Colburn's Sabine Connection

Little more wind, but fishing still good

The wind has started kicking up again mostly in the afternoons since last Thursday, but the fishing has not slowed down much thus far.  the biggest surprise for me has been how long the larger trout are staying shallow each morning in spite of the heat.

We have been catching trout up to 5 1/2 pounds on Top Dogs and Skitterwalks in two feet of water at high noon even on very porr tide changes.  I would rather have to deal with the problems associated with fishing a flat lake rather than too much wind, but a little wind really helps the topwater bite in shallow water.  Bone-chrome patterns have been very good to us.

Lynesey and Lauren with two nice trout. Younger sister, Jordan, and Mom were hunting shade at this point!

I fished with the Sandow family Thursday and it was miserably hot, but we still caught some very nice trout on both topwaters and live bait.  We had everything from small ladyfish to piggy perch in the livewell and the trout we caught were not real particular.  With no wind and no tide movement most of the day, fishing live bait in one spot was a little restricting.

We went back to drifting the flats with the wind and making long casts into schools of surfacing shad or working small groups of terns bird dogging schooling redfish and trout well out into the lake.  We have been catching trout on a Sea Shad rigged under a Kwik Cork when nothing else will produce a fish for us.  We catch a few too many gafftops, but there are enough keeper trout biting to weather the inconvenience.

We are starting to see larger shad and the bite in both the Neches and the Sabine rivers has improved as well.  In general it is hot and getting hotter, but the catching has been consistent!   

The weather and the bite is heating up!

I know there is a gap in the reports and what happened last week must less the day before is of little use, but it looks as though the bite is on again .  The better trout are starting to show up and best of all, we have found them all over the lake the past couple of days.  Two decent afternoon rains cooled the water off a little and the catching has been fast and furious.

I thought it was going to turn around last week, but we struggled across the weekend after a pretty good trip on Thursday.  It really started improving for us on Monday.  Tuesday we found fish feeding on top all the way from the Causeway Reef to Coffee Ground.  The reds were mixed in with the trout and they didn't care if you threw plastic or topwaters.

We committed to the south end Tuesday and caught a pile of trout, but a lot of them were small.  We fished a big group and everybody caught fish all day long, but we only kept 40 trout and 4 redfish.  I'll take that everyday, but we were surprised to run into even better schools of fish as we returned home in the afternoon.

Today was maybe even a little better, especially for the redfish.  Without a doubt the key to catching the larger trout was having the patience to stick with a topwater and fewer strikes while everyone else was catching a fish every cast on plastic. It has been a long time since I have seen this many shrimp in the lake this time of the year and the fish are right behind them.

We didn't catch a trout over four pounds Tuesday, but there were larger fish on the move today.  It may have just been the fact that we failed to fish topwaters Tuesday.  From what I understand, the jetties and short rigs were just as good the past two days with even quicker limits, but I prefer to stay in the lake when possible.

This will undoubtedly kill a great bite, but I have Friday open and I don't want to waste it scouting.  I have a group tomorrow with baseball that night so I probably won't have time to make any last minute calls.  I also still have two days open next week.  I hope this is the beginning of another good run, but you just have to go to know!   

Much better day!

The wind certainly has not been a problem this week, but I have struggled to put together any kind of a solid program until today.  There has been a very good outgoing tide in the late evening, but I am already home trying to cool off by the time that takes place.

Today, however, was a good one.  We had a light north wind and a big outgoing tide had sucked lots of water out of the bayous and the lake over night.  As we idled out of Adam's Bayou, I gave Harry Galewsky three luke warm choices as to what we could do and he said, "I like redfish, but I would rather take a shot at catching trout if we can!"  That's pretty much cutting to the chase and when his partners, Carl and Billy, agreed, we headed straight to the lake.

We passed on netting live bait and we were drifting the flats with soft plastics twenty minutes later.  We fished under birds that were working over trout and lady fish in the middle of the day, but we caught most of a pretty good box of trout up to four pounds by staying on the trolling motor and covering a lot of water.

We missed several fish early, but it took us a while to figure out what was going on.  The trout were hitting very light, even a 3-pound flounder that we caught hit light, and you had to give them a second shot  at times to get them to take it.  The other key was switching back and forth between a 5-inch Assassin and the shorter Sea Shad when we would quit getting strikes.  I caught two very nice trout early on a Spoiler Shad right out of the box, but tails were the hotter item.

