Colburn's Sabine Connection

Fishing temporarily put on hold, but bite is good

Once again I apologize for a gap in the reports, but I had some things come up late last week and then came the hurricane.  Between the displaced folks from the New Orleans area that are just taking it day by day at our church and the good friends from southeasat Louisiana that I played ball with in college, this thing has really hit home.  Life has to go on, but I find it difficult chasing after fish when a world of folks just want the lights turned on and a drink of clean water!

We were back on the water today and the trout bit as well as they have all summer long. The hurricane had no effect on Sabine Lake as far as I can tell.  We were on the water three hours this morning and limited on trout up to four pounds.  We caught fish on She Dogs and bone diamond Sea Shad rigged under a Mauler.  We caught only two redfish, but the trout were all over the north end.  I really don't think color mattered much. 

Good morning..poor evening

We had another good morning, but the afternoon was a total wash.  The wind came up and we just couldn't get anything going.  Finished the morning with 16 trout and 2 redfish.  We caught some good trout early on black-chartreuse She Dogs in 2-3 feet of water over scattered shell.

We switched to LSU colored tails the remainder of the morning and continued to catch just enough fish to keep us from switching to live bait.  By the time we decided to make the change, the wind was blowing the wrong direction for us and we took an early quit.  I went back out later in the evening, but I found very few fish.

We had a great outgoing tide and there was a lot of bait moving, but I never saw any blow ups or gull activity.  We caught a few small fish, one slot red and a nice flounder.  Hit a few spots on the river on the way in and it wasn't much better.  The best bite continues to be the first couple of hours of the day for me.

Back to Back...scary

We have logged two good days in a row so we are probably on borrowed time again.  The live bait bite has indeed proved to be the strongest and most consistent bite of all.  Monday the topwater bite was exceptionally good until about 8:30.  Tom DeLarieux and his son, Jason, caught their first redfish ever on bone Poppa Dogs along with seven keeper trout at daylight.

We worked one group of gulls around noon, but the remainder of our fish hit finger mullet free-lined with only the weight of the swivel.  Jason did everything but land a trout in the six pound class, but most of the trout were in that 17-18 inch class.  We quit a little early due to the heat, but still had a very good box of fish.

Today was almost a carbon copy.  We stayed with a black-chartreuse She Dog and a black Super Spook most of the morning and even caught fish on tails until about ten o'clock.  We then switched to shad as we couldn't find any mullet early and finished out their limit free-lining.  We never checked them out, but we did see more gulls working and ladyfish on the surface throughout the day.

We spent much of the day within a one mile radius of the tanks out from Willow bayou.  I also got a very good report of trout up to four pounds hitting top waters on the Louisiana shoreline late this evening.  If we can keep it going tomorrow it will be the first time I have put three days together in a long time!

Live bait was weekend winner

Both Friday and Saturday the bite proved to be much tougher than it had been earlier in the week.  The fish were still holding in the same areas, but the bite for us was over very early in the morning.  We did find a few good trout that would hit a tail under a Mauler, but even that was slow.

The first couple of hours were critical as we had no problem locating both trout and redfish up on the shallow flats on the north end of the lake.  Catching any numbers, however, was tough. Bone-silver was easily the most productive color in both the She Dog and the Top Dog, Jr.  Later in the morning the gulls would then work over fish in 4-5 feet of water and we caught a few on glow-chartreuse or pumpkin-chartreuse Assassins.

The eye-opener came Sunday evening when we drifted the same areas with live shad and caught both trout and reds where we hadn't drawn a strke in two days.  While the bite was still strong I switched to both tails and top waters just to see and caught nothing but ladyfish.  The fish wanted meat!  We caught trout and redfish both free lining with a split shot and drifting  the shad under a popping cork.

Until it changes, I would recommend artificials until the easier bite is over and then switching to live bait.  The best news is that most of the trout we have caught lately have been good solid keeper fish.  There are still a lot of small fish working the passes, but more keeper fish are showing up in those areas as well of late.

Good weather...tough bite!

What had been a very easy bite most of the week on Sabine got very difficult today.  You couldn't blame it on the weather as it was hot and still through midday.  We got lucky and found some trout and redfish right at daybreak and then again around 1 pm.

We caught both the reds and the trout on glow chartreuse Assassins and chrome chartreuse Top Dogs.  The good news was that we caught very few small trout, our average keeper was probably 18 inches.  The birds worked hard, but there was so much bait on the surface that they weren't always over fish.

All of our fish came off the north end of the lake.  The water is a little stained from the recent runoff, but not enough to hurt the bite.  I talked with several other guides that had done very well all week long only to struggle today.  I don't know what kind of crowd to expect tomorrow as I seldom fish weekends, but hopefully the easy bite will be there again.

Conditions remain favorable

Two days off the water was just a little too long so we made a quick afternoon run.  The wind was up a little, but the water is still in great shape.  I saw several small groups of gulls working the flats on the north end of the lake, but the two groups we checked out were riding herd on ladyfish, small trout and sand trout.

We ran right through the middle of one very good school of reds on the way in just south of Sidney Island.  I won't know until tomorrow morning if they are still schooling up and feeding in the middle of the day.  The gas and a little tougher bite has greatly reduced the amount of boat traffic on the lake.  That in turn has translated to surfacing fish spending more time on the top making them easier to approach.

if you have some good spots on the ICC or ship channel I would give them a try.  I am still getting some great reports from local anglers that are fishing live shad and finger mullet on the bottom.  If we get a quick easy bite on the redfish tomorrow I may give it a try.

