The rush of opening weekend for Irvine Lake's trout season is now past, and the fishing just keeps getting better, reported General Manager Dave Noyes. "The weather kept many anglers at home on opening weekend", observed Noyes. "As a result, there are really a lot of those 20,000 pounds of trout left in the lake, and of course we will be re-stocking this week and every single week all season long." Noyes reminded, "We have postponed out Veteran's Day Tournament by one week, and it will now be held on November 19 and 20. We will also be allowing both float-tubers and kayakers to launch for free for the remainder of trout season."

Most of the trout on the stringers have been quality-grade rainbows in the 2 to 3-pound class. A nice mix of brown trout and brook trout from 2 to 6 pounds, along with some bigger rainbows to over 10 pounds is keeping things interesting. Most productive location for big fish has been Woody's Cove and Woody's Point, with limits most common from the west shoreline and mid-lake areas. Cold mornings often start off slow, with mid-morning warming around 10:30 AM often seeing the fish begin to move around and want to bite.

Best choice for bait dunkers has been the Gulp! Pinched Crawler rigged Carolina-style with a 2-pound test leader. Atomic Tubes and Atomic Teasers in combinations of chartreuse and orange have also been hot. Trollers have done best with slower than usual speeds and smaller than usual lures, such as the firetiger-color Rapala Countdown CD05 or the red/chartreuse Rapala Ultra-Light Shad ULS04.

Fishing hours until May of 2012 will be 7 days a week, Sunday through Thursday from 6:00 AM to 4:00 PM, and Fridays-Saturdays from 6:00 AM to 5:00 PM. The Snack Bar opens at 5:30 AM for breakfast.