Carl actually got us going by missing a lot of strikes when no one else was getting bit.  I put on a smaller Sea Shad, fished it a little slower, and we all did well until the fish decided that we needed to throw longer baits.  I was pleased with the final results, but we really worked our tails off.  The lake was dead calm and I thought we may have to hit the bilge pump to get rid of all of the sweat in the bottom of the boat!

Just as I suspected, we found a lot of bait on the surface in the mid-lake area, but there were more terns and gulls working them than fish.  We didn't stay with them too long as we were hunting shade by that time. 

It is what it is!

From time to time, I receive responses to my reports that lead me to believe that someone has way too much time on their hands.  I know there are times when I am not overly specific as to what I am doing to catch fish out of self-defense, but trying to read between the lines is giving me far too much credit.  Believe it or not...too much of the time I just can't catch fish.

Before I give you a very encouraging report from last Friday, check this out.  I received an email that started out by thanking me for sharing information only to later point out that he had figured out something about when I do or do not post reports.  I didn't post anything all weekend and he said that there was a time when he thought no postings indicated that I had just not been fishing or at least not catching.  That alone surprised me as it seems that I have to report more bad trips than good ones.

In this case, he went on to say that he saw us catching fish in three different places during the course of the morning last Friday which meant that I really was catching fish during those "no report" stretches and just didn't want to tell anyone.  He closed by saying that from now on when I go a few days without posting he was going fishing as that was probably when it was the best!

If anyone needs an excuse to go fishing they don't need to read this anyway and I have some especially disappointing news for my intuitive friend.  "How about my wife was on a well-deserved vacation in New Hamshire all week and my dumb ass couldn't figure out how to get the typepad to come up on the computer."

No whitecaps and another nice trout for Chase!

Anyway, here's the report and I am tickled to share something already old, but positive.  We finished the day with a very good box of trout that included several trout in the 4 to 5 pound class and I had not been catching any numbers at all prior to Friday.  We had a very weak incoming tide, but the wind gave us a break and we caught fish on everything from Assassins fished under a Kwik Cork to live bait.

Terry Feuge has fished with me a number of years and he brought his son Matt and his friend Chase down knowing the wind may be a problem.  I caught the live bait just in case early that morning and we caught a few solid trout on everything from mullet to tiny croaker in the middle of the day.  It was also nice to find some solid fish hanging on the breaks on the ICW side of the islands.  The action was never fast, but it was steady and I was soooo happy to catch trout again!

I am scouting tomorrow and booked for the remainder of the week, so I'll probably just post every couple of days.  If I miss a night or two, I can assure you that doesn't mean the fishing is great!          

South wind 5 to 10 knots. Lake waters smooth!

After nine straight days of a blistering south wind that has already resulted in as many postponed trips as I had in all of May, I might have to apply for the weather man's job at weatherunderground.com.  All you have to do is type in south winds 5 to 10 knots. Lake waters smooth or south wind 10 to 15 knots.Lake waters a light chop.  Someone needs to at least look out the window at their wind sock!

If he or she ever types in 15 to 20 knots, you better pack up the family and evacuate.  It has blown 10 to 15 knots inside the livewell every day this week.  The water still does not look too bad in spite of the steady gusts, but we just have not been able to run much of the lake and nail down anything solid with the trout.

We found some redfish slicking up on both the lake and ICW side of the islands on the north end, but the trout have not been with them.  We tried live bait a little while, but went right back to Assassins and the MirOdine XL to catch all of our fish.  We are catching a few scattered trout, but no numbers. I initially thought maybe the trout had moved into deeper water, but I have changed my mind.

Prior to all of this wind, we were beginning to see huge schools of shad rafting up in the mid-lake area and both the trout and redfish were all over them.  I think that is still going on, but it has been so rough that you just can't run a lot of water looking for them, you cannot see any surface activity between the white caps, and the gulls aren't helping.

I haven't heard any great reports from the south end, but a very good outgoing tide may have improved the bite on the ship channel south of the Causeway again.  I'd love to post a better report, but this wind has me doing a lot more fishing than catching right now. 

Due south wind eliminates lots of water!

