Colburn's Sabine Connection

Rain hasn't hurt things yet

Following yesterday's deluge, we were a little surprised to find much ofthe lake still in great shape this morning.  The west side of the lake from the north tip of Pleasure Island on south was a little milky, but the rest of the lake was in good shape, including the Causeway reefs.  In fact, the reef may have had the prettiest water of all!

We found two huge schools of trout up to three pounds killing every shrimp in sight about seven o'clock.  They were feeding on a mud flat well off the shoreline in 3 to 5 feet of water and they fed on top for much longer than we deserved.  We found one bird working over them and he left as soon as we got into casting range, but it didn't matter as we saw only one other boat all day long.

With about a foot and a half visibility we switched to morning glory -chartreuse Assassins and the fish ate them much better than any of the lighter colors.  When they would go down, we slowed down and fished the bottom with good results.  Even when they were on top, the larger fish were hanging a little deeper.  At one time we had shrimp, needle gar, and ribbon fish trying to get out of the water.

We also caught and released one oversized red that was sharing the buffet.  Eventually, the wind came up, the fish stayed down and I lost my mind.  Rather than hang in there and take advantage of a bite that had only slowed down, I opted to see if an easier bite existed on the reef.  By the time we got there the wind was howling out of the northeast and we caught nada.  There was a lot of bait in 12-15 feet of water and the water looked good, but we could not get it going.

We eventually skirted the entire lake looking at the water through the whitecaps and wound up back in the river.  We caught several small trout and one good keeper fishing the mouth of the bayous with a silver phantom-chartreuse Sea Shad. An eight pound trout ate the wrong shad in that same area this past weekend and they will eat tails in the river.

We got more rain this evening so we will just have to play it by ear as far as water clarity, etc.  I think we will be ok if the wind will give us a break!

Best flounder in a while

I don't know how folks stuck it out in the wind today, but we retreated to the marsh and had a great morning on small redfish and flounder.  Rod and Dianne Stewart had never fished flounder with light action spinning tackle and tube jigs, but they will do it again in the near future.  We have been very lucky of late with last minute trips.

They had a brand new boat that they just had to run that will serve them well on the lower coast.  It was not, however, the ideal boat for working the bayous and marsh on a troll motor.  The troll motor was on the back and the wind made it very difficult to keep the boat parallel to the shoreline.  I think we ran over more fish than we caught.  The fish were not right on the bank.  They were holding on 3-5 foot breaks and we would catch two or three fish in a spot before moving.

We probably caught ten redfish, but only two were in the slot.  Our keeper to throwback ratio was even worse on the flounder, but we managed to box 13 keepers up to 4.6 pounds!

We didn't keep a flounder under 16 inches and it has been a while since I was in that kind of flatfish in the bayous.  The majority of the keepers hit a root beer-black flake tube fished on a one-eighth ounce head.  Their stomachs were packed full of tiny shad and small crabs about an inch in diameter.  We didn't take along any shrimp to tip with because we had no intention of fishing flounder, but we sprayed the tubes good with Bang garlic scent and it worked. 

Fish attractants have worked too many times for me when the bite was tough not to think there is something to it and I long ago decided on garlic for everything.  I don't know if you are simply masking an odor the fish don't like or they just crave garlic, but I have never had anyone do any better with another scent while fishing with me.  I have seen them all work when drifting the reefs on the south end of the lake from shrimp to WD40, but garlic still held its own.

The wind had been giving us a break early all week, but it came up quickly today.  We made one swing through the north end before retreating to the backwater and saw two small flocks of birds that were covered up with boats.  We were done by noon, as the Stewart's were hosting a graduation party this afternoon.

You may need more patience at the launch this weekend than under the birds in the lake.  I was amazed at the lack of thought that went into the parking process.  There was no parking places at the first launch we checked out and I am sure there were some upset folks when they returned.  One truck and trailer was parked broadside behind no less than five other trailers.  If you fish tomorrow, have all your stuff ready when you back down the launch and think abour others when you park! 

I'll take hot over windy

While I will gladly take these conditions, there is a price to be paid for calm days this time of the year.  It is already hot!

The remainder of the week looks great from a wind stand point and the water clarity is improving daily across most of the lake.  As of noon today there were at least two very good trout bites taking place.  The gulls are holding much better when you find them before the herd arrives, especially on the south end of the lake.  Most of them are working over shrimp, but they are also working over huge schooks of shad during the midday hours.

Smaller topwaters like the little Skitterwalk, Chug Bug, and She Dog are producing much better catches of solid trout than the larger tops.  Chrome-chartreuse has been a great color combination of late.  Even the waders I talked with were scoring better with the smaller topwaters.  LSU or morning glory- chartreuse as well as pumpkin chartreuse, have been equally deadly on these same fish when rigged under a Mauler.

Once the birds break up, hang around and bump the same color tails off the bottom before moving on.  Some of the best fish are being caught well after the birds and other boats have left.  On several occasions, that approach has yielded some nice reds as well.  A quarter ounce head will work just fine as long as these fish are hanging just off the bottom.

The other bite that has really improved over the past couple of days is the shallow water bite very early and very late.  As shallow as these trout are, the Catch V, 2000, and Crazy Croaker, are out producing topwaters.  These fish are up in two feet of water or less and you can see the swirl when they turn on the bait.  We were catching our largest trout prior to last weekend's tournament on this pattern and it has only gotten stronger this week.

I talked with two groups of fishermen that had small schools of redfish come up on them just south of Blue Buck around noon today.  They had already done reasonably well on trout up to 19 inches drifting limetreuse or electric chicken soft plastics on the reef when they spotted terns working over the reds.  One of the schools spooled everyone in the boat, but Jason Keil's group limited on fish up to 26 inches and they released several more before the action slowed.

