An appearance by world-renowned bass angler Rick Clunn "almost" eclipsed a phenomenal showing by Irvine Lake's double-digit rainbow trout, reported Jimmy Getty at the Pro Shop. "The big trout bite has been amazing this week", observed Getty. "We have just had a parade of big rainbows being weighed in every day. We also had world-famous bass angler Rick Clunn stop by on Friday to field-test some prototype Luck-E-Strike crankbaits, and he did really well. Although he did not catch any real large bass, he had a field day by releasing over 30 fish in the 2 to 3-pound class. Almost all of Clunn's fish were caught on medium-running shad-color crankbaits at 4 to 15 feet, in flooded brush and rockpiles."

Getty added, "All of these big trout are the ones that we stocked way back on November 3; seems like it took them about 2 weeks to get acclimated. The big sturgeon caught last week by Bill DePriest was even bigger than first reported, and although it was not formally weighed, at around 80 pounds was very close to the IGFA world record for the 6-pound line class."

Trolling was the trick for anglers fishing with KFGS Guide Service, reported Hubert Zimara. "We got a total of 10 trout up to 3-8, trolling with firetiger CD05 Rapalas, and assorted SC Shiners. We trolled with topline and leadcore gear, and sent the leadcore 4 colors down."

Trout anglers found overall that trolled lures and small plastics worked much better than just passively soaking bait, likely due to the fish chasing the lake's abundant shad population around. Good trolling lure choices included the old favorite firetiger-color Rapala Countdown CD05, along with brook trout-color Jointed Rapala J05's, and even black/silver Shad Rap SR07's. Strong garlic, corn, or roe scents added to any kind of bait or lure was a big help. Very good trout catches were reported from almost everywhere in the lake, including the west shore, Trout Island, Woody's Cove, Santiago Flats, mid-lake, and Boat Dock Cove. The trout are mostly a beautiful grade of rainbows, averaging about 2 to 3 pounds.

Mixed in on the stringers were some 2 to 5-pound brook and brown trout, along with a surprising number of large rainbows from 5 to 14 pounds. Many big trout are also getting away, due to tight drags, poor knots, or lack of a decent-size net.
Legendary BASSMASTER angler Clunn literally hammered Irvine Lake's bass, releasing over 30 largemouth in just a few hours of fishing. Clunn did best with medium-running Luck-E-Strike prototype crankbaits at 4 to 15 feet. Other bass chasers found their fish along the cliffs, in the flooded trees, and the west shore roadbed. Good numbers of bass were caught on jigs and crankbaits, with fewer but larger bucketmouths up to 7 pounds hitting fairly shallow on large swimbaits.