Catfish anglers found red-hot catfish action this week at Irvine Lake, reported Jimmy Getty at the Pro Shop. "The catfish bite has been phenomenal", observed Getty. "A surprising number of catfish are being caught all day long, but when the sun goes down it goes absolutely bonkers."

Getty added, "The cats are holding in very shallow water down to about 15 feet all over the lake, including Boat Dock Cove, Woody's Cove, Santiago Flats, and the west shoreline. It's been a really nice mix of both stockers and holdovers, along with a few of the bigger blue cats. Interestingly, schools of hybrid striped bass are also moving through from time to time, and are attacking the baits intended for catfish."

Top baits for catfish were mackerel and shrimp, with the best presentation being flylining with no sinker at all. A smaller 1 by 3-inch piece of mackerel on a size 1 or 2 hook was the ticket for a limit of channel cats, with large chunks or even a whole mackerel fillet on a 4/0 or larger hook the way to sort through the small ones for a big blue.

Bass fishing is very good for 2 to 7-pound largemouth, although getting anything but sketchy details out of serious bassers was difficult. Evening and night-time hours saw topwaters like Rapala Skitter Pops, frogs, and 10-inch Power Worms working well, while daytime anglers did well with jigs and Carolina-rigged plastics. Low-light periods saw the use of reaction baits like Rapala XR10 and XR12 X-Raps in shad colors.

Productive locations for bass included Rocky Point and the Red Clay Cliffs. Incidental catches of 6 to 14-pound hybrid striped bass were reported in decent numbers by catfish anglers. Anglers are reminded that all bass species are strictly "catch and release" at Irvine Lake.

Crappie anglers are finding their quarry to be just getting started with its summer run, but bluegill anglers are finding large numbers of 'gills of exceptionally large size biting on mealworms and Gulp! Crickets in brushy shallows. Surprising numbers of 2-pound class rainbow trout are still being caught along the west shoreline by anglers skilled in deep-water trolling techniques using 4 to 6 colors of leadcore line and cop-car or bikini color Luhr Jensen Needlefish.

Families with children age 12 and under were doing well on stocker-size channel catfish in the Kids Lagoon, mostly using the marshmallow/mealworm combo during evening hours. Surface temperature on the main lake is in the high 70's, with underwater visibility rated very clear. The lake level is dropping about 6 inches per week.

Summertime hours are Thursday evenings until 11 PM, Friday and Saturday nights until Midnight, Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday until 4 PM, and closed on Tuesdays.

Outstanding catches of the week at Irvine Lake included:
Steve Sotelo of Whittier, 17-2 blue catfish [released] on mackerel at Boat Dock Cove
Robert Martinez of Long Beach, 8-5 channel catfish on mackerel at Rocky Point
Chris Hagopian of Redondo Beach, 14-0 wiper [released] on mackerel at the flats
Randy Aamot of Newport Beach, 7-4 largemouth bass [released] on plastics at the west shore