A Bountiful Trip : Southland Anglers Don’t Have to Travel Far for Big Trout at User-Friendly Irvine Lake

Anglers accustomed to seeing the California Department of Fish and Game’s dedicated servants planting fish from their small tankers around the state might be taken aback to see Ron Keebler pull his 18-wheeler up alongside the shore of Irvine Lake.

Now, that is a fish truck.

Keebler has six 480-gallon tanks on the trailer, and the cargo on one of his weekly 600-mile runs from a private hatchery in northern California last week was 6,000 pounds of rainbow trout, ordered for the official opening of the lake’s trout season the next day. Most weighed from four to six pounds--something more than pan size, unless your pan is the size of a manhole cover--and the front tank on the trailer discharged whoppers of up to 15 pounds and more.

Noting this, some of the lake’s regulars were lined up at the gates, poised for an assault at 6 a.m. Mike Emond, a sheet-metal foreman from Whittier, has been first in line the last two years, but it hasn’t been easy.

“I had to get here yesterday at 5 o’clock, straight from work,” he said. “I love trout fishing, and here it’s unbelievable. I take time off from work to come here.”

Irvine Lake is an Orange County phenomenon tucked into the hills a few miles east of Orange and Tustin. Built as a reservoir in 1933, for years it drew modest activity as a warm-water fishery for self-sustaining bass, catfish and sunfish until some private operators, Bill Andrews and Doug Elliott, recognized its recreational potential in the ‘80s.

The current operators, Outdoor Safaris International, which also run the Balboa Bay Club and Newport Beach Country Club, have taken Irvine and, to a lesser degree, the nearby Santa Ana River Lakes a step further with a big-fish concept, focusing on catfish in the warm months and trout the rest of the year.

Irvine is in the fishing business big time. Other public lakes supported by government agencies might survive with mediocre fishing, but Irvine has to produce.

“That’s why we stock so heavily,” says General Manager Steve Miller, citing about 300,000 pounds of trout and catfish each year. “We’d like to be able to say we’re the most heavily stocked private lake in the country.”

They’re researching their right to that claim. But quality counts as much as quantity--hence, the whoppers. Irvine averages about 2,000 anglers a week, and big fish are the big lure.

“We do put smaller fish in,” Miller said. “But our contract’s for three-quarters of a pound--nothing smaller.”

The Irvine Lake records for blue and channel catfish are also the state records--59 pounds 4 ounces and 48-8, respectively--and several of the trout planted last weekend would top the lake record of 14-10.

The guidebook “California Fishing,” by Tom Stienstra, calls Irvine “the ultimate put-and-take fishery, with the fish often so big that it can be a real mind-bender.”

Stienstra related a conversation with world-class fly-fisherman Ed Rice, who said, “You want to know where the biggest trout in the world are? They aren’t in Alaska. They’re at that Irvine Lake.”

Catching them is something else.

“The big ones are tough to catch,” Miller says. “We think one of the reasons is that this is a really healthy lake (with natural forage) right now. We know they’re down deep, because we haven’t lost any. You’ll see them if they (die and) float (to the top).”

The trout and catfish coexist with crappies, red-ear sunfish, Florida-strain largemouth bass stocked in 1987 and even some sturgeon stocked in ‘87--the first in any Southern California lake, according to Dick Gaumer, vice president and director of marketing.

Next year they plan to introduce a population of German brown trout.

As a fishing experience, Irvine is at the opposite pole from “A River Runs Through It,” Robert Redford’s acclaimed film based on fly-fishing in Montana. In a sense, Irvine is an artificial lake with artificial fish caught on artificial bait.

The tackle store doesn’t even sell flies. Power Bait, that putty-like gunk, outsells all other baits and lures combined by about five to one. The bottom of the lake is probably paved with the stuff by now.

There is no sense of apology. The anglers use Power Bait because it catches fish, which is what Irvine is all about. Unencumbered by bureaucracy, the operators make their own rules, with their own limits, hours and planting policies. Fishing licenses aren’t even required.

Miller said, “For a family of four going fishing, (licenses) are almost $100 before you get to the lake. We try to keep our boat rentals down. The last I checked, we were the lowest (priced) boat rentals in Southern California.”

Instead, admission is $11 for adults and $9 for children 4-12. A boat with a motor is $35 a day. Private boats may be launched for $6.

The worst thing about going to Irvine is making a left turn against traffic at the entrance off two-lane Santiago Canyon Road. Especially at rush hour, there always seems to be an accident waiting to happen.

The lake level currently is about 20 feet below the spillway at the dam, which draws it away from the shoreline below the main parking lot at the opposite end until it fills again in the spring, expanding it from 700 acres to 900. But there is a minimum level agreement with the Serrano Water District, so even in a drought the future of the fishery is assured.

Miller and Gaumer seem to take a personal interest in every fish. As Keebler unloads his traveling aquarium, Gaumer watches from shore while Miller, in chest waders, helps escort the trout out of a trough into the lake. Afterward, two fish of about 10 pounds each are seen struggling near the shore, but efforts to revive them are futile.

When someone says the fish might have been caught and killed, anyway, Gaumer says, “I don’t like to see any fish die. To come this far . . . you want them to have a go at it first. We’re trying to kick off a program of catch and release. Our next newsletter talks about how to release a trout.”

Others--especially those at the head of the line--are more concerned with how to catch them.

“You have to pay your dues,” Emond says. “Some of these fishermen like Joe are die-hards.”

Joe is Joe Vchulek, a retired U.S. Marine Corps captain from Riverside. Another regular is Joe Van Cleave--”alias ‘Rainbow Joe,’ he says--a high-rise building engineer from Long Beach. He holds the record for the Santa Ana River Lakes at 16-12--on two-pound test line.

“This is the prime place to bring young kids because the fish are so plentiful,” says Van Cleave, whose son Chad will celebrate his sixth birthday breaking in a new fishing rod the next day.

“If you have any idea how to rig your pole and get your line out there, your pole is going to get hit.”

And just how is that? the group is asked.

Emond begins, “You need to use two-pound test line, with a, uh . . . “

“Quarter-ounce, eighth-ounce slider . . . “ Vchulek interrupts.

“Slider- sinker . . . “ Emond adds.

“With a small split . . . 12 to 18 inches (from the hook).”

“Very small,” Van Cleave interjects. “I usually go eight.”

“I start at 12 and regulate, whatever level where the fish are swimming.”

“They say the fish will swim eight inches off the bottom. So if you’ve got eight inches of grass, you need to make your leader . . . “

“Sixteen inches.”

“People that have two-foot leaders, the fish are swimming right by them.”

“Yep.”

“Eight-inch leader, two-pound test, split shot holding the slider, a (size) 20 hook.”

“Treble (hook).”

“Not a treble--a single hook.”

“Well, I use a single and an 18 or 20 treble.”

And the bait?

“Power Bait, nightcrawlers, whatever,” Emond says. “I’m a lure man myself.

“The bottom line is you need to know where to go, and if you’re the 50th car back, you’re not going to catch as many fish as the first 10 cars in line.”

At Irvine, however, there seems to be plenty of fish for everyone.