As Irvine Lake's fish transition to fall patterns, the lake's bass population is going on a feeding binge, reported Jimmy Getty at the Pro Shop. "This past Friday was the best day of bass fishing so far this year", observed Getty. "We had lots of bass in general, lots of nice 4 to 6-pounders, and even a nice quantity of 7 to 9-pounders. There was really excellent bass fishing all week long."

Getty tipped, "The bass are definitely orienting themselves to hard structure at 10 to 40 feet, especially near Rocky Point, the Red Clay Cliffs, and along the west shore. Time of day is not that important, and plenty of fish are being caught during the daytime starting at about 1 PM and into the night. Best lures have been 10-inch Power Worms, and we even had a first time-ever bass angler catch and release 9 bass on a pack of 10 plastic worms."

Catfish anglers found limit stringers filled with mostly 2 to 6-pound stocker-grade catfish. Some better size whiskerfish were on tap though, including a 10-fish, 75-pound double limit. More often the fishing was like that experienced by Hayden and Lucas Holden [age 11 and 7 respectively], who went out with local guide Donnie Spencer, scoring easy catfish limits. "The bite was insane", said Spencer. "The instant the bait hit the bottom it was bit, and the kids loved it!"

Best catfish bite time starts in mid-afternoon and ratchets up as it gets darker, peaking from around 9 PM to 11 PM. Productive baits included mackerel, shrimp, Gulp! Catfish Chunks, skipjack, and pike mackerel. Good catches were reported from Boat Dock Cove, Santiago Flats, and the west shore.

Few anglers ventured out after crappie or bluegill. No deep trollers were seen, so any trout activity went undetected. Fast-moving schools of hybrid striped bass blew up on shad, but the only ones landed were caught incidentally on mackerel in the pursuit of catfish.

Families with children age 12 and under found excellent numbers of 1 to 3-pound catfish and some monster carp to 25 pounds in the Kids Lagoon. One young angler, 6year old Olivia Luebake of Irvine, fishing with her dad caught her limit and her dad's limit of catfish, and then battled a huge 25-pound carp to the shoreline on a Zebco combo. Best baits were mackerel for the catfish, nightcrawlers for the carp, and shrimp for both species. Surface temperature on the main lake is 79 to 81 degrees, and decreasing slowly.

Trout anglers are looking forward to the 2012-13 public trout season opener, slated for Friday, November 2. A special "VIP Fishing Day" is set for Thursday, November 1. Some 20,000 pounds of trout will be planted for the opener.

Outstanding catches of the week at Irvine Lake included:
Marty Saucedo of Costa Mesa, 11-2 channel catfish on mackerel at the flats
Doug Cherry of Placentia, 9-4 channel catfish on mackerel at the flats
Ryne Zimmerman of Anaheim, 9-6 largemouth bass [released] on a Brush Hog at the west shore
Joey Nuinhuis of Costa Mesa, 9-1 largemouth bass [released] on plastics at the west shore
Takeshi Nagayama of Daiwa, 7-8 largemouth bass [released] on a Carolina Rig at Rocky Point
Chris Hagopian of Redondo Beach, 9-3 hybrid striped bass [released] on mackerel at the flats
Terry Lairson of Huntington Beach, 9-3 hybrid striped bass [released] on mackerel at the flats
6-year old Olivia Luebake of Irvine, 25-8 carp [released] on shrimp in the Kids Lagoon
Marty Sauceda and Phil Hildebrant of Huntington Beach, 10-catfish limit totaling 75 pounds on mackerel at the flats.