Colburn's Sabine Connection

Glad to still be here!

We miraculously survived the perfect storm today.  It came up so quickly that there was no safe place to run except further south and that didn't appear to be any guarantee.  By the time we made it to the barrel channel we were eating every other wave, the temperature had dropped 15 degrees and it was raining sideways. As bad as that was it was the lightning that posed the real problem.

We were about a hundred yards from the mouth of East Pass when the steering wheel suddenly felt like I had grabbed a live wire.  Before I could turn it loose a bolt of lightning lit up the gas rig in front of us.  It was momentarily burnt orange from the lightning rod all the way to the water and the noise was deafening.  I thought we were done and that maybe dying wasn't going to involve much pain after all!

Three hours later I was washing the boat and it was hot, humid and the wind was flat.  Prior to the mid day monsoon we did well fishing tails under the birds and kept 15 solid trout.  We caught every fish on chicken on a chain and opening night tails. The bite lasted probably only an hour or two before the wind got up and it got too rough to fish the mid-lake.  We pretty much had the north revetment wall to ourselves and now I know why as we never got anything going.

Wednesday was tough for us in spite of perfect conditions.  We only kept six trout and we fished hard. Brad had a good day on the south end, but we never made that run.  I probably wouldn't have caught those fish either as he pulled up on his way home and immediately caught a few trout on a topwater.

Tanner and his Dad, Phillip, caught some very solid trout Tuesday.

Phillip Hunt and his ten year old son, Tanner, fished with me Tuesday and we put together a pretty good day.  On Tanner's first cast on the first day of summer vacation he had a 5 1/2 pound trout bury his Kwik Cork.  He finally wrestled it into the boat and we took a pile of pictures.  He'll have to wait to see the picture of his big fish as I sent it in with my column for this month's edition of TSFM.

We caught those trout drifting the flats with bug juice tails under a Kwik Cork, a Swim bait and a Slammin' Chicken Assassin rigged on a 1/6th ounce head.  The wind made it a little tough most of the day and the fish weren't real aggressive, but Phillip and Tanner fished well.

I'll be over at the Daley's Hunt n Fish Fishing Show all day tomorrow and Saturday.  Several of the major tackle reps will also be there as will Scott Martin, Phil Broussard, Chester Moore and Shimano's Bantam 1.  We are over there strictly to talk fishing so come by and visit.  Keith said they also have some great show prices on a number of items.

 

Wind finally slowed down a great bite!

I had no idea that we were already on the clock for the week with the wind when Allen and Mickey  climbed in the boat Monday morning.  We enjoyed perfect conditions and the fish could not have been more cooperative.  We limited early drifting the flats with Swim baits, chicken on a chain Sea Shads and bug juice flats Killers fished under a Kwik Cork.

You never know what is feeding beneath terns!

Before calling it a day we ran in behind Rabbit Island and found terns working over more solid trout, redfish and even a five pound flounder that Mickey fooled with a red shad Sea Shad.  Had we not had a fish in the boat we would have never found a gift like that on the way back in.

The following morning, Louis Woods fished the same program with me and I thought we had used up a very good bite when we had only two keeper trout in the boat at 10 o'clock.  An already stiff west wind continued to build and we were very limited as to where we could not just fish, but catch as well.  We made a big round in the whitecaps before deciding to return to the scene of the crime the day before and hope that the fish would start biting later.

Folks aren't getting too excited about six pound trout on Sabine right now.

They did just that and we were limited on trout up to six pounds before noon.  The water was much dirtier than the day before and fishing tails under a cork produced the most consistent bite.  We never caught a fish in water deeper than four feet and fished an incoming tide all morning.

The wind swung around a little more to the south Tuesday night and by Wednesday morning it was making a statement.  Johnny worked a big group with me and we squeezed out a total of 25 trout and three reds between the two boats.  We rode out the waves on the flats, but Johnny challenged the revetment wall long enough to box 6 or 7 solid trout before finshing up on the same flats.

When all was said and done, he did much better than we did by sticking with the Swim bait all morning.  Jason caught a nice slot red swimming a Diedapper, but the rest of our fish bit tails under a cork.  As tough as it was, we still pulled off a lot of fish that we never felt until the fish got to the end of the line.  You couldn't tell if the cork was up or down between the waves!

