giving my positive catfish story because the trout story is so horrible! (so please bare with me, I'll get to the disaster trout story in a minute) The peak trophy catfish season at Irvine lake is the middle of October to the middle of November. (which coincides with the early season trout openers at other lakes) So as I'm looking for the mother lode of trophy catfish, I noticed an absence of other catfish anglers. (I'm guessing they were distracted by those trout in other lakes) Just to give an example of some pretty spectacular catfish results that I heard about. A friend of mine was fishing for carp one day and caught 12 trophy catfish on his carp baits! Another angler caught a 20 & 50 pounder along with some smaller catfish on the same day! I myself went from getting just 1 or 2 catfish a day, to getting 2 or 3 catfish a day. This leads me up to my best day ever at Irvine lake for catfish. I found a whole group of Carp feeding in the shallow water and caught 9 trophy catfish myself up to 20 pounds that day. The best part was, "their wasn't another angler around me for miles!" This year was by far my best for catching trophy catfish at Irvine lake. Which lead me to having high hopes for the up coming trout season.

    Just because the first stocking of the year is terrible, doesn't mean the whole season is going to be a bust. It could have been just some kind of a bad start and will get corrected later on. But this is what happened. Normally they stock Irvine and all the other OC park lakes on Tuesday or Wednesday of that week. This week they stocked all the lakes on Thursday. I got earlier reports from LNL and Miles square that the fish were very small this stocking. Plus they didn't really bite that good anyway. If these are all small fish and they put in the reported amount of poundage of fish. Their should have been twice as many fish planted per lake. (the last 2 years the average size trout was about a pound) So the fishing should have been pretty epic, even if they were just small fish! Instead of some epic fishing, I counted a total of 9 trout caught for the whole lake by noon! Plus the 1 3 pound catfish that I caught. Pretty miserable fishing to say the least!

    So with next week being an off week for trout stocking at Irvine lake. After that it will be 10 straight weeks of trout stockings at Irvine lake. So I'm still optimistic it will still be a good season there, it probably just got off to a Rocky start. I do blame the hatchery 100% for this miserable start. So hopefully it was just a blip from them and not some major hatchery issue, like so many other hatchery's have had in the past!
    Last edited by etucker1959; 12-06-2021 at 03:18 PM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Location
    Loudon TN
    Posts
    2,835

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    post a pic of the lake with the current water level and lay of the land - just wondering what she looks like

  3. #3

    Default follow through?

    Quote Originally Posted by etucker1959 View Post
    After concluding my Fall trophy catfishing with some spectacular results, I was really looking forward to the trout opener. The catfishing was nothing short of being called epic fishing. I not only found a new catfish spot, I learned some catfish behavior I never new about before. Catfish can be in a symbiotic relationship with feeding carp in the shallows. I'm giving my positive catfish story because the trout story is so horrible! (so please bare with me, I'll get to the disaster trout story in a minute) The peak trophy catfish season at Irvine lake is the middle of October to the middle of November. (which coincides with the early season trout openers at other lakes) So as I'm looking for the mother lode of trophy catfish, I noticed an absence of other catfish anglers. (I'm guessing they were distracted by those trout in other lakes) Just to give an example of some pretty spectacular catfish results that I heard about. A friend of mine was fishing for carp one day and caught 12 trophy catfish on his carp baits! Another angler caught a 20 & 50 pounder along with some smaller catfish on the same day! I myself went from getting just 1 or 2 catfish a day, to getting 2 or 3 catfish a day. This leads me up to my best day ever at Irvine lake for catfish. I found a whole group of Carp feeding in the shallow water and caught 9 trophy catfish myself up to 20 pounds that day. The best part was, "their wasn't another angler around me for miles!" This year was by far my best for catching trophy catfish at Irvine lake. Which lead me to having high hopes for the up coming trout season.



    The first terrible stocking of the year doesn't mean the whole season is going to be a bust. It could have been just a bad start and will get corrected later on. But this is what happened. Normally they stock Irvine and all the other OC park lakes on Tuesday or Wednesday of that week. This week they stocked all the lakes on Thursday. I got earlier reports from LNL and Miles square that the fish were very small this stocking. Plus they didn't really bite very good anyway. If these are all small fish and they put in the reported amount of poundage of fish. Their should have been twice as many fish planted per lake. (the last 2 years the average size trout was about a pound) So the fishing should be pretty epic even if they were just small fish! Instead of some epic fishing, I counted a total of 9 trout caught for the whole lake by noon! Plus the 1 3 pound catfish that I caught. Pretty miserable fishing to say the least!

    So with next week being an off week for trout stocking at Irvine lake. After that it will be 10 straight weeks of trout stockings at Irvine lake. So I'm still optimistic it will still be a good season there, it probably just got off to a Rocky start. I do blame the hatchery 100% for this miserable start. So hopefully it was just a blip from them and not some major hatchery issue, like so many other hatchery's have had in the past!

    Etucker- did you follow through on a Saturday or Sunday? The fish they put in are really small and they haven't bitten anywhere they have stocked...LNL, MS, Clark....very strange and I hope this isn't a pattern this year. They definitely need more stockings in order to pick up the action.

