Lake Mission Viejo - 2/12 & 2/13

Yutaka · Feb-13-2005, 10:50 PM

Saturday:

Saw a break in the drizzle, so I went down to the water to dunk a few worms. Hung a real beauty. Just gorgeous colors, and a full strong tail. Weighed 4-0 and was full of roe. Figured I got my membership dues worth this week and went back inside, as it started to drizzle again.

Sunday:

Was supposed to fish the lower 9 with McGeyver today, but we scratched due to weather. So I started working on my taxes, but got bored with that and went down to the water to dunk Power Bait. As usual, easy pickin's on the trout. No big ones today, but the standard size models were biting well.

Note to Bassnet Chris: Looks like they might pop early this year. Next full moon, I'm guessing. Isn't that like 10 days from now? Seeing more fat chicks cruising the shallows recently.

Annieo · Feb-13-2005, 10:52 PM

How organized your little fishies are Yutaka! And quite a cute Speedy there.

Congrats, they look yummeee.

**Captain Curt** · Feb-14-2005, 06:48 AM

Hey Yutaka, I was over there on Sun. Biggest for me was a 4 Lb'er. Don't get over there much myself, but have to make the membership count a bit also. We'll have to hooked up sometime. Haven't seen ya since the store in Lakeforest.

Curtis........

The boat Hanna.......

Slayer · Feb-14-2005, 01:59 PM

I fished the Saturday tourny with my 2 boys, Mark(navy fish) and his son. Rained all morning until 10 am when we all had limits and parked the boat. Rain stopped and the sun came out. Weigh in was at 11:15am. Marks son got 1st place for the teen division and my boys got 1st and 2nd for the kids division. The lake was stocked last tuesday and the some of the smaller fish I see in the pics are Steelhead. When you cleaned them you may have noticed the orangish meat. Good eats. That nice 4lber you have there was from the stock last month. A truck load of Nebraska trout were planted into the lake. The trout were planned for the Whitewater hatchery out by Palm Springs for breeders but the truck could not get to them due to the weather and flooded roads. So thats why we got them at LMV. We should plan a fishing/BBQ at the lake before the ocean fishing takes off.

bassnet · Feb-17-2005, 12:14 AM

Hi Yutaka, thanks for the heads up! Hitting Lopez this weekend but might be looking for some pre-prom girls to eat the swimbait Monday or Tuesday night! Nice trout!

Yutaka · Feb-17-2005, 12:11 PM

Chris, I'll let you know when the dance starts up.

Slayer, no Steelies in there. Just regulation rainbows. The Steelies are more slender and have less coloration. (Maybe the flash makes the fish in the photo look more silver than they really are) It's nice to think we catch exotics, but doesn't happen that often. The large one wasn't even one of the Ruby Reds from Whitewater. Those were cool - almost looked like cutthroat.

bassnet · Feb-17-2005, 07:13 PM

Right on, thanks Yutaka- have you caught any of those browns they dumped in there last year (I think??)?

**Saluki** · Feb-17-2005, 07:18 PM

Damn nice lookin Feesh!!

Yutaka · Feb-17-2005, 09:41 PM

Browns? I didn't even know they put any in there. I really don't keep up with the trout stockings. I like Browns, though. I used to head up to Lone Pine every Spring, and fish the creek all the way to Whitney Portal. Got one decent Brown up there and thought it looked magnificent. Caught another one way back when at Lake Piru - 25 years ago.

Gotta force myself to get up earlier and throw the big bait a few times before heading off to work.

Hey Curt! When you gonna come up and fish the pond next?

**Captain Curt** · Feb-18-2005, 05:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yutaka

Hey Curt! When you gonna come up and fish the pond next?

Not sure. Got Sunday off, might fish Irvine, or Mission Viejo.

Curtis..........

The boat Hanna.........

Suckafish · Feb-18-2005, 11:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slayer

The lake was stocked last tuesday and the some of the smaller fish I see in the pics are Steelhead.

How does one positively identify a stocked steelhead? I've heard no spots on the cheeks. Quite frankly, it really isn't a steelhead until it's swam around in saltwater for a few years. Just another rainbow until then.

happyhunter · Feb-18-2005, 03:31 PM

Hey Yutaka, when they first built the lake, I was running a drywall operation in the area. The first large project on the lake was the Finnistera Condos. The dam (Alicia Pky now) wasn't even paved yet. They stocked this place with some really nice size trout and we scarffed them up every morning. It's the only drywall job I ever saw where all the guys brought an ice chest and plastic baggies to work :-). The security guard was always trying to catch us, but you could see him coming across the dam and we would all hide our gear and fish, then appear to be hanging drywall. Fun times back then. They had also stocked bass, but we made a gentleman's agreement not to take any of those. We could actually see them (the bass) guard the nests back in some of the culverts they put in for structure. We learned a lot by tossing a plastic right in front of one, watching it pick it up and VERY gently ease it out of the nest area. You couldn't feel a thing. It's good to hear that it is still fishable. Cya, Bruce