Colburn's Sabine Connection

The boat is clean by now and all is well!

We didn't fish yesterday because we didn't know how long it would take to retrieve the bay boat we were forced to leave over night in the marsh.  The tide had come up only slightly the next morning, but once we broke the suction in the mud we were able to jerk it free and push pole out before we lost what water we had. 

Everything was still as we had left it, like anyone could have even found their boat or cared to crawl through four feet of bottomless mud to steal it.  A storm that night had even washed a few pounds of mud off which helped.  Cell phones and GPS's are invaluable, but letting someone know where you are going and when to expect you back can save you a lot of misery.  Leaving a message on someone's answering maching and hoping that they are even around to notice it is a long shot.

Once again, I appreciate all of the e-mails from folks willing to help or offer advice at a moment's notice.  If you fish long enough you are going to get in a bind at some time or another and it's nice to know there are that many folks out there that would drop everything to help out.

A large number of them were friends from the immediate area that have dealt with mosquitoes in our marshes at night before. I can assure you that the two fishermen we helped would do the same for others.  They were happy to see all of their gear still aboard and their boat on the trailer!

The lake is still in great shape, but the front slowed things down.  The wind made it tough for folks that have been on trout in the open lake.  Don't pass up sitting gulls right now.  They are staying in the vicinity of some very decent schools of trout even when resting.  The best bite has been on She Dogs and Spooks the last two days.  The schooling reds are getting more consistent every day, but this wind has made it difficult to spot them.

Backwater scouting goes south!

The high pressure and stiff west wind made things difficult the past couple of days.  We have been able to find some trout on the protected north revetment wall early. but that program dies out pretty quickly.  The most consistent bite continues to be in the mid-lake area when you can fish it.

The birds are working that area the hardest and on most days the reds are still coming up and schooling during the hottest portion of the day.  The trout in that area are much more solid since the last near miss storm. We were catching our better trout under a Mauler, but the larger fish the past few days have wanted top water lures.  Bone-chrome and chrome-green back Top Dogs have worked the best for us on both the trout and redfish.

I got one of those calls you hope you never have to make today when I got home and it was nothing short of a miracle that I even saw the answering machine blinking..  "We are stuck back in the marsh and you are the only one that can find this place".  Actually there were two people that could have found them, but the other was in Mexico!

Gene Locke and Bob Crew joined me without question in the rescue mission and after much push poling and slopping through chest deep mud, we were only able to bring the fishermen out.  I have never seen a boat as stuck as this one was and we may not be able to get it out tomorrow either!  Suffice it to say, the two fishermen that returned to Houston without their boat are well known tournament anglers that knew they were in a heap of trouble.

It was a lark that I even checked my answering machine when I got in as I seldom even look at it before 7 or 8 in the evening and that would have been much too late for them.   I can't imagine that sinking feeling knowing you cannot get out and your only hope is recorded on an answering machine that may or may not get checked.  At least at this point, however, they have cheated the mosquitoes and they have far more blood than they would have had at daylight tomorrow. 

With a little luck, some hard work, and a high tide, they will have their boat back on the trailer and headed to a car wash.  Gene Locke and Bob Crew are good guys!

Great bite died early

There was just one heck of a good bite early Saturday morning that died out much too quickly.  Easy bites always do! There were several schools of trout running up to about 19 inches hustling shrimp from daylight until about 9:30.  Gulls were not a requirement as you could see the better fish blowing holes in the water chasing shrimp.  When that action stopped it got to be very tough for us.

The bite that had been so consistent on the north end moved a mile or so further south.  The water was a little more off color on the north end, but not enough to change things that much.  We caught a few trout on top waters and a glow chartreuse Assassin rigged on a 1/8th ounce head, but things really picked up when we switched to a pumpkin chartreuse Assassin under a Mauler.

We also caught fewer ladyfish and smaller trout with the Mauler.  The lake glassed off most of the remainder of the day and we hit several good slicks, but they produced only small trout or gafftops.  We saw a lot of boats up on the north end late, but I think most of them were fooling with lady fish.

I talked with several good fishermen that took advantage of the flat seas and ran to the short rigs.  It was apparently either feast or famine.  The ones that did well did very well and the others struggled to catch any fish.  They all reported that it got a little crowded around the closest rigs and that may have hurt them some.

Wind, rain, smoke didn't slow the bite today

We had an opportunity to fish in every condition imaginable in a single day and the fish continued to bite right through it all.  We had a south-southwest wind that really picked up after lunch, only to switch around to the north and blow even harder until just before dark.  We got caught by one storm, but managed to dodge two bad ones and eventually had to leave the Louisiana shoreline due to smoke from a marsh fire.

We are still catching an incredible number of small trout regardless of where we fish.  We did, however, manage to catch some very solid trout up to 3 1/2 pounds on a bone She Dog, a rainbow trout colored lure with no name, and glow chartreuse Assassins.  We found the redfish schooling off the north revetment wall between four and six o'clock.  It was white capping at that time, but we were still able to catch the ones we could reach on Hoginars and Assassins.

The water was a little off-colored up by the islands, but it is still very clear out in the lake.  We found the majority of our fish by pounding different schools of ladyfish.  (Yesterday the birds helped, but the wind was just a little too much for them today.) Some of the schools had both trout and reds in them and some were only lady fish.  It was really too rough most of the time to see shrimp moving on the surface.  We had a good outgoing tide all afternoon. 

If you are looking for more action than meat, or you have kids that need something to tug on the end of their line, I would try Sabine in the very near future!

The ladyfish are in the house!

You would never know we have had as much rain as we have had in the past week.  The river is still in great shape and the north end of the lake looks better today than it did even yesterday.  We stayed in the river most of the morning looking for a big flounder or sheepshead for scholarship money.

