Irvine Lake trout move deep, no limit trouting for rest of summer with June 6 catfish opener looming

With the return of normal weather, summer has arrived for Irvine Lake's trout population. "If you know how to fish deep, you can still catch a lot of trout", observed Nick Sepulveda at the Pro Shop. "It was very slow for most people, but one of our more knowledgeable deep trollers got over 50 fish on Saturday. The grade of trout is a little smaller this week, mostly 1 to 5 pounders. We are now allowing anglers to keep all the trout that they want for the remainder of the summer season, but there is still a 5-fish limit on catfish."

Catfish anglers are eagerly anticipating the June 6 catfish opener, when the lake will remain open until 2:00 AM on Friday and Saturday nights. The daytime catfish action has been improving on fish up to 5 pounds for anglers offering Catmando mackerel, nightcrawlers, shrimp and DuMong's. Best spot for catfish is Santiago Flats.

Ditto that crappie anglers are chomping at the bit for the June 6 night-time hours to begin. Only a few slabsides were checked in this week. Plenty of bluegill are still biting near the docks on mealworms and waxworms.

Trolling with 3 to 4 colors of leadcore line has been the hot ticket for trout. Favored lures have included black/gold CD05 Rapalas and cop car-color Luhr Jensen Needlefish. Deep drifting with bait is also productive for trout, with the white Power Egg/nightcrawler combo drawing the most bites.

Bass fishing is very good for those who specialize in the species, with some bassers reporting the release of a dozen or more fish for a morning's outing. Most of the largemouth are in the 1 to 3-pound class, hitting at 15-foot depths all over the lake. Best lures are dropshot-rigged plastics, but some topwater fish are hitting in the early mornings.

The Kids Lagoon was slow for catfish for families with children age 12 and under. The main lake water level is dropping very slowly, with extremely clear water conditions prevailing.
Outstanding catches of the week at Irvine Lake included:
Nathan Heffran of La Habra, 5-7 trout on nightcrawlers at the west shore
Shane Garcia of Anaheim, 3-5 trout on nightcrawlers at the west shore
Salvador Del Torre of Orange, 9 trout and 2 bluegill totaling 14-14 on nightcrawlers at Woody's Cove