Very good action on bass and catfish was the story this week at Irvine Lake, reported Jimmy Getty at the Pro Shop. “The number of nice eating-size 3 to 8-pound catfish being checked in this week is just phenomenal”, observed Getty. “Good numbers of catfish are being caught during both daytime and night-time hours. We are also going to have a bonus stocking of 5,000 pounds of catfish for our ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream-King of the Cats’ event this coming weekend.”

Getty added, “We also had lake regular Chris Hagopian of Redondo Beach fight a losing battle with a catfish estimated at well over 40 pounds. The veteran angler known as ‘Trollmeister’ fought the big cat for over 20 minutes, after hooking it on mackerel at Rocky Point, only to lose it on the anchor line.”

Nice stringers of catfish were caught at the west shore, the flats, near the dam, and Boat Dock Cove, at average depths of 10-20 feet. Favored baits included mackerel, shrimp, bonito, and skipjack, with strong scents like Berkley Catfish Dip helping quite a bit. Best technique is to fish with absolutely no sinker at all, and let the suspicious catfish run 15-20 feet with the reel’s bail open before setting the hook.