When Johnny told me after cleaning fish that the wind was going to blow even harder Thursday and Friday, I rescheduled both days.  He tried to fish Thursday and said it was all but impossible as they finished with four fish.  Even the bayous had to be rocking and rolling.  I think the wind is going to ease up a little across the weekend, but the water clarity in the lake has to be shot by now.

I am going to give it a rest across the weekend and hit it again Tuesday morning.  The good news is that the bite is on all over the lake all the way to the jetties when you can fish it.  Be especially courteous and patient this weekend as there will be lots of folks on the water that don't get out very often.

The S.A.L.T. club is also hosting their annual Memorial tournament out of Pleasure Island this weekend and it still isn't too late to sign up.  Daley's Hunt N Fish is also gearing up for their two day in-house show next weekend.  Scott Martin, who has been red hot on the pro bass tournament circuit this year, will be on hand Friday with the River 2 Sea folks.  Keith said they will also receive their first two shipments of the new ZEKO ultra light and ultra bright outdoor shoes that went so fast at the recent Bassmaster Classic in Shreveport.

I have lived in mine since getting my first pair last week.  If you buy a pair Friday at the show (they won't be the last ones you buy) Martin will autograph them as they are one of his sponsors as well.  Keith told me yesterday that they will have special deals on everything from rod-reel combos to buy three packs of Assasins and get one free!    

Big trout and lots of them!

This has just been one heck of a good week for catching...especially big trout.  the water in the lake has just gotten prettier and prettier and we found nice trout on flats that we haven't caught a fish on in the past six weeks.

Didn't keep a single 5-pound fish, but the average fish was still very good!

When your first three trout of the day weigh just a tad over 19 pounds, you know that its going to be a good day.  For that matter...the day is pretty much made.  Dr. Fred and son, David, also only kept ten trout and one nice flounder the morning we fished, but we were forced to keep several 4-pound plus trout or forget about a fish fry.  Doc never keeps many fish and prefers to keep flounder!

David caught a couple of big trout bouncing a Gulp shrimp off the bottom, but most of the trout hit a Cranky M65, Catch 2000 or a Swimming Image.  The largest fish of the day crushed a River 2 Sea bait that I think is called a Ripper, but I wouldn't swear to that.  Just as a reference , it is a a 5-inch pearl colored floating minnow type lure that dives about two feet on 12-pound mono.  I have done well enough with the bait lately to warrant picking up a couple more, but there isn't a simple name on the back of the package.

Steve fooled this one on a Swim bait before turning her loose!

I try not to fish weekends, especially with two tournaments going on, but I did just that yesterday as a  client that fishes with me several times a year, Steve Osborne, could only fish his guest that day.  As it turned out, they should have entered the tournament rather than fish with me.  Our three largest trout, the two largest were released, weighed almost 17-pounds.

We finished with 15 trout and 2 reds and once again the average trout was nice.  We caught our fish yesterday in a totally different area than the day before which was very encouraging.  We caught the largest fish on plastic under a cork, but the rest of the fish, including the reds, ate 4-inch Sea Shads, Flats Minnows and Swim baits.

Not surprisingly, every fish we cleaned in the 3 to 4- pound class was full of eggs.  We don't usually even keep trout over 22 to 23 inches this time of the year, but it is about all you can catch right now!  The S.T.A.R. tournament kicks off in two weeks and a Sabine angler just might grab the early lead.  Over the past week alone, I saw one of the trout, at least 3 trout over 29-inches were caught by bank fishermen on the revetment wall and one of those fish weighed 10.2 pounds.  Unfortunately, they all rode home in the ice chest!

Plan B still producing solid trout!

We were forced to fish a tougher north wind than predicted, but we still did well even after having to resort to Plan B very early and the wind had nothing to do with the switch.  I had hoped to fish the north revetment wall at first light, but there was a truck every ten yards and at least two fishermen armed with live shrimp and a popping cork for every truck.  It was UNREAL!

The water looked better there than it did on the south end, but that is where we caught all but one of our fish.  We limited on specks and Joey Cormier even managed to put together a slam with a nice slot red and quality flounder.  We caught all of our trout on bug juice and opening night tails.  The larger trout were chasing both shrimp and small ribbon fish.

