Irvine Lake trout go wide-open in deeper water; "No-Limit" trout derby slated for June 6-7.

Moving down in the water column paid off big time for trout anglers at Irvine Lake this week, reported Nick Sepulveda at the Pro Shop. "It's [trout fishing] wide open down at 20 feet", said Sepulveda. "Either garlic power bait or trolling with 5 colors of leadcore line was easy limits. The bite takes awhile to get going, with very few fish being caught early. After about 9:00 AM, things really take off."

The weekend of June 6-7 will see the first-annual Irvine Lake "No-Limit" Trout Derby. The usual 5-trout limit will be suspended, and prizes will be given out for the heaviest stringer of trout, no matter how many fish are on it.

Trout planting is wrapping up for the season, and the main lake's first catfish plant will be 10,000 pounds of channel cats going in just before the big June 12 catfish season opener event.

Good catches of trout were reported from the west shore, boat dock cove and near the dam. Bait dunkers went with straight garlic PowerBait, and anything resembling a worm will be gobbled up by voracious bluegill. Trollers use a cop-car color Luhr Jensen Needlefish or Owner Mira Shad.

Bass fishing is still good, with anglers reporting the release of 10 or more fish per day using plastics or XR10 Rapala X-Raps and other hard jerkbaits. The post spawn largemouth are running mostly from 2 to 4 pounds.

The crappie are holding very tight in structure, and are literally inside of the tops of trees. Most are clone-size three-quarter pound fish, hitting on white Berkley Atomic Tubes. Lots of bluegill from hand size to over a pound are all over the lake. Anglers wishing to target them should bait up with meal worms or waxworms.

Catfish are hanging in 25 to 30 foot depths, but are biting very well on shrimp and mackerel baits. Several limits of whiskerfish in the 2 to 4 pound class were checked in. The Kids Lagoon is kicking out excellent numbers of trout for families with children age 12 and under. Next week will see the stocking in the Lagoon switch over to catfish, and continue with that species for the rest of the summer season.

The water level of the main lake is slowly receding, having dropped approximately 6 inches in the past week. Surface water temperatures in the main lake are 67 to 70 degrees.

Outstanding catches of the week at Irvine Lake included:

- Ron Crab of Fullerton, 9-14 rainbow trout on PowerBait at the west shore
- Wally Swatkowski of Fullerton, 5-trout limit caught in one hour, on PowerBait near the ramp