If you fished yesterday it had to be because it was your only day off and you caught a very bad draw.  The wind never backed off and blew all night long to boot.  It also looks like more of the same for the next few days.  I postponed trips all the way through the weekend and I am not overly excited about even scouting as the boat and I took a beating this week even on the better days.  I really thought those days were behind us!

A due south wind this time of the year or a northeast wind in the early spring eliminate a lot of prime water on Sabine.  The water clarity has held up with little or no rain and the fish are there, but you just can't fish the better areas slowly enough.  The few protected areas along the ship channel look like parking lots most days so that is a poor Plan B.

The most consistent bite if these conditions persistis going to be the ship channel or the ICW and that generally means live bait.  This year, at least for me, it will also mean more homework as a large number of washouts and structure changes I have fished for years were demolished over the past year by barges and crew boats grinding up the east shoreline while working the LNG pipeline.

Mother Nature has all but decided that our trout are going to finish their spawn without too much pressure and that isn't all bad.  Even the 3 to 4 pound trout we have cleaned recently were full of eggs, but we weren't catching anything much smaller to keep.  What a problem to have! 

Fishing was better today for no good reason!

You just never know.  I postponed a lot of trips in January-February due to bad weather and very muddy water only to scout alone or fish with friends and wind up having great days.  Even if I had a feeling the fishing may be good in spite of horrid conditions, I just couldn't let a client drive over and freeze his or her butt off on a hunch.

Yesterday the wind howled out of the south for the fourth consecutive day and we struggled after lucking out and having a decent trip the previous day.  It was one of those "beat you down days" and I was well into an equally unsuccessful Plan D by quitting time. When I got home and went to the weather site the forecast was more of the same for today.

I called Bill Sherer and told him that we struggled and it didn't look promising.  He would not take no for an answer and he and his son, Wesley, and Dave Cooper met me at the launch at daylight.  The wind was already doing its thing by the time we hit the river, but we tied things down and ran out in the  lake anyway.

By 11 o'clock we were sufficiently pounded and had three fish in the cooler.  Then the wind suddenly dropped down to about 20 mph and the bite was on.  We caught our share of trash fish on dark colored Assassins and Swim Baits, but we finished with a respectable box of nice trout and 3 slot redfish as well.  I am certainly happy that Bill din't let me cancel his trip.  I would have scouted anyway, but I would have been gone before those trout really turned on!

I just cannot believe the water clarity is holding up as well as it is with all of this wind.  The water on the east side of the lake has taken a hit, but it still looks good behind the islands and just off the revetment walls.  We fished another big incoming tide most of the day.

They are still dragging out debris off the flats including the partially submerged trees and limbs on the end of Pleasure Island, but they missed something very hard about 400 yards off the south point of Stewts in 3.5 feet of water. We hit it drifting and it turned the boat completely around.  I immediately went back on the troll motor, but could not see it.  The object was long enough that the lower unit had to slide the length of it before we floated free.  I have run that area a jillion times, but I will swing wider in the future! 

   

The wind is back!

The wind has made it much tougher to take advantage of the great trout bite on the north end of the lake the last few days.  The last incredibly easy day on big fish was last Thursday and I really didn't take advantage of it like we could have as that was just a fun laid back trip.  Once the wind swung around to the south for the weekend, it made it tough to fish slow enough to target the ditches, etc.

The water has silted up some the last day or so, but you can still catch quality trout and redfish by working into the wind.  The big trout are still there, but it is difficult to catch any numbers as you don't get as many quality casts per drift.  We are doing things a little bit differently now with some success, but I don't know if it is the real deal or just luck.

If the program holds up over the next few days I will be glad to share with you what I am doing, but it is more likely that I have just stumbled up on some really dumb trout.  Hopefully this wind will lay and we can fish what ever and where ever we want again. 

According to the forecasts it looks as though we will either fish in the wind or not at all for the remainder of the week.  The good news is that the trout are finally starting to show up in the bayous and the river and some of that water is protected.  I haven't heard anything from the Causeway reefs, but you can fish that area in a south wind as well.  A good live bait bite cannot be far off either.

 

  

It can only go downhill from here!

Monday I was thinking, "It can't get any better than this."  Then I said the same thing yesterday, but today was even better.  We had perfect conditions and the fish were just going nuts!

Jerry Hennington said he just might start fishing again after this trip!