The water looked as good as I have seen it in the past two weeks in Coffee Ground so hopefully that area will start producing as well.  We fished an outgoing tide all morning long.  Gotta go....4 o'clock seems to get here faster every morning!

Upset stomach short circuits good bite!

The fish were doing their thing, but we never should have been there to find out.  While one of my clients for the day struggled to keep it together with the same stomach cramps that kept her up all night long, her pals cranked in redfish while promising, "Just one more and we'll go!"

It was a trip that got started late and ended too early for all but one, but it was nice to find a few reds up on the shallow flats again.  They were chasing shrimp and it looked like they were running in small schools of 5 or 6 fish.  The ate anything you threw in front of them so choice of lure wasn't too important.

The unexpected early quit left me some time to clean up the boat and do a little trailer work.  After that I seized upon the opportunity to take my grandson, Andrew, and his little sister, Whitley, to eat some crawfish at Ancelet's.  Tomorrow is Andrew's birthday and he much prefers crawfish to cake.  Besides, an afternoon with company like that is special for Pop as well !

Whitley declared Tyler Ancelet to be the best crawfish cooker ever, but Andrew and I already knew that.  Ancelet's has gotten just about as fisherman friendly as a Marina can get in a very short span of time.  Not only do they have two rescue tow boats on call should you have engine problems on the water, but they now have all the bases covered when it comes to bait.  They have not only live shrimp, mud minnows, and finger mullet, but tails and hard baits to boot.  They have Bass Assassins, Catch V's, She Dogs, Skitterwalks, Swimming Images, Super Spooks and Mirrodines in colors that catch fish and Gulp and jig heads as well!

The launch and parking area is first class and they also sell cold drinks, snacks and ice.  If you show up with just the boat and a rod or two they can take care of the rest.  Tyler added that they are in the process of adding a covered fish cleaning station.  Order when you get in and by the time you finish cleaning your catch your crawfish or boiled crabs will be ready!

For obvious reasons we didn't make the run to the south end of the lake today, but the birds were working over some pretty good trout according to the folks that were there in the morning hours.  The water is looking a little better all over the lake with the lighter winds allowing the silt to settle back down.

I will start one of those marathon stretches tomorrow, but I will try to post at least every other night for a while.  We still have a lot of May left to fish, but it looks like June is just going to be out the top barring any more unexpected floods or oil spills.  I still have a few days open and it is much easier to book now even if you have to cancel later than hope to book a trip at the last minute. 

 

Plan B wasn't a plan at all!

We made a late afternoon run Monday, but it turned out good in spite of a stiff wind that was not supposed to blow that hard.  My  initial game plan got aborted by the wind, but Plan B (fish where you can) turned out to be better than Plan A may have been anyway.

We pulled up on a short stretch of protected shoreline on the Neches hoping to pick up a few flounder and redfish, but were surprised to find the trout were there as well.  They were just hammering away at schools of small shad and we wore them out fishing Sea Shads and Flats Minnows under a Kwik Cork.  We were already limited when Jason tied on a Spook,Jr. to see if he could catch something over 20-inches.

While we we caught a few flounder and reds with a small crankbait, he caught and released two trout in the 5 to 6 pound class.  They were the only two trout that hit the topwater over the next two hours!

The flounder and reds were right up against the bulkheads and rocks, but the trout were chasing the shad well off the shoreline in about 5 feet of water. We were going to check out those same fish again yesterday, but the weather got exceptionally nasty very quickly.

Make-up baseball game today...back on the wate tomorrow. 

Lighter winds made for an enjoyable week of catching!

The wind was much more forgiving this past week and the water clarity improved each day as well.  I don't know that the bite in the bayous slowed down that much or if it was just a matter of spending more time in the open lake, but it was nice to have both options until around noon each day.

We took advantage of the lighter winds in the morning every day but Wednesday and beat up pretty good on some very solid trout under the birds.  It didn't seem to matter in the mid-lake area if the tide was coming in or going out other than the fact that the water was clearer on the incoming tide.  We never found any big groups of gulls, but it only took a few to put you on a good bite.

