Irvine Lake 4/1/12
 

With all the chatter about BBQ Trout on the main board and the predicted heavy wind, I made my way out to Irvine Lake on Sunday. I got a classic Sunday morning late start and again made my way onto the water around 10am. I started trolling my way along the West Shore heading towards Catfish Cove. Made it to Catfish cove and got no love on the troll. I also did not meter much activity in the 15-25' range of water that I was working. This water depth is where I've caught them lately. With the rain from the night before, I wasn't sure what to expect. I finally found the fish in 30 - 40' of water all over the lake. Still being new to kayaking, I worked the meter marks until I found a spot to drop the anchor. Setting the kayak on a spot of structure is going to take more practice! I learned that a traditional anchor DOES NOT WORK on the soft bottom that is Irvine Lake. I could not hold a spot anywhere when the wind picked up. I tried to go back to my spot, but found a bass boat parked on my new waypoints. GRRR Not sure if it was coincidence, but dang that boat parked on a spot I had been circling for over 10 minutes. :mad:

Annoyed, I gave up on the West Shore and proceeded to the Flats to see what was going on. Again, no love on the troll to the flats. Once in the flats area, there wasn't much going on till I got to the dock near the end of the flats. In that cove I was metering lots of fish! I threw all my lures at them for nothing. I dropped down some powerbait and BAM, knocked the skunk off my back. I proceeded to get another one on powerbait. At this point the wind was starting to pick up and I decided to call it a day. On my way back to the dock, found a couple of nice Bass spots that'll I'll go work next time. I ended up with 2 average rainbows, that I gave to a nice family who did not catch any fish for the day. Hopefully I made a deposit in the bank of karma!

Here are some random shots from the day.
http://fishingfiend.smugmug.com/Trip.../IMG1315-L.jpg
http://fishingfiend.smugmug.com/Trip.../IMG1318-L.jpg
http://fishingfiend.smugmug.com/Trip.../IMG1321-L.jpg

Oh and hello to Al, a new Pro Angler owner doing his second shakedown trip at the Vine.
http://fishingfiend.smugmug.com/Trip.../IMG1326-L.jpg

At least you didn't get skunked!

Pretty lookin' rainbow.

Thanks for the report :cool:

NICE! Always nice to catch trouts... I gotta visit this Irvine Lake some day. Been seeing some good reports about it. Also I've been hearing of other lakes been doing good in recent days.