Irvine Lake adds Thursday night hours, catfish catches topped by whopping 31.9 pounder

Anew night-time fishing opportunity is being added at Irvine Lake. The big news is that starting on Thursday night June 19, Irvine Lake will stay open for fishing until 11:00 PM. For the time being, night hours on Fridays and Saturdays will remain until 2:00 AM as usual. The lake will also be closed on Tuesdays for remainder of the summer season.
The big catfish at Irvine Lake served notice that they are waking up, and the lakes largest whiskerfish so far this year was actually caught 2 days before last Friday night's big seasonal kickoff.
The 31.9 pound beast was caught by Rich Skills of Anaheim on shrimp at Santiago Flats, and was released to fight another day. Anglers who release a catfish over 20 pounds will receive a free pass to the lake, and those who manage to catch one over 50 pounds will also receive a free boat rental.

"Friday night was really very good, although Saturday was slower due to the heavy pressure" reported Jimmy Getty at the Pro Shop. "You name it and they were biting it; mackerel, shrimp, DuMong's, M&M combo, Catmando and nightcrawlers were all working."

Getty tipped, "Some crappie anglers did extremely well using small jigs fished under the lights." Legendary big catfish guide Ronson "Catmando" Smothers gave an awesome trophy catfish seminar on both Friday and Saturday evening, then headed out himself. "We fished Santiago Flats on Friday night", related Smothers. The water level is still pretty high, so the old spots were not producing. We found a spot in 32 feet of water where we caught 5 catfish up to 6 pounds on mackerel and shrimp with Catmando Original scent."

Smothers added, "The catfish bite will continue to heat up as the month goes on. Seems like it will be another great season as the water level begins to drop."
The start of night fishing also found phenomenally good crappie action. The trick is to put out a floating lantern, then wait for the minnows to be attracted to the light. Very quickly, the crappie will be attracted to the minnows. Best tempters for slabsides from 6 inches to 1.5 pounds were white Atomic Teasers or Atomic tubes with a mealworm trailer. Also working well were 2-inch Gulp! Minnows.

Not surprisingly, bass anglers also enjoyed the late hours, and some good largemouth action was seen on fish to 6 pounds. Rapala Skitter Walks and other topwater baits were productive, as were various plastics.

There is no limit on trout during the summer months, and trouters skilled in deepwater tactics were able to score some impressive stringers. Best bet was trolling with 3 to 5 colors of leadcore line trailed by a cop-car or frog-color Luhr Jensen Needlefish. Deep drifted Power Bait/nightcrawler combinations also caught trout from 2 to 4 pounds.

The Kids Lagoon was re-stocked, and families with children age 12 and under found good action on stocker-size catfish using the marshmallow/mealworm combination.
Anglers are reminded that catch and release is mandatory for catfish over 20 pounds and largemouth bass. Releasing fish is not permitted for any other species.

The Department of Fish and Game and Serrano Water District announced the formal discovery of adult Quagga mussels at Irvine Lake this week, following the detection of microscopic larva several weeks ago. Inspection of all private boats will continue in an attempt to block the additional introduction of the related Zebra mussels.
Outstanding catches of the week at Irvine Lake included:
Rich Skills of Anaheim, 31.9 pound blue catfish [released] on shrimp at the flats
Alex Benton of Long Beach, 13.06 pound channel catfish on mackerel at the flats
Varian Virgen of Anaheim, 6.0 pound channel catfish on shrimp near the docks
Ronson "Catmando" Smothers of Los Angeles, 6.0 pound channel catfish on Catmando at the flats
Philip Campbell of Chino, 5-catfish limit totaling 18.06 pounds on shrimp at the flats

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