Bug juice and chicken on a chain were our best colors in tails, but we caught our largest trout on She Dogs and a MirrOdine XL.  The shad are getting larger and the XL is the perfect size when the fish are chasing them as well as big shrimp and ribbon fish. The bite under the birds has improved and moved a little further north every day.

The flounder are still doing their thing in the bayous even with the high tides!

On two of the trips we found 16 to 18-inch trout pushing schools of shad to the surface in Middle Pass.  It didn't matter what you threw at them as long as you kept it moving near the surface.  We left the lake once the wind got up around noon each day and managed to add a few nice flounder and some solid slot reds to the catch.

This nice red hit a Swim Bait in East Pass.

We basically stuck with Swim Baits and a Gulp mullet rigged on a quarter ounce head.  Oddly enough we didn't do as well fishing cuts as we did on the straight banks.  That thin slimy grass is starting to grow out a couple of feet from the bank and that is where the fish are holding while waiting to ambush the endless parade of schools of tiny shad.

I can't help you with a first hand report, but I did get some good reports from folks fishing the ship channel and jetties this week.  They also did well on the trout and caught far more reds than we have been catching.  With the high tides, a lot of my reds on the north end have no reason to leave the flooded marshes.

Don't forget about the two day "Do It In Orange" tournament scheduled for May 19th and 20th.  You can fish for bass, redfish or trout and win $2000 in each category.  Yes.. one entry fee enables you to fish all three divisions.  You can find brochures with entry forms and rules all over Orange county as well as Daley's Fish N Hunt.

The number one question I have received in emails has concerned having to keep only the bass alive to avoid a penalty.  That is the rule as there is no bonus or penalty for weighing in dead or live trout or redfish.   They are also going to have entertainment for the whole family with the Spring Music Fest taking place from 9 until 9 at the park.  For more information call 409.883-3536.

We worked hard today for a handful of fish!

After getting beat up fishing the lake yesterday, we stayed in the bayous today and literally ground out nine keeper fish.  There was no particularly hot bait for us and no particular pattern as we just fished what we could get to most of the day.  All of our fish, both the flounder and trout, were caught on Flats Minnows and Sea Shads in stinky pink,Texas Roach and chicken on a chain.

For the most part, we still had 4 to 6 inches of visibility on an incoming tide so I assume the lake was about the same.  I don't know or even care what it was in the lake as we couldn't fish it anyway.  I know this report doesn't help much if you plan to fish the weekend, but if I had to fish it would be in the ship channel south of the Causeway.  We didn't do well Thursday, but there was a lot of bait moving on the tide change and we marked a lot of fish on the 8 to 12 foot breaks.  The folks with lighted piers also caught a few trout and reds Thursday night. If you just can't handle fishing in dirty water, however, stay home and mow the grass tomorrow!

Wind is a big problem right now!

Yesterday we made the best of what I just thought was a bad situation until we were greeted with a 20 mph south wind at daylight this morning.  We would have gotten a little beaten up Tuesday running the open lake, but we could have run pretty much anywhere we wanted to fish.  I started in  Black's and Cow bayou while checking 2 or 3 times with two other groups that were fishing everywhere from the jetties to the north revetment wall.

They were not catching any fish at all and said that the water was badly off colored.  There was no need to burn a lot of gas for nothing so we stuck it out and finished with nine flounder and four slot redfish.  We worked our tails off, but it was a pretty decent catch.... all things considered. Today was all but a total waste as the water in the bayous was a little dirtier and the lake was not to be crossed.

We caught three flounder and three redfish before calling it quits before 11 o'clock.  Dirty water always makes it tougher, but the bite on the south end prior to these winds was so strong that I am hoping that it is just a matter of getting down there and figuring it out again.  I will either propose canceling trips or give that option a shot for the next three days.  Running south could prove to be a waste of time and gas as well, but the bite in the bayous is just too darn slow for me right now.

Trout bite continues to improve!

A late season cold front is racing across Sabine Lake at this very moment and, at least for right now, we are getting far more wind than rain.  It doesn't look like rain will be a factor at all tomorrow, but if it blows as hard out of the north as they are predicting, catching fish in the lake will be a challenge!

