Colburn's Sabine Connection

Sabine trout tough to figure

I have no idea what happened yesterday, but we struggled in spite of perfect conditions and very little traffic.  We found a few fish early behind the islands on topwaters, but the mid-lake pattern that has been so consistent just died.  There was still bait everywhere on the surface, but the trout came up good only one time all afternoon.

Today there was too much traffic in the passes and behind the islands so we ran straight to the mid-lake area to wait on the fish.  We caught several trout under a Mauler before the trout started chasing shrimp and stuck with a She Dog and small Skitterwalk once that action started.

We fished the exact same areas we struggled in the day before under almost the same conditions.  I really can't explain it, but it may well be time to start free-lining live shad when things slow down.  I guess we are going to have to fish June and July like it was late August or September.

Chuck Uzzle and I touched base most of the day Friday and he managed to run across one school of redfish in Coffee Ground Cove.  it didn't last long and most of the fish were oversize.  Chuck also caught his fish with a Topwater and tails under a Mauler.

The annual S.A.L.T. tournament is in full swing all weekend so we should get a good sampling of what is going on all the way from the short rigs to the river.  They had great weather to run in today!

Wind throttles action

Much of the afternoon fishing was blown out, but the lake is still very clear and more bait shows up every day.  The early morning bite was pretty good for both trout and redfish.  The fish held in 2-4 feet until mid-morning eating bone diamond and chartreuse/red tails fished on 1/8th ounce jig heads.

There was a good topwater bite as well, but it ended just about the time the sun cleared the horizon.  A black/chartreuse She Dog was very effective on trout up to 5 1/2 pounds.  The shallow shell on the south side of the Islands was very good right at daylight.

The mid lake area is probably still red hot, but it didn't get fished today.  We really need a break in the wind from noon until dark to work on those fish.  We can get in behind the islands and catch fish early on, but we need calmer waters to do well the remainder of the day.

The flounder bite is still good for folks pounding the banks with small grubs or tube jigs tipped with shrimp.  An incoming tide parks the flounder right up in the roots of the cane on both the bayous and the Louisiana shoreline.

Gulls finally helping out terns

Wind in the morning and wind in the evening, but a two hour window of calm water in the middle of the day made the trip.  Today was the first time all spring that I found gulls rather than terns working over schools of fish on Sabine.  The trout and red fish were running together and the gulls were holding over them even when they weren't chasing shrimp to the surface!

We caught fish on a Hoginar, red shad Assassins and a bone diamond Sand eel,Jr.  Once again the better schools of fish were in the mid-lake area.  When the south wind got too tough to fight any longer we retreated to the river and caught both flounder and trout in 6-8 feet of water.  The trout were small for the most part, but the flounder were good solid keepers.  We caught both the trout and flounder on a pumpkin/chartreuse Sea Shad.

Good bite two days in a row?

We finally put two good days in a row together on Sabine in spite of another brisk east wind.  We never found any fish chasing shrimp today, but they were hanging in the same areas.  Early on, it only took a tern or two to locate a school of fish.

They were feeding on small shad in 4-5 feet of water.  For the duration of that bite we caught every fish on red shad or pumpkin/chartreuse Assassins.  We were fishing them faster than usual as the trout were hitting them just under the surface.  The best fish may have weighed a tad over 5 pounds, but we had several in the 20-23 inch class and the rest of the trout were good solid keepers.

When that bite stopped, we switched to Maulers with a three foot leader and the same baits and continued to catch fish over isolated patches of shell.  A strong south wind in the afternoon all but blew out the great program we found late yesterday afternoon. 

Once again all of the fish came off the north end and the incoming tide produced the best bite.  I had planned to do Big Lake all week, but we may not make it over there at all if Sabine continues to improve.  As a matter of fact, it doesn't have to get any better if it will stay this consistent!

Trout hustling brown shrimp

An east wind that was significantly stronger than forecast changed our minds at the last minute and we stayed on Sabine today rather than fishing Big lake.  Most of the morning was blown out, but the afternoon more than made up for a tough morning.

We found the trout chasing small brown shrimp all over the north end of the lake.  If we caught several small fish we picked up and moved until we spotted more shrimp skipping across the surface.  There are a lot of menhaden in the lake, but the trout are after the small brown shrimp.

Glow chartreuse and bone diamond were easily the two most productive colors for us.  We threw Assassin Sea Shads and Chub Minnows rigged on quarter ounce heads. Had the lake not flattened out in the afternoon, we would have never known just how turned on the north end of the lake is right now..  The best concentrations of fish were about a half mile out into the lake south of the islands.

We never caught the first redfish, but did see two schools feeding on the surface very briefly.  The better trout averaged 17 to 19 inches and there were plenty of them if you could make yourself leave the smaller fish.

The water is still in great shape, but there was some work going on the east shoreline that muddied up the water badly between the Pines and Bridge Bayou. The live bait bite is still good in the river and the water is salty well above the Port.

Easier bite in river than the lake!

I have really been chasing my tail of late.  Started off Tuesday catching an easy limit of trout in the river just north of Middle Pass.  It was the first time this year we had fished live bait and we got it done with a handful of finger mullet and a few oversized shad. 

