The Irvine Lake Trout Opener For The Physically Fit Only

It's that time of year when Irvine Lake will have their Trout opener celebration but for many of us it's a slap in the face due to lack of access. I've been on a quest to have the Serrano Water District to remove the limited access to many parts of the lake which they have imposed. Seems they do not want people to have full access to parts of the lake that we have historically been able to fish. The present facility has a kiosk parking setup requiring anyone who wants to fish the lake to have to hike to the west shoreline with their fishing equipment and supplies. For many of us that are handicapped, elderly or the very young, this is an unreasonable task to ask. The distance from the parking lot to the west shoreline where most fishing occurs can be a half mile in distance. On the day of their celebrated trout opener they have allowed several vehicles to drive to the west shoreline. If they can allow a food vendor truck and several other vehicles to drive out there then why can't the public do the same? This is not acceptable!  Serrano Water District please change your stance on NOT allowing shoreline driving access to the those who have paid entry fees. This includes trout Island and access to the Santiago Flats area as well. It's also requested that the County of Orange provide an adequate number of Porta Potties at the lake along with trash barrels. These are not unreasonable requests. It's time to end this feud between the Serrano Water District, the County of Orange, and all other parties that claim rights to the lake and let the public enjoy Irvine Lake once again. 

I was drinking my morning coffee watching the news on TV when the announcer stated a man was a hero for disarming an armed robber in a crowded restaurant. He then subdued the robber and held him till the police showed up and arrested him. The people in the restaurant who witnessed the event called the man crazy for his act of heroism against the robber but were very grateful to him for disarming the robber. This got me thinking ........ what makes people heroes?

Everyone has a different idea of what makes a hero, right? To some it’s putting up an act of courage in which their life is at risk of ending but doing something for the betterment of others is more important than your own personnel safety. Heck, even animals can be heroes. Think about those canines that accompany police officers against bad guys. Sometimes taking a bullet ! So here’s my thought of the day. I’m just going to randomly list 10 heroes that come to mind both real and not. You can add your own top 10 lists on “Friends of westernangler.net” on Facebook if you want. I think it would be interesting to compare lists, don’t you think? So here’s my list:

1.All those scuba divers that rescued those kids and coach from that submerged cave in South America. I get chills just thinking about being stuck that far in a cave and I was one of the founders of a cave exploring club at Trenton State College in 1973’ The official name was Trenton State Spelunkers Club. Yup, I was one of those crazy idiots that liked exploring dark holes in the ground.

2. Spencer Tracy in “The Mountain”. Think about it. A guy in his 50’s - 60’s? climbs a 16000+ foot mountain in the Alps in late fall with his psycho money hungry brother. He rescues an injured Hindu woman from the crashed plane up on the snow-covered mountain and carries her down the mountain all the way to his village. In the process he loses his no-good brother (Robert Wagner) in the climb down. Now that’s a real hero only it's just a movie.

3. Humphry Bogart in “The African Queen” with Katharine Hepburn. The guy literally defies all odds and takes his crappy little steamboat to Lake Victoria and torpedoes a Nazi military boat that patrols the lake and his boat was already sunk (sought of). Great movie with great actors. 

4. Batman. Yup, the guy fights bad guys without guns. I never saw a Batman movie in which he used a gun against a bad guy. Ever! I think he is nuts but it’s his life.......

5. Ronald Reagan. He snubbed the U.S.S.R and slowed down the nuclear arms race a little. But then came Putin and screwed up Russia again. 

6. Lassie the dog. That was one smart ass bitch. I watched the show every week growing up. I even had a leather “Lassie” wallet. I didn’t have any money to put in it but I had one to show off to my buddies. 

7. My crazy PTSD Uncle George who fought under General George S. Patton against the Nazis in WWII. He even spent a year in prison for not paying his taxes right after the war. He told the judge that he paid his share of taxes killing Nazis for this country, but the judge threw him prison just the same. True story..... sad but true. 

8. All the Firemen that went into the Twin Towers and died trying to save others. All heroes, every one of them. I still remember that day very clearly. I was at Honda Headquarters in Torrance watching on TV the second plane crash into the second tower. I grew up just across from NYC and seeing those towers was almost an everyday sight. It hurt this country very badly.

9. John Wayne the actor. He stood for America. Whether it was fighting one war or another. He was there on film. Showing everyone what the American fighting spirit was all about. Sought of met his wife and daughter at a store in Newport Beach one time. Well.... I was standing next to them at the cashier. Yeah, that doesn’t really count now does it?

10. Me, Dave Finkelstein. I saved the lives of two people after they were in really horrible traffic accidents. One guy drove DUI through a light pole. He cut a main artery in his neck. I rushed to the scene and ripped off my shirt and put it over his wound and stopped him from bleeding out till the paramedics arrived 10-15 minutes later. No cell phones back then. 

The other one was a  teenage girl driving a moped at night crashed face first into the back of a pickup tailgate. I won’t describe her state because some folks just can’t handle that stuff but it wasn’t pretty. I called 911 then administered first aid to her. Her brother showed up at my house the next day and said I saved her life. She lived, enough said.

So who are your top 10 heroes? Go to “Friends of westernanglers.net” on Facebook and write them in. Should be entertaining.