Lamar with proof that the bayous in the Reserve are a great option when the wind is howling,

Wednesday I very much enjoyed my day scouting with Lamar Belcher.  The water all over the lake just looked terrible, but we still managed to catch fish at most every stop and finished with a very decent catch.  I don't know how often it happens over the course of a year, but our first three fish consisted of a solid flounder, a slot red and a 20-inch trout.  So much for slams.

Because guides cannot work inside the Game Reserve it was only the second time that I have run those canals and backwater this year.  Lamar now knows more about those old haunts and the flounder are still there as well.  The surprise of the day was stumbling up on a school of solid trout hammering away at shrimp under the gulls just south of Willow.

Unfortunately, I had to do the funeral thing Thursday, but I got a great report from a reliable source that they just caught the heck out of trout on topwaters right in the middle of the lake.  They found a couple of gulls chasing shrimp and the bite was on.  They said the water looked terrible with a visibility  of about 4-inches, but they still caught trout in the 3-pound class until they got tired of catching them.  Johnny said the Causeway reef was no bargain for him yesterday, but that the water looked a little better.

Today I fished Allen Knapp's group and we didn't stop running until we got to Green's.  After about an hour of practice casting I decided to sell out on the reef.  As it turned out, we didn't have to go that far as we started hitting small groups of birds just south of Garrisons.  We caught a pile of solid keeper trout on tails and swim baits and a lot of them came well after the birds moved on.  They were chasing ribbon fish and small shrimp.  You could probably have thrown any color, but we went through a lot of chicken on a chain Flats Minnows!

The wind wasn't much of a problem all morning on the south end, but the ride back was pretty bumpy from mid-lake on north.  Until the tide changed, the water was as clear as I have seen it down there in a long time.  I don't know how long they were able to hang in there, but Colt Leger sent me a picture tonight of the only two fish they caught fishing the revetment wall today.  One of the fish was a 22-inch flounder and the other was a 27 1/2 inch trout.  They caught both of them on a white Gulp mullet under a Kwik Cork.  He didn't bother to include his partner's name...possibly because he caught both fish!

If tomorrow's gale doesn't silt the lake up too badly we could be looking at a very good run next week.  If that wind is too tough tomorrow I would highly recommend fishing the canals in the Reserve.

The weekend was pretty much hell to pay!

After sitting out two consecutive days of blistering winds we tried to give it a shot this morning, but the lightning changed our plans.  I drove straight to Beaumont and dropped my boat off at Texas Marine for some maintenance and then spent the day helping Keith, Eric and Aaron finish up their inventory over at Daley's.  They have an incredible amount of tackle in that store and the UPS man delivered more while we were working.

They are already getting ready for their big Fishing Show on June 1 and 2.  Scott  Roland Martin will be there as will Bantam I with Shimano and Chester Moore from Texas Fish & Game.  "Cajun Phil" Broussard and I will also be on hand to talk about the fishing on Big lake and Sabine.  It is going to be a lot of fun!

We fished Friday just ahead of the weekend blow and had a great day on trout.  We released our largest trout, a seven pounder on the Boga, while keeping their three limits that included a lot of 3 to 4 pound fish.  The wind was pretty bad most of the day so we never found any trout chasing ribbon fish, but it didn't matter as we found plenty of good trout suspended in 8 to 10 feet of water.

I have no idea how all of this wind and a pretty big rain today will affect the bite, but I don't look for the fish to move too far any time soon  Mid-lake on south on an incoming tide in the afternoon pretty much sums up the program for us right now.  We did find some 16 to 18 inch trout schooling under the birds early Friday morning in the mouth of Johnson Bayou, but that bite didn't last long.  They were chasing small shrimp.                                                                                                                                                                             

 

There was a price to be paid today!

The catching was about as good as it could possibly get today, but there was a price to paid for being a tad over zealous.  We could have quit an hour earlier and suffered only a bumpy ride home in a stiff southeast wind that blew all day, but we just couldn't say "no more" to catching 3 to 5 pound trout on virtually every cast.  By the time I convinced my group it was time to go, they were already soaking wet and I could barely make out Adam's boat only a couple hundred yards away.

We were already too late at this point!

The penalty for glutony was 27 miles of three foot waves in a driving rain and fog that blanketed the entire lake.  I had forgotten just how hard it is to navigate strictly by GPS and try to guage the distance between the white caps while occasionally opening your eyes just wide enough look for crab traps and gas rigs.

