The trout action held up early in the week, and improved even more on Wednesday, according to Jimmy Getty at the Irvine Lake Pro Shop. "We restocked this morning [Wednesday], and the fish are biting", said Getty.

Trollers had the generally better action this week, with mid-lake being the best area. Some troll fish also came from the dam area and Sierra Cove. Most productive offering was a firetiger-color CD5 Rapala.

Bait fishing along the west shore slumped somewhat from the past few weeks, with Sierra Cove emerging as the top location. Scattered catches for shore anglers were also seen at Trout Island and near the docks.

Bait anglers are mostly soaking the chartreuse Power Bait/nightcrawler combo, with some good trout also falling to plain nightcrawlers. All baits work better if dunked in Berkley Trout Dip. Leaders in the 10 to 18-inch range are best, with 2-pound test clear mono or fluorocarbon a must.

Dropshot or splitshot-rigged chartreuse, orange or white Power Trout Worms dunked in garlic-flavor Berkley Trout Dip are also working well for the artificial-only crowd. Some anglers also scored with white Berkley Micro Power Tubes with a 2-inch section of chartreuse or orange Power Trout Worm as a trailer. When presenting the small plastics, using 2-pound test line is also a must.

Most limit stringers were made up of 1 to 4-pound fish, and the occasional bonus trout in the 5 to 9 pound class kept angler smiling. Some concentrations of bigger trout in Sierra Cove yielded heavy stringers of larger than average fish, and the area around the pipe can get crowded on weekends.

The pipe in Sierra Cove is still running, and will continue to hold the lake level steady until heavy rains arrive. Action in the Kid's Lagoon continues to be very good for families with children age 12 or under. Few anglers have made any attempt at bass fishing, with only a handful of small largemouth to show for it.

Outstanding catches of the week at Irvine Lake included:
Les Golden of Arrowbear, 9.0 pound rainbow trout on Power Bait at the west shore
Raymond Heshmat of Laguna Niguel, 8.2 pound rainbow trout on a Power Mouse at the west shore
Ian Campbell of Duarte, 8.2 pound rainbow trout on a Power Worm at Sierra Cove
Bud May of Huntington Beach, 6.14 pound rainbow trout on a Rapala at mid-lake
Romo family of Anaheim, 10-trout limit totaling 30.1 pounds on Power Bait at Sierra Cove

Media contacts:
Daniela Galvadon at the Irvine Lake Pro Shop [714-649-9111]
Steve Carson at scarson@sunset.net