The fish were holding in 8-10 feet of water.  We had one slot red. a limit of trout up to four pounds and two keeper flounder.  Fished an outgoing tide all morning.  Water still in great shape on North end of lake.

Wednesday we fished half a day on Big Lake and half a day on Sabine.  We did far more fishing and traveling than catching!

A howling south wind and strong incoming tide slowed things down so badly on Big Lake that we loaded up and trailered back to the south end of Sabine.  I have never seen the water on the reef any prettier, but the fish would not turn on.

We drifted soft plastics all afternoon and caught one nice speck, a drum, a flounder, and a 28 inch redfish before losing the tide.  I refuse to believe that the trout aren't going to show up on the reef, but there is little doubt that the north end is much stronger at this point.  Doing poorly on two lakes in the same day is very humbling!

Thursday afternoon the trout did their thing again in the afternoon in West Cove on Big Lake.  There were no bragging size fish caught, but good numbers of fish in the 2-4 pound class.  There was even a little bird action, but the best bite was taking place over the reefs in 3-5 feet of water.  Glow/chartreuse and pumpkin/chartrteuse were both good colors and there was a decent topwater bite very late on pearl/chartreuse She Dogs.

The open lake bite on Big Lake has been good,but inconsistent.  The most consistent bite has been fishing live bait on the edge of the ship channel.   I will fish parties on Big Lake four days next week so Sabine will undoubtedly turn on big time while I am gone.  If you are planning a trip to Sabine, I would recommend starting out no further south than Madam Johnson's.  I will keep you up on any reports I get off Sabine.

I have had two opportunities to fish the middle of the lake on Sabine in the past ten days and the reds and trout were up and schooling on both occasions.  There is a tremendous amount of bait in that area and I feel certain the fish are hanging right there with them.  The fish we caught were good solid trout and they hit both Hoginars and a bone diamond Assassin.

North end of Sabine turned on

We finally got a break in the wind and ran all over the lake before I could settle down.  We found several small, but aggressive schools of trout and redfish mixed together chasing ribbon fish and shad right against the color change in the mid-lake.  These trout are much larger than the fish we have been catching at the mouth of the bayous.

We also found two different schools of trout chasing small shrimp amongst the mine field of crab traps at the mouth of Willow.  They were holding in the outer edge of the traps about three hundred yards out.  Red shad and glow chartreuse Sea Shads  fished on a steady retrieve were the ticket.

The flounder are still doing their thing on the points and around the bayous on the Louisiana shoreline.  We went through a lot of small flounder to keep six before finding the trout in the crab traps and they wanted pumpkin/chartreuse more than glow/chartreuse or any of the old standbys.

We talked briefly with two other fishermen that had fished in Willow Bayou all morning and they also had some keeper trout as well as much better average size flounder than we did.  They were catching their fish tipping white curl tail jigs with shrimp.  That's great news for the recreational angler, but guides can't work in the refuge!

I was kidding last week when I suggested that the trout may have just bypassed the reefs on the south end, but it may well have happened.  Even crazier is the fact that the north end of the lake is so much clearer than the south end.  The south end isn't bad, but there is a distinct line in the mid-lake area where the water changes.

We were so excited to find schools of fish working that we never tied on a topwater or a Mansfield Mauler.  If you get over here and the wind gives you a break..don't make that mistake.  We were so pleased to find the fish turned on that I temporarily lost my mind.  Guides get excited, too!

Flounder bite bridging the gap

I apologize for the scarcity of reports of late, but we have been putting in some long difficult hours due to the wind.  We fished early in the week on Big Lake and got pinned down in Oyster Bayou due to the wind.  It wasn't a bad place to be as we kept 16 very nice flounder and two redfish. 

We caught most of the fish on finger mullet, but we found them with a limetreuse Assassin Sea Shad rigged on a 1/8th ounce jig head.  The two keeper reds also hit the soft plastics.

I've spent the majority of the past week on Sabine trying to deal with a Northeast wind.  For the most part we have been pounding the mouth of the protected bayous catching flounder and a few small trout.  I haven't fished south of the Gator Hole, but the entire lake from that area northward is in fantastic shape.  Clear salty water and lots of bait!

We have yet to limit on flounder on Sabine as probably sixty percent of the fish are an inch or so short.  We have been sticking with tails rigged on 1/8th ounce heads and haven't been tipping with shrimp.  Our best flounder may have weighed three pounds.

We have had some very brief periods of calm and when it happens you immediately realize how much bait is already out in the lake.  We found the trout on two occasions chasing shrimp and ribbon fish, but it was over very quickly due to the wind.

We fished everywhere we could hide in yesterday's wind and did poorly most of the day.  We came back in the river and caught 16 keeper trout on tails in less than an hour.  They were stacked up on a point chasing small shad all the way up to the grass line.  We found the fish late the day before, but the numbers weren't there.

I haven't heard a single report off the reefs on the south end so I really hope I am missing something good.  We'll start on the North end again tomorrrow. If we don't get an unexpected flood and the winds ease up just a little in the very near future we will go from "Where are the fish?" to "Where have you been?" over night.