I was a twenty seven year old journeyman mechanic at Honda of Santa Ana back in the very early nineteen eighties. My soon to be wife, also worked at the same dealership as a service writer. This didn’t bode well for me with the other line mechanics working at the dealership and I was treated with a lot of distain. There were some other factors that could be thrown in to why the guys didn’t particularly accept me but I wanted to be one of the guys and had to pay my dues. It was tough going for a long time.

 A couple of the mechanics were serious bass fisherman. Ed was one of the good old boys of the group as was Mike his best pal. They often fished together on Ed’s Bass Tracker boat at local Southland lakes especially Irvine Lake.

 I was just getting into bass fishing back then and often found myself on lunch breaks down the street at what was the first location of Angler’s Marine on Main Street in South Santa Ana. I would be buying crankbaits, plastic worms and on Thursdays, my supply of live crawdads to fish down at Lake Hodges on the weekends. My folks lived in Rancho Bernardo a short drive to the lake, so I had a place to stay at on Friday-Saturday nights during bass season. 

Word got out to Ed and Mike that I was trying my hand at bass fishing and was immediately questioned as to my knowledge on bass fishing. They drilled me questions testing my knowledge like it was a rite of passage amongst all bass fishermen. I tried my best to talk the talk with these two good old boys but I could tell that I was not getting into their clan. 

Mike was a nice sort of guy that knew that I was having a tough time fitting in with the other mechanics and told me that unless I could catch a Brown Eyed Grouper fish that I wasn’t a serious fisherman. The look on his face was serious as all hell. Ed meandered over to the coffee machine and must have heard a little of the conversation and looked at me and said” You ain’t shit till you caught a Brown Eyed Grouper fish bud.” Now I never heard of a Brown Eye Grouper fish before and quired “Just where am I going to catch one of these fish?” 

“You can catch em in Irvine Lake dummy, if you think you're that good a fisherman?”  stated Ed, like it was a challenge for me to catch one.

I had no idea what a Brown Eyed Grouper fish looked like nor how to fish for one either and pretty much ignored both of them.

A few weeks went by, and I came into work and I saw Ed and Mike and a few other techs looking at me walking into the shop like they were expecting me. I looked at my hoist and hanging from it was a 4 foot Blue Shark. Pinned to it was a hand written sign. Brown Eyed Grouper caught by Dave Finkelstein. New Irvine Lake record. The whole shop broke out in laughter at my reaction to seeing the fish. 

Sometimes in life, you just have to take a punch in the face to be accepted. It was the day I had a good laugh too and was accepted as one of the guys.

Note: Several years later I was invited out on Ed's boat to go bass fishing at Irvine Lake. Dave caught a 4+ lb. bass. Ed was skunked that day........... karma served.

How often have you heard the phrase “Do you remember when”? Seems the older I get, that phrase is heard a little more often these days. A good friend and fishing buddy called me the other day to reminisce about the glory days we had fishing up in the Eastern Sierra. Yes, I did remember some great days trout fishing especially in the Bishop Canyon Basins. Early fall trips we went after the brood stock Rainbows and Brown trout like we were avid deer hunters who tried every trick in the book to get our prey. 

It wasn’t a good trip unless we caught multiple five pound trout and several a lot bigger. This was the norm and not the exception for most years we fished those canyons. One year I arrived at Lake Sabrina at 9 AM. My buddy Marlon Meade was already there fishing at the lake.  I got out my jigging rod and joined him tossing mini jigs.  It must have been my day, and I left the lake with 4 Alpers Trout. All of my fish were over 4 pounds caught within 2 hours of fishing.  

I started back down the hill and stopped at the bridge to take some photos of North Bishop Creek when a Dept. Of Fish and Wildlife truck passed me going up the hill. A short time later he circled back and pulled up behind me. Now I was a serious outdoor photographer back then. I even won several awards for my landscapes at the Orange County Fair several years running, so I was really perplexed when the officer came up to me and asked if I’ve been doing any fishing today? Seemed rather odd seeing how I had a tripod out with a fancy expensive camera on it. Since I had nothing to hide, I told him that I had been fishing Lake Sabrina a short time ago. He asked me if I had caught any to which I said “yes”. 

He then requested to see my fish to which I opened the station wagon rear hatch and allowed him to open my cooler. He pulled out one after another like he just nailed a first rate criminal then asked me for my fishing license. I showed him my license and he proceeded to asked me questions like where was I staying at and with whom? How long have I been up there, etc. 

I told him that I was renting an RV at Creekside RV park for the week and staying by myself. The officer then told me that he was going to accompany me back to Creekside RV and inspect my RV for more fish to which I told him to feel free in doing so considering that I had not even checked in as this was my first day of my visit and I was itching to go fishing before checking in. He didn’t believe me. So, we drove to Creekside RV and I checked in at the office. The officer followed me in and told Jim, the employee working the office, that he wanted to inspect my RV. Jim told the officer that since the RV was Ron Sciara's property that he would have to call Ron who was in town and get his permission first. He then called Ron on the phone and explained the situation to which he then handed the phone over to the officer. 

I think the officer had previous dealings with Ronny and not the good kind either. Ronny started to give the officer a tongue lashing on abusing his customers and came to my rescue telling him that I was a good person who abides by the laws. He didn’t stop there either. He then got after the officer for not taking care of the bear problems plaguing his business and customers. I think the officer knew when to retreat for the door and made a very quick exit. He never did look in the RV especially after watching me sign the rental agreement and Jim giving me the RV key while Ronny was tongue lashing him. The whole time I was looking at him and smiling with a shit eating grin. Yeah....I remember that moment.