Big trout and lots of them were the story at Irvine Lake this week, reported Jimmy Getty at the Pro Shop. "The amazing trout fishing we have had since the opener shows no signs of letting up", observed Getty. "We had an array of whopper rainbows from 10 to 15 pounds checked in, and lots of 8 and 9 pounders that did not even make the list."

Getty added, "We had lake regular Phil Hildebrant see what he thought was a school of big hybrid striped bass boil up on shad near mid-lake, looking something like a 'breezer' of yellowtail out on the ocean. He motored over there and threw a jig into the melee, but broke off an obviously big fish after fighting it for awhile. The only other rod he had rigged up was a flylined nightcrawler, which yielded an instant hookup with a beautiful 8-5 rainbow. These bigger fish are aggressive and want to chase something down, which probably explains why the trollers are doing best this week."

Trollers had the edge over bait dunkers this week when it came to the oversize fish, just as long as they had a pink lure tied on. Top producer was the hot pink color size 4 Berkley Flicker Shad, which fooled an amazing 4 double-digit rainbows this week. The hot pink Owner Cultiva, pink tiger Rapala Shad Rap SR04, or pink tiger Rapala Countdown CD05 were also good.

Trolling at a relatively slow speed is still the key, with 0.8 to 1.8 mph being best, and anything faster than 2.1 mph putting the lures outside of the strike zone. Favored trolling locations were mid-lake, along the dam restriction lines, and along the west shoreline. Mini plastics are also producing some nice fish with Atomic Teasers or dropshot-rigged Power Trout Worms being excellent choices. Plain nightcrawlers and traditional PowerBait also scored plenty of good stringers. Favorite spots for offering bait were the West Shore Road and Trout Island.

A few crappie were caught incidentally by trout trollers, but no effort was expended towards catfish. Ditto that bass anglers were conspicuous by their absence.

Families with children age 12 and younger found very good numbers of 1 to 3-pound rainbows using PowerBait in the Kids Lagoon. The lake will be open regular hours the day before Thanksgiving, CLOSED on Thanksgiving Day, and open regular hours on the day after Thanksgiving, making a day on the lake an excellent alternative to "Black Friday" shopping at an overcrowded mall.

Outstanding catches of the week at Irvine Lake included:
Ken Clark of Santa Clarita, 15-0 rainbow trout on a jigging spoon at the west shore
Peter Meak of Lakewood, 14-6 rainbow trout on a Flicker Shad at the west shore
Ron Kaeble of Temple City, 13-15 rainbow trout on a Flicker Shad at mid-lake
Garth Kebeldis of Chino Hills, 12-4 rainbow trout on a Flicker Shad at mid-lake
Gwen Oshino of Santa Ana, 11-8 rainbow trout on a Flicker Shad at mid-lake
Robert Bilevich of Lakewood, 5-10 brown trout on a Cultiva Minnow
David Tango of Brea, 9-10 steelhead on a nightcrawler at the west shore
Katie Sadler of San Diego, 2-0 crappie on a Flicker Shad at the west shore