Irvine Lake report

[ful-rac]

Went out to irvine again today lookn for some more of those pesky trout! Day started out with super thick fog, thank god for gps...and the crowd today was relatively light. Weather today was in the low 70s, with a little light breeze making it an awsome day to be out on the water.



I just bought a downrigger this week and was really excited to try it out. I was worried that it might turn into a cluster fuck...but actually depolying and retriving the whole setup is pretty simple, the only time i needed to use 2 hands while deploying was to attach the line to the release clip. Heres a picture of the setup...



Ive been trolling for hours and hours and hours, without a single bite....so I yell out loud "this fkn sucks!!!!" with emphasis on sucks. Finally about 11:30 I get bit, first trout of the day. Usually im done by now, so im a little frustrated...ok back to trolling....soon after I caught the first one I get bit again, I get that sucker close, he starts acting like a dorado and going nuts, he ends up shaking the hook....of course....man im having a bad day...so i end up hangn another one soon after, this time hes in the net, i unhook this bad boy and try to throw him into my bait tank...and he goes over the side...this is gettn better and better! So at this point all 3 of my hookups have come on the surface and none on the downrigger, obviously they are on top, i should troll both lines on top but im hell bent on catching something on this downrigger! So after another hour of limits of nothing...i see a little tap tap on the downrigger line....


Oh its just about the biggest crappie ive ever caught!


So now its about 1:30 still no trout on the downrigger....im really dissapointed. I get another bite and its on the surface troll line, ok fish in the boat. After I unhook the fish tap tap on the downrigger line...the fish couldnt pull the line off of the release...could it be? Yep, first trout on the downrigger. Deployed the rigger again, about 15 feet deep, bang another bite this time i got the release dialed in and it releases perfect, fish in the boat. So now im stoked! Gotta take another pass! Drop the troll rigs out after awhile no bite, checked the downrigger line out, and its twisted all to hell! Well looks like that rods done...so i grab the other rod on the surface snap it on the release clip...and send it down, i couldnt have gone 20 feet before it got inhaled! Fish in the boat, thats my limit finally!