Rains have little effect thus far

The wind was more of a problem than the occasional thunderstorm across the weekend with the exception of Sunday afternoon.  If you stayed late Sunday evening you must have had a really slow morning or really didn't care about showing up for work Monday morning.  That was some serious rain and lightning!

  The problem with the wind is that it makes it difficult to spot schools of shad in the whitecaps.  It is equally hard to even see the ladyfish striking on the surface and they have put us on more fish than the gulls of late.  Even with less than favorable conditions and a heck of a lot of rain we have still been able to find fish on the north end.  I think the mistake most folks are making right now is turning their back on the shallows much too early in the day.

You had to pick your spots throughout the weekend with the exception of Saturday, but the redfish still cooperated.  An Assassin fished under a Mauler or a larger topwater like the He Dog or Spook were excellent choices once the wind chopped up the lake.  When you could find calmer water, any of the five inch soft plastics fished on a 3/8ths ounce head also produced well.  The secret was getting below the ladyfish quickly.

There were also several very good catches taken on live shad in the Intracoastal south of the mouth of the Neches.  The trout were holding between 12 and 15 feet deep and most of the folks that found them limited out.  The folks I talked with caught their trout before noon.  Most of the trout were in the 17 to 19 inch range.

I don't know how much more rain we are supposed to get at this point, but the majority of it has been soaked up thus far.  The lake was just starting to muddy up a little in the passes late this afternoon.  Even if we do lose a great deal of  water clarity I wouldn't be too quick to bail out on the North end.  A stiff wind will hurt you right now far more than runoff from the rain!

Good, good....good!

We finally managed to put two good days together.  As a matter of fact, today was better than good.  We caught some decent trout early south of Johnson's, but the bite ended very quickly.  We ran back up on the north end and found an armada of boats fishing around the separator at the mouth of the Neches, but small trout and ladyfish were all that we saw caught.

We ran back to the La. shoreline, put the troll motor down at 9:30 and picked it up only one time over the next three hours.  We never saw a redfish break the surface, but we followed schools of shad traveling north down the shoreline and never lost the school of redfish the entire time.

Jim Brueggemen and his son, Taylor, got their money's worth out of each red.  They caught them up to 27 inches on seven foot spinning rods and six pound test.  There were also some very solid trout mixed in as well.  Yesterday we did well with top waters, but today they wanted a longer soft plastic like the Assassin or Split Tail and they wanted it in glow-chartreuse or bone diamond.

We had an opportunity to experiment with a world of colors and sizes, but there was no doubt which color they wanted the most and we never caught the first red on the shorter tails.  The only thing that we did a little differently today was change from a quarter ounce head to a three-eighths ounce head.  Had the reds ever shown themselves we would have switched back, but they wanted it on the bottom.

The Brueggeman's released every fish they caught with the exception of two that we couldn't revive and they went to great lengths to revive the larger fish.  The only negative aspect of fishing light line is that you really stress them before ever getting them to the net.  You know its going on when you take time to resuscitate a fish with others blowing up all around you.  I dropped a jig on the floor three times trying to tie a knot and look at blow ups at the same time!

I know there were some good reds caught in the open lake today as well, but I would advise spending a little more time fishing the shallows regardless of the heat or time of day.  The fish are finally starting to work on all of those shad so just find an area with a lot of bait and hang around until the fish decide to eat.  With gas now at $2.50 a gallon it is a blessing not to have to run all over the lake.

The water is still very clear and we have done much better on the outgoing tide.

Redfish continue to save the day

We had fantastic conditions today, but could not get anything going on the trout.  We found some small fish early on the La. shoreline before cruising much of the lake just looking and checking out slicks for the next three hours. 

Around eleven the shad schooled up behind the islands and the redfish were right behind them.  We caught fish up to 26 inches until we were forced to quit around one o'clock so that my clients could get back and make the Astro game.  The fish were in less than two feet of water and wanted something on top.

I returned a couple of hours later just to see if the fish were still there, but got short-stopped by several schools of redfish blowing up on the surface on the flats north of the Intracoastal.  I don't know how many fish I caught before running out to check the lake once more, but it was a bunch.  I caught only two fish that weren't in the slot.

Most of the fish hit a bone She Dog, but I did catch a few on a gold Johnson spoon with a four inch limetreuse trailer.  The wind came up a little in the afternoon, but the gulls were still working over schools of ladyfish and small trout.

While checking out what turned out to be more small trout, I watched two fishermen catch several very solid flounder on shrimp tipped grubs in East Pass.  It may be time to take the flounder bite serious again.  I just cannot put together a consistent pattern on keeper trout, but we'll keep trying.

Don't forget that your Texas fishing license is just about history again!

Short frustrating day

You know its been a long day when you don't file a report until 11:30 at night.  We had a tough morning in that we couldn't find any solid trout.  The redfish were still doing their thing on the flat north of Stewts, but the trout in that area were small.  Out of probably twenty or so fish we caught only three keepers.

We found two more small schools of reds working the shoreline just south of Bridge Bayou prior  to  troll motor problems.  If you aren't wading, I don't know how you fish without a troll motor.  After drifting through more fish than we caught, we called it off and I hustled to get it repaired before tomorrow.

At least for me, with the exception of redfish, the inconsistency has been the most consistent aspect of my fishing lately.  Two good days in a row has been a long run.  For that reason, I am scared to death to call clients and tell them to get over here.  The best news over the past few days has been that when it is good it is very good.

  Don't let all of this scare you.  I think the most frustrating thing about Sabine right now is that you have to be in the right place at the right time and that doesn't happen every day. If you get a chance to get on Sabine don't pass it up.  We are finally starting to see a few big trout, fish up to six pounds, and that is a good sign.  Our best bite is still on the north end of the lake.