Catfish anglers took their place in the spotlight back from the bass anglers at Irvine Lake this week, reported Jimmy Getty at the Pro Shop. "The catfish bite has just been phenomenal once it starts to get dark", enthused Getty. "If you get on a good spot, it is going absolutely full speed with early limits. We are selling a bunch of 'second limit' tickets, and even some 'third limit' tickets. Lots of the channel cats are beautiful 'goldies', which are holdover fish that have been in the lake for a year or more."

Getty added, "During the day, it's been a 'pick bite' on cats, but has kept going all day long. Almost all of the catfish are being caught at 20 feet or less."

Most catfish filling up the limit stringers are in the 2 to 6-pound class, with a nice mixture of larger 7 to 10-pounders mixed in. Favored baits include mackerel and shrimp, with added scents like Bite-On Garlic helping a lot. One interesting and productive bait that has emerged recently is a small fish labeled as "pike mackerel" at Asian fish markets, but more familiar as "saury" to tuna anglers. Good whiskerfish numbers were reported from Santiago Flats, Trout Island, Boat Dock Cove, and along the west shoreline.

Excellent numbers of 2 to 4-pound largemouth bass were biting during both day and night-time hours. Daytime bassing was good on dropshot baits and jigs at 20 to 25 feet, along with hollow-body frogs fished over floating moss mats in shallow heavy cover. From dusk to dark, the bass move up, and are hitting topwaters and other reaction baits, while still going after the frogs. A few nice hybrid striped bass in the 8 to 10-pound class were caught incidentally on mackerel baits intended for catfish. Anglers are reminded that all bass species are strictly catch-and-release at Irvine Lake.

Virtually zero anglers made the effort to pursue crappie, due to the sizzling action on the much larger catfish and bass. A handful of nice bluegill were caught in brushy shallows during the day on Gulp! Crickets, while the lake's trout population has moved to the lake's deepest strongholds; again resulting in zero effort to pursue them. European-style specialty carp techniques yielded a few whoppers over 20 pounds, including a 26-12 monster that was the overall biggest fish of the week. Families with children age 12 and under found good numbers of 2 to 4-pound channel catfish on mackerel, shrimp, and the M&M combo. Surface temperature on the main lake is running 77-80 degrees. Underwater visibility ranges from a few feet along the shoreline, to gin-clear at mid-lake. Lake level is dropping 6 to 8 inches per week.

Outstanding catches of the week at Irvine Lake included:

Rotilio Cortez of Los Angeles, 17-0 blue catfish [released] on mackerel at the Red Clay Cliffs
Mitz Onizuka of Irvine, 15-0 blue catfish [released] on pike mackerel at Boat Dock Cove
Marty Sauceda of Costa Mesa, 7-0 blue catfish [released] on mackerel/shrimp at the flats
Milton Jackson of Los Angeles, 12-2 channel catfish on mackerel at the flats
Nick Vega of Garden Grove, 9-6 channel catfish on mackerel at the flats
Mike Byrum of Orange, 4-4 largemouth bass [released] on a hollow-body frog at the west shore
Ed Smith of Oceanside, 10-3 wiper [released] on shrimp at Trout Island
Griselda Rodriguez of Hawthorne, 26-12 carp [released] on boilies at the Kids Lagoon
Ronson Smothers of Los Angeles, 5-catfish limit totaling 39-8, topped by a 9-14, on mackerel at the flats