The way back home was somewhere behind Adam's boat.

We eventually made it back and I cleaned three limits of very nice trout, but my fingers are still shriveled up.  We caught a pile of solid trout drifting the shell with 5-inch tails in red shad, chicken on a chain and bug juice, but the bite that got us in trouble was when the trout started hustling ribbon fish on the surface in the downpour.

The trout caught a break, but a pair of flounder got invited to dinner at the Boullions.

Tuesday and Wednesday the weather could not have been more perfect.  I fished with Sherry Boullion and we fished several different patterns as she was more interested in learning than catching.  We did catch as well and left fish biting a couple of times to look at something different.  We caught and released a few trout on the Causeway reef as well as some very nice trout on the revetment wall that hit Swim baits and a TTF Sabine machine Trout Killer.  Before quitting, she kept a pair of nice flounder for supper!

Trout like this one can be addicting.

Wednesday was more of the same and we just hammered the trout until Paul said that he was done around two o'clock.  He and Ward never broke the five pound mark with their trout, but they caught a bunch of 21 to 23-inch fish.  We had only three trout at noon when we ran south to the Blue Buck area and they were limited an hour later.

Ward and Paul finished the day with a limit of solid specks.

The water clarity gets better everyday and the bite has moved a little further south every day.  The numbers haven't been there, but the size has made up for it.  This week alone we have caught at least one "very good" trout off the revetment wall, the Neches flat, the grass south of Johnson's and the reef. I haven't had time to fish for flounder, but they are doing their thing and the redfish bite has been lights out on the jetties.

It looks like Saturday could get blown out, but my group today has dried out and we are going to give it a shot again tomorrow.  I would be more than happy if the catching is even half as good as it was today and hopefully we will know when to call it a day!

I am still here....sometimes!

"Let the games begin!" The Monday morning following Easter weekend traditionally kicks off the busiest time of the year for me.  I have enjoyed a very steady March, but weather permitting, I will have few days off between now and Christmas and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Mother Nature was overly kind to the Easter weekend fishermen and it was pretty much a case of the "haves" and the "have-nots" as far as the catching was concerned.  I waited the bite out Wednesday with Trey Allison and his sons and the fish finally turned on for us around one o'clock.  We caught every trout in a two hour period after going fishless the first four hours.

We caught our trout in 12 to 14 feet of water on limetreuse and red shad plastics, but there was also a decent redfish bite taking place on the shoreline as long as the menhaden were on the move.  I crappie fished half a day Thursday and was going to give the Lake a rest until Monday, but the beautiful weather and an invite to beat up on the flounder was too much to pass up Friday evening.

Because guides cannot fish the Game Reserve with clients, I very seldom fish the canals and back lakes  that I made a living in until the late 90's.  John Caroll was gracious enough to share something new, but he really wanted me to show him a marsh ditch that we used to fish and he also needed ten flounder for a family get together on Sunday.

We had his ten flounder in less than thirty-minutes and they were very solid fish up to 20-inches.  We only fished two of his spots and were using a lure that I had never tried.  John takes a Mr. Blitz Tic-N-Spin which is basically a keel weighted 4/0 hook with a small gold Willow leaf blade attached at the sproat of the hook.  It comes packaged with an additional double hook, but he leaves that off.  He then rigs a GULP mullet weedless and just bounces it off the bottom on a slow retrieve.

He caught 8 of the 10 keepers before I gave up on fishing the same Gulp mullet on a 1/4 ounce jig head.  I have no doubt that the blade made the difference just as it does when fishing the Road Runner head.  We both used one after I showed him the ditch which had silted in some following two hurricanes and we never caught the first flounder, but we did catch slot reds until we got tired of catching them!

Because they were tearing up the Gulp so quickly, we replaced it with a Blurp Sea Shad.  I think we were using a 3/16ths or 1/4 ounce lure and a 1/8th would have worked even better.  We obviously weren't the only ones aware of the flounder bite in the Reserve as there was a lot of traffic in both Three Bayous and Willow.

