Irvine Lake sees near-record 9.6 pound steelhead, bass showing signs of busting loose.
Special steelhead plant slated,

Exotic trout species like brookies and steelhead continue to highlight the action at Irvine Lake, with a 9.6 pound steelhead that just missed the lake record of 9.8 pounds for the species bringing attention to a bonus stocking of inland steelies slated for this week.

"The beautiful weather and bright sunshine slowed the overall trout bite down", observed Jimmy Getty at the Pro Shop. "We are also seeing the water clear up quite a bit, with the lake level holding steady and the roads have dried out [*west shore road still submerged]. We will be putting in a special plant of quality-size steelhead for the President's Day Weekend, and a lot of brook trout and steelhead were biting this weekend."

Most of the rainbows filling the stringers this week were in the 2 to 5-pound class, with trophy rainbows from 6 to 13 pounds being caught daily. Bonus catches of quality-size steelhead, huge brookies and even a few browns continue to keep things interesting. A few anglers even managed to score "Grand Slams" of at least 3 different trout species in a single day.

The clearing waters mean that bait leaders should be longer and lighter, with 12 to 18 inches being the preferred leader length. Productive baits were the Power Mouse, Gulp! Trout Dough, Power Bait and nightcrawlers. Good bait fishing was seen at the west shore, boat dock cove, Trout Island, near the dam and Sierra Cove.

Improved visibility also means that trollers should adjust their color selections from bright firetiger and chartreuse lures to more natural "insect colored" hues like brown trout or plain silver. Trolling scores also improved this week, coming nearly on par with bait dunkers.

The warming weather had bass fishing showing signs of busting loose. Some anglers reported releasing as many as 30 largemouth up to 4 pounds per day, although many were smaller fish in the 1 to 1.5 pound class. The bass are moving up into the brushy shallows, rock points and flooded roadbeds, and are hitting on jigs and worms.

Clearing conditions also slowed the Kids Lagoon slightly, but good numbers of fish were still seen for families with children age 12 and under

Outstanding catches of the week at Irvine Lake included:
Mike Traut of Costa Mesa, "Trout Grand Slam" consisting of 9.8 pound rainbow, 5.2 pound brook and 2.4 pound brown trout on nightcrawlers at Sierra Cove
Rob Alvarado of Downey, 20.1 pound sturgeon [released] on Power Bait at the flats
Shaw Gallegher of Bellflower, 13.16 pound trout on a Power Worm at Trout Island
Scott Nakata of Garden Grove, 13.0 pound trout on Power Bait near the dam
Eve Choi of Hacienda Heights, 10.8 pound trout on Power Bait at the flats
Geo Altamirano of Santa Ana, 10.2 pound trout on a Power Mouse near the docks
Greg Scott of Long Beach, 10.2 pound trout on a Power Mouse at Sierra Cove
Paul Mincer of Riverside, 9.6 pound steelhead on a mini jig at the flats
Jason Penman of Ontario, 9.0 pound trout on nightcrawlers at Sierra Cove
Dwayne Castagna of Claremont, 8.8 pound trout on a Kastmaster at the west shore
Alex Brenton of Cypress, 8.1 pound rainbow and 4.0 pound brook trout on crickets near the docks
Andre Ortiz of Indio, 7.14 pound steelhead on Gulp! at the Lagoon
Dave Pearson of Garden Grove, 6.2 pound brook trout on an Atomic teaser at the flats
Ronson "Catmando" Smothers of Los Angeles, 6.1 pound steelhead on Power Bait at the flats
Shirley Kirkland of Stanton, 5.1 pound steelhead on Power Bait at Trout Island
Kevin Chao of Pomona, 4.2 pound brook trout on Power Bait near the dam
George Smith of Santa Monica, 4.8 pound brook trout on a Kastmaster at the flats

Media contacts:
Daniela Gavaldon or Jimmy Getty at the Pro Shop [714-649-9111]
Steve Carson at [email protected]