On Wednesday, October 8, I headed back to Orange County’s famous Santa Ana River Lakes, arriving around five o’clock in the evening for the night session. That gave me six hours to see what was biting. The wind was blowing about seven to eight miles per hour, but my one ounce egg sinker on a Carolina rig still had enough weight to cast cleanly into the lake.

I set up on the right side of the lake, just around the corner from the entrance. My buddy Ceaser joined me for his first ever fishing trip, so I had to show him the ropes. Our bait lineup included shrimp with marshmallows, nightcrawlers, and some mackerel that Ceaser had marinated in garlic.

For the first hour or so there was not mu...