Anglers’ Patience More Than a Virtue : Fishing: To catch the bounty in county lakes, it takes a lot of watching and waiting, plus the bait-du-jour.

Black-hearted clouds raced across the leaden sky and a bone-chilling wind swept along Irvine Lake’s West Beach this week--hardly an idyllic morning for sportfishing--but a hearty group of hard-core anglers huddled next to their vehicles or hunkered down into beach chairs for warmth.

Fifty yards offshore, a cormorant dived and then surfaced with a shad. But before it could enjoy breakfast, a white pelican appeared, slapped the smaller bird several times with its huge beak and gobbled up the small fish.

For the humans, the fishing was less productive . . . and not nearly as exciting.

Then, Rodney Baggett of Carson lifted a lot of spirits while waging a 10-minute battle with a beautifully colored four-pound rainbow trout.

“I’ve fished here once a week for 11 years,” Baggett said, “and I don’t think I’ve ever been skunked. I started coming with my mother and father. Now I come every Tuesday.

“Things are pretty slow today, though. If the wind dies down and the sun comes out, things would pick up.”

Baggett pulled the hood of his sweat shirt up around his head and settled back in his chair to watch his two poles for any hint of a nibble.

It’s the bait fisherman’s lot in life. He sits. He waits. He watches.

Tri Nguyen of Garden Grove brought his 6-year-old son, Kim, fishing on this blustery morning with hopes of catching dinner but also the assurance that he would be passing on a family tradition about the power of perseverance.

“My father taught me to fish and I’m teaching my son,” Nguyen said. “This lake is close to home, there are many fish and so it is good for both of us.”

He looked down at his son, who was digging through a container of worms.

“He is learning more than how to bait the hooks. He’s learning how important patience is.”

Steve Read of Costa Mesa was having a little trouble coping with the fisherman’s No. 1 virtue, however.

“I keep reading in fishing newspapers about the big trout here,” he said, “but I don’t usually do that well. I guess I don’t know how to fish this lake.

“The only thing I’ve caught today is a cold.”

OK, so what’s Baggett’s secret? What does it take to consistently fill your stringer with plump Irvine Lake trout?

Well, there’s the right tackle (usually a size 14-18 treble hook on the end of six to 18 inches of two- or three-pound test leader hung from a swivel that holds a small sliding sinker in place). And know-how (the savvy to set the hook at the right time). And, of course, a dash of good fortune.

Then there’s the bait. And here’s where the search for the perfect fishing program gets a bit sticky. Candidates for best bait abound:

--Old and proven standbys, such as salmon eggs, marshmallows and Velveeta cheese.

--One of many brands of floating baits, Play-Doh-like substances that come in little jars and a wide variety of colors, scents and, yes, even flavors.

--Nightcrawlers and meal worms are good too (affixed to size 8 or 10 single-snelled hooks). Most anglers prefer to inflate the worms--so they float off the bottom--with syringe-like devices called, appropriately, “worm blowers.”

--The ever-popular combinations of any of the above.

And, of course, the list of lures used to entice the big boys is almost endless.

“It changes every day,” said Bill Shriner, lake manager. “You have to stop in the bait shop and ask where the hot spots are and what the best baits are.”

The weather is also a large factor. When the barometer rises or plunges in a hurry, the fish don’t eat much until they adjust to the changes. And wind, which changes water temperature rapidly, also shuts down the fishing.

Anglers may suffer under adverse weather conditions, but pelicans and cormorants feast on trout every day.

Foul weather doesn’t seem to bother waterfowl.

There are plenty of fish in Irvine Lake. Outdoor Safaris International, the parent firm that owns the concessions at Irvine and Santa Ana River lakes in Anaheim, will dump seven tons of rainbow trout into the two lakes in the next two weeks. And both lakes will get a number of record rainbows, some weighing as much as 18 pounds. (Robert Sparks caught an Irvine Lake record 14-pound 10-ounce trout March 28, 1989).

The lake is also a fine catfish fishery and the only lake in the Southland to stock sturgeon. The state record channel cat--48 pounds, 8 ounces--and blue cat--59 pounds, 4 ounces--have been pulled from the depths of Irvine.

Fishing this lake is not an inexpensive enterprise, however. The admission fees for both day and night fishing is $10 with discounts for seniors, children and fishing club members. It costs $30 to rent a boat with a motor for the day, $18 for a row boat and $5 to launch your own boat. No fishing license is required.

A lot of people obviously believe it’s worth it, though. But it’s an fisherman’s right--not duty--to complain about a lack of action.

“I’ve been fishing here for 17 years,” said Tony Eberling of Orange, “and, in my opinion, they don’t put as much fish in as they used to. Even the experts aren’t getting as much as they used to out of here.

“But four weeks ago I caught an 8 1/2-pounder. All the fins were perfect and the color was beautiful. I’m gonna to have it mounted and hang it in my den.”

Heck, this is a spot where you can recreate and decorate at the same time.

For those who have never been to Irvine Lake, the name doesn’t always conjure up images of serene settings of sunrises, sparkling water and trophy trout.

To non-fishermen, it’s known more for tragedy. On July 15, 1984, a man and his son drowned when their boat was swamped by a wake and sank. And on April 22, 1985, a 9-year-old girl was killed when a drag boat careened out of control and into a crowd of spectators.

Steve Miller, vice president and general manager of The Lakes, the company that manages Irvine, Santa Ana River and Corona lakes, has been on the job only three weeks, but he’s working hard on establishing a new image.

“I’m already working on some grassroots programs,” Miller said. “We’re talking to a number of Orange County cities about junior angler programs, recreation programs and senior citizen programs and they seem very receptive. We have a 250-seat amphitheater that we want to start using more when the weather warms up.

“We want to tie into the community. Fishing is something a family can do together and we’re about 30 minutes from anywhere in Orange County.”

Bill Ray, the lake’s concessionaire the past three years, is a staunch conservationist who has been instrumental in the drive to ban gill nets in California. He’s hoping to expand the use of the lake for educational purposes in conjunction with conservation groups, the Audubon Society and even photography programs.

“We’ve got a master plan that’s designed to involve the family more and more,” marketing director Dick Gaumer said. “What’s more All-American than taking a kid fishing?”

On almost any pleasant summer weekend, the shores and coves of Irvine Lake are lined with boats, anchored in rows like cars in a mall parking lot a week before Christmas.

These days, however, the weather isn’t so nice and the water level and the crowds are down because of the drought.

The water level is 50 feet below maximum and, in some spots, there’s a quarter of a mile between the shore and the high-water mark.

“There’s no question the water level has hurt us,” Miller said. “Some people just like lots of water to boat in. But the water level doesn’t really affect the fishing. The lake is still 65 to 70 feet deep in some spots and that’s a lot of water.”

Actually, the drought has provided a comfortably wide beach at West Beach, where Mitch Hockenberry, a construction contractor from Anaheim, and his wife had set up their poles behind his pick-up truck.

“We like to play hooky from work and come out here whenever we can,” Hockenberry said. “We got married last September and went fishing on our honeymoon. That’s just about all we been doing since.

“It seems like fishing here in California is more technical than it was in Pennsylvania, where I come from. But we’ve been learning the tricks.

“We just like catching fish. We don’t like eating ‘em much, though.”

The Hockenberrys didn’t have to decide whether or not to “choke down” a fresh trout dinner on this evening. Unlike Baggett, they were “skunked.”

But somehow, cuddled together on the tailgate of their truck, one got the feeling that it was the fishing--not the catching--that really mattered.