That didn't work out, but the folks that worked the lake in the morning did pretty good on both trout and reds on soft plastics.  We got in the lake around 2:00 p.m. and it was going on.  When we left around 4:30 it was still going on.  There wasn't a lot of bird activity, but all you had to do was follow the lady fish and big rafts of shad.

There was just a ton of small trout everywhere we went, but there  were also slot reds and keeper trout mixed in as well.  In spite of all the shad, the better fish were still chasing shrimp.  Anytime we did actually find birds working over the bait there were reds under them.  We never left the north end of the lake.  It gets a little frustrating working your way through the ladyfish and small trout, but it is non-stop action while waiting out the larger fish.

There was a very good topwater bite on the small clown or black/white rib spook.  We also caught fish on the Hoginar and pumpkin chartreuse Assassins and split tails.  I think the better ratio of keepers to throwbacks is taking place in the morning, but I wouldn't pass up an evening trip!

High tide holding back muddy runoff

The high tides are holding back much of the runoff from all of the rain last week.  The extreme north end of the lake is very off colored, but it clears up quickly as you move south.  The birds continue to work over shrimp, but the schools of shad were a little more difficult to locate the past couple of days.

The afternoon action continues to be much more consistent than the morning bite.  If the water will release at all during the predicted outgoing tides for the end of the week we could see some super fishing.  Even the wind is supposed to give us a break by Thursday.  The better trout taken under the gulls this afternoon were working just off the south revetment wall.  The top water bite slowed, but LSU and morning glory/chartreuse soft plastics got assaulted.  We had been doing much better on the lighter colors.

The gulls have been working very hard around Stewt's island the last couple of hours before dark, but for the msot part the trout have been small.  We are going to try to earn some youngsters some scholarship money Thursday with a big gafftop, or sheepshead, or flounder, but we will be back after the trout and reds Friday morning.  This is a great time to check out some of the backwater off Sabine as it will be much easier to move around in for a couple of days.

Rains moved trout a little deeper

We hid from the rain most of the morning Saturday, but did very well in the process.  Ed Darling and his two boys caught 26 trout with the largest, a seven pounder, headed for the taxidermist.  We caught all of the fish in the Intracoastal with live mullet.  The largest trout did hit a semi-conscious piggy perch, but for most of the morning the trout ignored everything, but the mullet.

The trout had been moving up on a shallow flat, but the dirty runoff caused by the recent down pours moved them off on a fifteen foot break.  We finished out the day with a brief run around the lake between showers and the water was still in surprisingly good shape.  There was some gull activity in the mid-lake area and we saw trout hustling brown shrimp  just south of Johnson's Bayou.

I won't be on the water again until Thursday, but I'll pass along any reports that may help you plan your next trip.  Hopefully the parade of hurricanes will slow  down a little.

Daily rains have improved fishing thus far

We dodged rain and an occasional thunderstorm all morning long and had another good day on Sabine.  The birds are working longer and holding tighter for us since the water cloudied up a little with the runoff.  We still haven't found any redfish to speak of in the open lake, but the average size trout is much better.

We worked several sets of gulls early that were bird dogging small trout between Johnson's and Garrisons Ridge.  Later in the morning, the larger trout were chasing shrimp and small ribbon fish right in the middle of the lake.  We caught a few on bone-silver She Dogs, but the best producer was a bone diamond Assassin fished on a 1/16th ounce head and retrieved just below the surface.

The fish apparently worked all over the lake at some point as we talked with several groups at the dock that had done pretty well on a variety of lures.  Most of the fish they caught on soft plastics hit something chartreuse.  I don't know how much more rain we can handle, but at this point it has only helped the fishing!

Better gull activity...larger trout

We very nearly spent too much time in the river  yesterday.  We started out with live finger mullet fishing 8 to 12 foot breaks and had seven keeper trout before moving into the lake.  I don't know how well the birds worked across the weekend, but they held as well as I have seen them hold Monday evening.  They were already working when we eased into the lake around noon.

The boat traffic was light and there were several groups of birds working from Sidney island all the way to the North revetment wall.  Once again there were a lot of small trout eating any and all soft plastics, but we worked three different schools of keeper trout up to three pounds.  Any soft plastic in a chartreuse pattern, glow chartreuse, and limetreuse worked well.  We also caught several solid trout and two slot reds on chrome/blue She Pups.

We caught a few smaller trout mixed in with the better schools, but we never caught a keeper trout out of one of the schools of smaller fish.  Once you caught three or four small trout in row, it was time to check out another flock of birds.  We never found the first school of redfish, but I talked with two other groups of anglers that found them working a mile or so out in front of Garrison's Ridge in the morning.

Storm shakes better trout loose

We had a very good morning on Big Lake before the wind closed us out.  Our best trout was just a little over the four pound mark, but we had 14 very solid keepers and two redfish.  We were only able to work two small groups of birds, but they were holding steady for long periods of time.  We also released two over sized reds.  The fish were chasing shrimp in 3 feet of water over shell southeast of the old jetties.

Once the weather blew through, I called Gene Locke to see if he wanted to make a short evening run on Sabine.  It was rough in the mid-afternoon, but settled down late.  We found trout under the birds on the south revetment wall, but the best trout were chasing mullet and shad on the Louisiana shoreline.

Our largest fish hit She Dogs.  We turned over two of the best trout I have seen in a while and the fish we kept were between 18 and 22 inches.  Both of the sure enough big trout hit She Dogs worked across slicks less than twenty yards off the shoreline.  It has been a while since I've even seen a five pound plus trout and it was nice to deal with trout that pull back again.  We have been covered with 10-14 inch trout for two weeks.  Bone-silver sides was the better color in the She Dog.

If Dennis will spare us this weekend we may be back in business!