Stormy conditions for the past two weeks have created an excellent opportunity for President's Day holiday anglers, reported Jimmy Getty at the Pro Shop. "The last storm came through on Tuesday night", observed Getty. "The roads around the lake should finally be dried out enough to re-open on Thursday morning. We have had storm after storm go though here for the past two weeks, and the fish have been virtually unpressured for that entire time, since very few people actually showed up to fish. We also had with several re-stockings during that time."

Getty added, "We will be getting a special stocking of steelhead on Thursday afternoon, just in time for the President's Day holiday. These steelies will be larger than we normally get, and will average almost 5 pounds each."

The anglers who braved the rain were still catching some fish by using stained water techniques like short 6 to 10-inch bait leaders, and strong garlic spray scents like Gulp! Alive!. Best bait was the new chartreuse-garlic Power Bait. Trollers did best by looking for areas of cleaner water, and dragging bright lure colors like firetiger, chartreuse, and hot pink.

Very few of the hybrid striped bass [sunshine bass or wipers] planted last week have been seen, but a handful have been caught on nightcrawlers, soft jerkbaits, and white flies. As usual during rainstorms, catfish have been stacking up wherever streams are running into the lake. Best bait for the 2 to 9-pound kitties has been nightcrawlers or chicken liver.

Extremely muddy water has kept success in the Kids Lagoon to a minimum this week. So far, the leader in the February "Free Gas for a Year" contest is the beautiful 14-2 rainbow weighed in by Todd Scullin of Lake Elsinore.

Outstanding catches of the week at Irvine Lake included:
Todd Scullin of Lake Elsinore, 14-2 rainbow trout on a Rapala at mid-lake
Mike Ferber of Orange, 11-6 rainbow trout on Power Bait at Woody's Cove
Adam Tombrello of Huntington Beach, 4-1 largemouth bass [released] on a jig at the red clay cliffs
Whitney Curry of Silverado, 3-1 hybrid striped bass [released] on a white fly at boat dock cove