The week prior, Paul (Fishnfu) brought up the idea of fishing Irvine Lake with the families. I've been dying to take my daughter out (1.5 years old) and my wife's had the itch for some time so it was a no brainer.
We gave the kids a chance to sleep in a bit and got to the lake around 8:30. Since Paul and Alyssia had such good luck at the kiddie lagoon a few weeks back, we decided to give it a shot again this time around.
Pulled up the closest spot to the gate, backed the SUVs up to the water's edge and were fishing within minutes.
Lake was sparcely fished with only 3 other groups/families fishing it. The closest ones to us was a father/son duo who were about 30 feet to our right. They didn't have anything yet, but the day was still young.
Quickly set-up the rods with Paul getting 2 out, while I wrapped up some video footage and photos. 10 minutes later, we had all 7 rods out and were in business. About 9 months back, I bought a Bugs Bunny rod for my daughter in anticipation of this day.
. The rod was your typical kids pole, complete with 6# test. At $2 (yes, $2) it was a steal and a no brainer purchase.
The nice thing about Irvine Lake is that they stock both the kiddie lagoon and the big lake with some quality trout. Lately the larger fish have not been the 20#er lunkers, but a still respsectable 3-4 lbers, with most running in the 3/4 to 1 lb range. The size of the fish didn't bother us. Besides, when you're fishing the kiddie pond, it should be about quality time with the kids; catching fish is a perq, catching nicer fish is icing on the cake. We were just excited to spend the day enjoying our passion with our families.
About 30 minutes in, Paul's first to register a fish for the Lopez family, nailing a nice 3#er on the blue fox. That quickly got the Lopez kids (Alyssia and big sister Ashley) amped and ready for some fishing. My daughter Hayley was just happy to be out with her "cousins".
Another 20 minutes would go by before the Yoshinaga Clan would get on the board. And wouldn't you know it, the first of our 3 rods to get bit is Hayley's Bugs Bunny rod. After a quick RUNNING hookset (it's hard to set the hook when the rod is only 24 inches long!), I handed off the rod to momma and Hayley. The pictures tell the rest of the story.
Hayley's first ever fish!! Not bad...she's only been fishing for an hour and she's caught her first ever trout. And at 12 inches and respectable one at that.
From that point on, its was a pretty steady pick at trout and catfish (!!!). Paul would hook a fish and Ashley and Alyssia would take turns bringing them in. Paul's wife Avery, was content watching the kids having a blast.
After the first trout, Hayley pretty much lost interest in "catching" and was more focused on snacking, playing with her cousins and sitting in our truck. This worked out great because my wife Hazel was happy reeling in the trout.
The Lopez's wrapped up around 12:30 PM with 5 trout and 4 catfish.
We stuck it out until 2:30 ending up with 9 trout and 1 catfish. All in all, a great day out on the water. Our biggest one taped out at 17 inches and probably around 2.5 lbs. All but one lonely trout was caught on nightcrawlers.
The best part was that 3 were caught on the Bugs Bunny rod.
