Irvine Lake Fishing Report

The third trout stock of the month went in this week, with another scheduled for next week. Orange County Parks continues to heavily stock Irvine Lake and nearby lakes. The most consistent action is coming on soaked PowerBait or Mice Tails. Although one angler targeting trout with a live nightcrawler reportedly hooked into and landed a 6+ pound largemouth. Trout remain the main focus at Irvine, but bass are still active (water temps are hovering in the mid-50s) and starting to shadow the stocked fish. Larger trout-imitating swimbaits are worth throwing.

Irvine Lake was heavily stocked ahead of the Dec 6 trout derby, with 3,600 pounds of Lassen rainbows (with lightning trout) dropped in on Dec 5. Big fish of the derby was 5.22 pounds with the runner up being 5.09 pounds. Post-derby pressure has been high, especially on weekends, but trout are still being caught... mostly from anglers soaking floated nightcrawlers and PowerBait.

Water temps have dipped into the low 60s, which has pulled the bass bite out of the shallows and into deeper transitional areas. Smaller largemouth are still around, though, with Senkos and dropshots producing most of the remaining action.