  4. #4

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    Quote Originally Posted by Limit Time View Post
    Etucker- did you follow through on a Saturday or Sunday? The fish they put in are really small and they haven't bitten anywhere they have stocked...LNL, MS, Clark....very strange and I hope this isn't a pattern this year. They definitely need more stockings in order to pick up the action.
    I ventured to Ralph B Clark on Saturday morning. I arrived around 6:15AM and found myself 5th in line prior to the gates opening up at 7AM. Once inside the park I was surprised to see no less that 25-30 people already fishing. The park is not very big and people continued to show up in by the dozens. By 8;30 AM and seeing so many people it reminded me out shoulder to shoulder trout fishing at Santa Ana River Lakes back in the early 90's. Fishing was extremely slow. I saw about 3 trout caught and they were very small and about half a pound. By 9AM I had enough and packed up to head home. I had a buddy call me Saturday night who went to Irvine and his fishing experience was exactly the same as Etucker. The only good thing that happened was that his buddy who was catfishin caught about 8 nice catfish. Catfish never truly stop biting. They can be caught year round.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Location
    Loudon TN
    Posts
    2,835

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    Ralph B ( Los Coyotes ) use to have really big cats in it back in the day. Easy 20's. But this was years ago too.

  6. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by Limit Time View Post
    Etucker- did you follow through on a Saturday or Sunday? The fish they put in are really small and they haven't bitten anywhere they have stocked...LNL, MS, Clark....very strange and I hope this isn't a pattern this year. They definitely need more stockings in order to pick up the action.
    I did go Sunday to round out my season on Trophy catfish. (I hate ending on odd numbers) I had caught this season 29 Trophy catfish and I wanted an even 30! (It's like a baseball hitter hitting 299 and not 300) I did go fishing in the back on Sunday, because that's where most of my action as been on the catfish. I did catch an 7-8 pounder, but that still counts as a Trophy catfish! (so I did get my 30th Trophy catfish) YEA!!!! However, I did ask at the end of the day some people I know in the parking lot, how was the trout fishing on the West shore? They all said the same thing, "pretty darn slow!" So they didn't bite any better on Sunday as compared to Friday! I'm still optimistic for a good trout season at Irvine lake. But if it's going to be anything like the first stocking, it's Plan B for me for the rest of the season! Lake Wohlford here I come with a vengeance! (I saw their trout season planting schedule) Their stocking that lake every week but 3 times from Dec 11 -April 7! Plus one of the off weeks is the week after the opener where they had just stocked 4,000 pounds of trout. It should be a very good season down there!
    Last edited by etucker1959; 12-06-2021 at 03:10 PM.

  7. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by etucker1959 View Post
    I did go Sunday to round out my season on Trophy catfish. (I hate ending on odd numbers) I had caught this season 29 Trophy catfish and I wanted an even 30! (It's like a baseball hitter hitting 299 and not 300) I did go fishing in the back on Sunday, because that's where most of my action as been on the catfish. I did catch an 7-8 pounder, but that still counts as a Trophy catfish! (so I did get my 30th Trophy catfish) YEA!!!! However, I did ask at the end of the day some people I know in the parking lot, how was the trout fishing on the West shore? They all said the same thing, "pretty darn slow!" So they didn't bite any better on Sunday as compared to Friday! I'm still optimistic for a good trout season at Irvine lake. But if it's going to be anything like the first stocking, it's Plan B for me for the rest of the season! Lake Wohlford here I come with a vengeance! (I saw their trout season planting schedule) Their stocking that lake every week but 3 times from Dec 11 -April 7! Plus one of the off weeks is the week after the opener where they had just stocked 4,000 pounds of trout. It should be a very good season down there!
    Has the trout fishing improved for anyone?

    Thanks,

  8. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by chatmar View Post
    Has the trout fishing improved for anyone?

    Thanks,

    Where's Etucker, he will give you the scoop!

  9. #9

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    Quote Originally Posted by Limit Time View Post
    Where's Etucker, he will give you the scoop!
    When it comes to trout stockings, "if you had a bad result from the stocking!" It doesn't usually turn around! So I generally just write it off and move on to something else. But for inquiring minds who want to know for sure????? It was crap on this past Friday too! I guessed it would be crap, so I went catfishing in the back on Friday and had 1 half hearted catfish bite! One my way out, I talked to a friend of mine in the parking lot and he saw 1 catfish caught, 1 carp caught and 1 trout caught! So my guess was confirmed that it was going to be crap ole! That why I had a plan B lined up for Sunday. See my Lake Wohlford report, it's going to be a good one.
    Last edited by etucker1959; 12-13-2021 at 12:31 PM.

  10. #10

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    Quote Originally Posted by etucker1959 View Post
    That why I had a plan B lined up for Sunday. See my Lake Wohlford report, it's going to be a good one.
    Can't wait for the results. Thanks for 411 on Irvine....Looks like it may not be as hot as last year. Finger's crossed though!

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