Irvine Lake water level rises; water shuttles to run on weekends
Anglers at Irvine Lake found the water level continuing to rise this week, along with excellent fishing for trout, bass, and crappie. "The lake level has risen high enough so that the road to Trout Island is under water, and the Kids Lagoon is now part of the main lake. Approximately 1 more 'vertical foot' of water will be coming in, and at that point it will start to slowly subside all summer long. We will now be running a water shuttle over to Trout Island on weekends only."

Getty cautioned, "We are seeing the wipers [AKA hybrid striped bass] starting to boil in several areas of the lake. Everyone needs to remember that all bass species, including wipers and largemouth must be released immediately."

Trouters found very good action, with many anglers purchasing double-limit tickets, and even triple limit tickets. Good trout catches were made at the west shore, Boat Dock Cove, Woody's Cove, and Santiago Flats.

Trouters did very well this week on all the usual baits, including Power Bait, inflated nightcrawlers, and "Ham-N-Eggs" [Power Egg/nightcrawler combo]. Trollers stuck with the dependable Rapala Countdown CD05's in firetiger color. Most trout on the stringers ranged from 1 to 5 pounds. Bass fishing continues at a torrid pace, with skilled anglers able to release 30 or more bass per day. Largemouth in the 2 to 6 pound category were aggressively hitting on reaction baits along the west shore, Rocky Point, and the Red Clay Cliffs. No hybrid stripers were landed this week, but boiling schools popped up on several occasions.

Crappie action perked up again after the weekend, and some decent numbers of slabs averaging 1 pound were caught on white Atomic Tubes. Lake management announced that "catch-and-release" fishing will now be allowed for crappie, but "Culling" or "Highgrading" will not be permitted. Once a crappie has been placed on a stringer or in a fish basket, it must be kept as part of the 5-fish limit. Sorting through the catch to discard the smaller ones is prohibited.

Some channel catfish in the 2 to 6-pound range were caught incidentally by trout anglers using nightcrawlers. Bluegill and redear numbers are steadily increasing for anglers offering mealworms or waxworms. The surface water temperature is 64.1 degrees.

Outstanding catches of the week at Irvine Lake included:
Paul Mitzer of Corona, 8-1 rainbow trout on a trolled nightcrawler at the cliffs
Tim McAvoy of Orange, 7-0 rainbow trout on nightcrawlers at Boat Dock Cove
6-year old Isabel Meredith of Poway, 15 rainbow trout to 3-0 [triple-limit ticket] on Rapalas at mid-lake
Don Spencer of Orange, 6-1 largemouth bass [released] on a jerkbait at Rocky Point
Todd Barronas of Santa Fe Springs, 6-2 channel catfish on nightcrawlers at the flats
Javier Rodriguez of Chino, 10-2 carp on Power Bait at the Lagoon