I fished with Louis, Gerald and Jerry yesterday and I am not sure how many big fish we went through all told, but we still managed to keep a great box of trout. I was rigging up rods for each of them and made the first cast of the morning to make sure the drag was set, etc.  Before I could hand Gerald the rod a four pound trout hit a 10w40 Assassin and it was that way until we quit.

I ran back to the same area today with Duane, Mike, and Chris and the fish were still there.  We could very easily have been limited on trout up to six pounds by 7:30.  Once again I don't know how many big fish we actually went through, but we were limited an hour later. 

Mike was already in the catch and release mode at first light.

I was in the process of fighting our largest trout of the day when my cell phone rang.  I waited until I could see how big my fish was to answer the phone and then handed the rod to Mike to finish the fight on a trout that was easily over seven pounds.  Just prior to sliding the net under her she broke off and no one really cared.  That is when it is going well!

When they tired of catch and releasing 20-inch trout well before noon, I decided to make one run through the middle of the lake to see if the redfish were schooling up.  Had we been struggling and had no fish in the box I would never have found the first gull.  With three limits of trout in the box, however, we immediately found a small group of gulls working over ribbon fish.

And then we found an acre of redfish blowing ribbon fish out of the water!

Before I could lower the troll motor, an acre of slot reds started blowing holes in the water and we had three or four fish on at the same time for as long as we wanted to fish them. I have seen some incredible schools of redfish over the years, but I can't remember anything any more impressive.  I called Johnnny and Jim Wallace and we just sat and watched the reds churn the water to a froth while we waited for them to come meet us. When we left, Johnny and Jim were both hooked up and the fish were still on top.

There were some big trout mixed in with all of those reds, (they had to big to survive in that massacre) but we  were trying to shake them off at the boat to take another shot into the copper madness.  It was crazy!

  Larry Strickland was fishing a short distance from us this morning and called to tell me that he had just landed a 28-inch plus trout that  was over 8-pounds on his scales.  We have put some fish like that back recently because I haven't fished anyone entered in the STAR tournament, but Larry was entered and I urged him to get to Bridge City Bait as quickly as possible.

He made the run only to discover that his 8-pound 6-ounce trout was fourth best even at this early stage.  We were both disappointed that he had to kill the big trout for nothing, but we had no way of knowing.  Larry has really focused on catching a double-digit trout this year and I wouldn't count him out just yet.

I don't know what it is going to take to win the upper coast trout division, but we have already put a couple back that would be leaders and have narrowly missed two more fish that were even larger.  I honestly can't tell if they weigh six pounds or nine pounds when they are plowing across the surface on forty feet of line, but i am a pretty good judge when they are on six feet of line.

A lot of the 3 to 4 pound fish that we have cleaned are full of eggs so you are going to get your money's worth out of every inch of fish right now.  There has been no secret bait for us other than the fact that we have been using the 5-inch Assassin rather than smaller Sea Shad.  Some of the largest trout that I have released also hit the larger TopDog and the MirrOdine XL. 

A trip worth waiting for!

Every once in a great while, things work out the way you hope they would.  Kelly Ford had been trying to schedule a trip since March and we postponed it four times due to weather.  Today he and his Dad, Lee, and Uncle Mike finally got their day on the water and it was worth the wait.

Lee put the pressure on them early with this nice trout!

There was very little wind at daylight, but we had no tide and the birds did not do us any favors.  We quit them with only five solid trout and a slot red in the box around 7:30.  We then ran to the flats on the north end and started drifting Assassins in 4 to 5 feet of water.  The south wind ran us off around 11:00, but we already had a great box of trout.  Both Mike and Lee had trout that pushed five pounds and I have no idea how many more fish we missed or caught and released.

They were ready to call it a day when I suggested we fight the wind and go make one more drift.  After Mike caught two nice trout in a hurry, one drift turned into two.  I was tying stuff down for the ride in as Kelly was reeling in our last cast of the day.  The largest speck he had ever caught ambushed his Assassin and the unexpected battle was on.  I finally slid the net under her and Kelly's patience was duly rewarded. It was one more beautiful fish and well deserved.

Kelly caught his best trout ever on the last cast of the day!

I hope this south wind will die tonight as it really made it tough most of the day.  We still caught fish in the wind, but it was non-stop action while the wind was light. We ran across all of the flats up on the north end of the lake on the way back and they were silting up, but they should settle out if the wind will lay down.