) forced to move to So. Cal, I'd go to Google and look up the various So.Cal fishing/boating forums. There's lots of them in the PacNW, so So. Cal must have even more.<br /> Sea Magazine www.goboatingmag.com seems to have a West Coast slant, though it's more cruising than you may wish.<br />Irvine, CA? New York can't be that bad!
<br /><br />The drive time depends on where you will be fishing. From Irvine, the coast is maybe 30 minutes at rush hour. You are within 90 minutes of some of the best bass fishing in the world in San Diego county. Head to the mountains (San Bernardino National Forest, 60 to 90 minutes) and you will find many decent lakes that are stocked and some wild trout streams. The Santa Ana mountains behind Irvine used to have some great trout fishing in the creeks when I was a kid but I have not fished them in 20 years.<br /><br />Catfish1 is dead on about Ventura County lakes. The Colorado River holds a lot of great fishing and is about 3 hours east of Irvine. <br /><br />I would shy away from Lake Elsinore unless the water quality has improved dramatically. When I was a kid, you could stand up in the middle some years and the annual fish kill was still happening when I moved to Texas in 1995.<br /><br />There are several lakes within an hour of Irvine that offer up decent waterskiing if you want to do that. The great thing about Southern California is because of its lack of natural water, there have been a ton of reservoirs built. However, since the biggest percentage of people in California live south of Bakersfield, you will compete for space on the lakes.
