Mud Hole @ Irvine and More
by California Outdoor Pro on August 09, 2021
This is going to be two separate reports in one post.
8/07 Irvine Lake
Woke up early and waited for my friend to come fish with me. He wanted me to teach him how to fish and where else to go but Irvine Lake where you don't need a fishing license. Well comes 6:30 AM, and no answer from him. I knew he was asleep, especially how the messenger app said he was last online 4 hours ago, so he would have been awake at 2:30 AM still. I arrive at the lake after they open, I didn't feel like racing people to the boat dock but this time I wanted to explore the right side of the lake (East Side I believe) and plus it was perfect weather that day. Not too hot, cloudy and foggy in the morning. Afternoon it got sunny but bearable compared to the other weeks.
Anyways, I make to the right side and start exploring around. I saw 1 guy caught right away as I got there. I tossed around the chatterbait but nothing. I kept moving along the shore and it got pretty steep the more right you head but less people. I skipped back pond.
This is where I messed up hard.... I saw a "dry" dirt flat where there was some cracks in the dirt. In reality the dirt flat was wet below. I was going to walk through it thinking it was a shortcut. The second I took a step. My foot sank ankle deep. I should have turned back right there. Instead my brain processed that I could Naruto/Ninja run this and get out. Well I run 4 or 5 more steps. At first I thought it was working, I must be light or fast enough but by step 5/6 I have fully sanked it. I was waist deep in mud. I throw my 2 fishing rods back on land the best I could. I then take off my backpack and toss it on land too. I pull myself out. All muddy and gunky now. As I crawl back to land, my shoes were stuck and I had to pull them out too and toss them. I was a mess. I try to wipe off the mud but it wouldn't come off. I finally decide to walk the shoreline and wash myself and my gear in the water with the best of my ability. It was horrible and I was a mess waist down. I contemplated that I should just go home but nahh I was gonna stick it out and let the sun dry me out. I came out here to fish.
I saw more people catching, some guys/groups were on fire. I finally landed 1 bass on a weightless texas rigged senko. It gave a good fight but not a biggie about 2.5 lbs. I fished probably from 7:30 to 11:45 AM. Luckily by the time I got back to the car, I was relatively dry and didn't leave any stains on my seats luckily.
8/08 Puddingstone Reservoir
Girlfriend and I came to fish but to be honest we wanted to try a Japanese BBQ restaurant nearby. So we skunked here and then headed to eat some good foods. Only saw 1 guy on a boat catch. We threw underspin, senko, buzzbait while it was still foggy and not much sun, drop shot roboworm, spinnerbait, but got nothing. Fished from 7 AM to 10:50 AM.