There was apparently a lot of traffic on the lake Saturday and Sunday, but there were still some big trout caught and some trout taken under the birds as well.  We have been catching at least one or two trout in the 25 and over class almost every outing and we haven't even been able to fish several areas that are usually strong this time of the year.  Dirty water has been a problem on the extreme north end, but more often than not it has been the wind that dictates where we fish.

I appreciate the fact that so many of you check this report on a regulart basis and I apologize for unintenionally neglecting it the past few days. Your responses and reports on your trips are also appreciated!     

 

Big trout starting to move on Sabine

I was doing Little league baseball today so I was unable to get over to the weigh in for Daley's Trout Tournament.  Keith said it really went smoothly and Eric said they were able to live release at least 40 of the trout that were weighed in.  John Havens and Eric Renteria won the event with nearly 17 pounds for three trout. Bubba Ray and Leon Robison finished right on their heels and took the big trout pot as well with an 8.48-pound fish!

The catching has just been getting better every day on Sabine, but I was afraid that a dead calm pond with very little tidal movement might make things tougher today.  Every one I talked with, except Albert Bates, got it done early.  Albert and his partner finished fourth and caught their 3 largest trout in the last thirty minutes.

I fished with Dave Kosboth and his son, Matthew, yesterday and we picked up some very nice fish drifting the reef with Killer Flats Minnows and Maniac Mullets. We got a late start after taking a second look at the weather and caught all of our fish in the afternoon.

David with one of several nice trout caught on topwaters.

Thursday I fished with Dr. Bessell and his son, David, and we didn't catch a lot of fish, but everything was big.  Our best trout ate black-chartreuse head TTF Flushes and Geaux Daley She Dogs in 7 feet of water.  We also caught redfish on Swim Baits and one big flounder on a Gulp Mullet before taking an early quit so that David could get back home.

The bite on the north end is still a little slow, but it has heated up on the south end.  We are already starting to work a few gulls and the shrimp are in the lake.  It will only get better as the water continues to clear. I haven't had a chance to do much of it, but the flounder bite has just been unconscious the past two weeks. Guides cannot work inside the Game Reserve, but Willow and Three Bayous have been hot!

The catching is good right now!

The water clarity is getting better every day and we have done really well the past two days.  Tuesday I fished with Travis Nixon, Johnny Fontenot and Carey Erickson and we could not have picked a better weather day.  The lake was flat and we found a few birds working right in the middle of the lake at daylight.

Johnny put this one back as it was just a tad large!

The fish were hustling much larger shrimp than we have been seeing lately and both reds and trout were driving them to the surface.  Travis worked on them with a Gundog Topwater while the rest of us caught fish on tails and Swim baits.  We had a steady hour or so of non-stop catching before the bite ended.

Around noon we started fishing drains and got right back into the trout and flounder.  Today, Jetty Joe's son, Joe IV, fished with me and it was as enjoyable a trip as I have had in a long time.  Joe signed to play football with Lamar next year and they can only hope that he can play as well as he can fish. He apparently missed very little on all of those fishing trips with his Dad!

Joe will be a good addition to Coach Woodard's Lamar team next year as he makes a danged good flounder appear very average!

We found the trout at first light and Joe put a four-pounder in the boat on his first cast with a gold Skitterwalk.  The score was six to one before I could change baits.  We picked up two reds very quickly and ran to the south end to check out a report I had gotten yesterday.  It was as good as advertised, but there were a lot of boats on that end of the lake.

We finished out Joe's limit and ran back to the north end.  We fished one drain and caught a couple of flounder and another trout or two before calling it a day.  I can think of no higher compliment in this business than having a former guide hire you to take his son fishing for a graduation gift.

If you haven't signed up for the Daley's Trout tournament set for Saturday you need to get over there tomorrow to avoid a late fee.  The entry fee is a $100 with $2000 up for grabs based on a 50 team field. They are also going to spring for a replica mount of the largest trout weighed in.

Tuesday night, April 3rd, the Lake Charles CCA is sponsoring a Fishing Seminar at Prien Lake Park.  The event kicks off at 6:00 pm.  Capt. Jeff Poe, Sarge Upchurch of Laguna rods, and Tony Berrigan of the La. fish tagging program will speak.  There will be food and drinks provided by the lake Charles CCA Cooking team.  For more information contact Ray Little at 337-288-5685.