You are going to have to endure more gafftop attacks than you ever thought possible, but I wouldnt pass up any slicks right now.  Darryl Courey's first three slicks in the Coffee Ground area yielded nothing but gafftop.  The fourth slick gave up a four pound trout and the following slick produced the largest trout of his career, a 7 1/2 pound fish that ate a chrome-blue Pop R.  He promised us a picture in the next day or so!

Get it done early or late...midday tough

We had a much better day yesterday, only because we bit the bullet and elected to fight the crowd for each small flock of gulls.  We caught very solid trout early, but the size fell off later in the morning and we abandoned the rat race.  Timing can be everything, even working the gulls.  We ran across an area on our way to another spot at daylight and never saw a bird.  We circled back twenty minutes later due to the wind picking up and a good friend had already limited under one small flock in that same area!

By nine o'clock it was a zoo.  The wind had everyone running back and forth across the same stretch of water in a panic strut.  We eventually caught our largest trout drifting soft plastics under a Mauler in 2-3 feet of water.  Roach or pumpkin-chartreuse( both colors look much the same) have been very good for us, even when working the drift program.

We are making long boring drifts for only 1 or 2 fish per drift, but they are good ones and it has been the only game in town for me during the mid-day hours.  The action is akin to hanging around to watch paint dry, but it is tolerable considering both the alternative and the results.  While the bites are few and far between, we haven't caught a trout under three pounds yet! 

The south end of the lake and La. shoreline were all but unfishable under a howling northwest wind and the water still looked terrible.  All of that could change in a day's time if the wind would back off a little.  This weekend's tournament will be a challenge for anglers if that doesn't happen.  Keith Lake will look like the mall on Saturday afternoon.

The winning trout will probably be caught very early as the easy bite doesn't pick up again until late afternoon.  The most consistent bite on the largest fish hasn't started until 3 or 4 o'clock and that won't do them much good.  The good news is that a large percentage of our trout are full of eggs and a 25 or 26 inch fish could win it all.  Three years ago, Brian Sandow won this same event with a 26 inch trout that weighed 8 pounds!

North wind has shut us down

This little front and a north wind that will not let up has really slowed things down for us the past two days.  Monday we fished several flocks of gulls up until eleven o'clock and kept a dozen pretty good trout.  We had a shot at a couple of redfish as well, but once the wind got up too high, it was over.

The water on the Louisiana shoreline and the south end of the lake looks terrible.  You could track coons on the reef on the south end!  It started clearing up at about mid-lake.  I think the wind blew even harder today and what birds we found would not hold at all.  Even more of a concern was the fact that for the first time in a while we caught nothing but small trout under them. 

We had been making a living locating a school of trout and sticking with them long after the birds left.  An occasional shrimp would skip across the surface and you could easily stay with the school.  With a north wind ripping across the open lake there isn't much chance of seeing any shrimp jumping through the white caps.

The best news the past two days of fishing produced for me was that we turned over three "sure-nuff"big trout in less than three feet of water.  It isn't like we really had them figured out as one hit a Skitterwalk, one hit a Crazy Croaker, and the largest of the three hit a bone diamond Assassin rigged on a 1/16th ounce head.  If this north wind persists, however, I am afraid the two areas we found these fish in will be too dirty to fish for a while!

Chuck Uzzle and I were working the birds with clients right in the middle of the lake last week and they caught a fish almost seven pounds on soft plastic.  If they get a break with the wind, we may see some big trout at the Texas Marine Big Trout tournament this weekend.  If you haven't already signed up give Bret or Darren a call at the store and throw your hat in the ring.  It pays well forsuch a nominal entry fee.  You can win money every hour and the grand prize is a boat, motor, and trailer.

U-N-R-E-A-L !

After Thursday's debacle in a blistering north wind, I was starting to feel like one of those search dogs that never finds anyone alive.  I don't know that I ever wanted any party to catch fish more than I did Calvin Russell and his daughter, Loren.  We got blown off the lake and I just couldn't make anything else happen.

One day later, we wake up to a lake that is dead calm. The first time we shut down the big engine this morning, we were surrounded by fish.  We started catching trout fifteen minutes after we hit the lake and it never stopped.  We worked birds some, but for the most part we just hung in one area and waited until the next shrimp died a violent death on the surface.  We caught a few nice trout under a Mauler, but most of our trout came on glow chartreuse or bone diamond Sea Shad.

Chuck was working a group with us and he limited before most folks were even up.  We were throwing everything back by noon and there is no telling how many fish we actually caught.  I had a party of four from Sherwin-Williams and it was very rare when at least two of them didn't have fish on at the same time.

To top things off, we made a big slow round about 2:30 and found two schools of redfish.  We broke off more than we caught, but Shannon Ratcliff and Thomas Crenshaw both landed the biggest reds they had ever caught.  Shannon took pictures and released his fish.  His red was a little over 29 inches and a hair under ten pounds.  Thomas' fish was just under the top end of the slot.  We kept one other slot red for the grill.

Every red we caught hit a glow-chartreuse Tidal Surge Split Tail.  Both schools were mixed in with some of the largest sand trout I have seen in years.  Here's hoping Saturday is as good as the past three Sundays have been.

Forget the forecast....fish on Sunday!

I believe I get more e-mails when I don't fish than when I do.  We have been putting together short runs, not on purpose, the past two days and have caught fish in spite of the wind.  We found some very solid trout on the reef Monday fishing 10 inch worms over the shell in 12 to 15 feet of water.  The largest fish may have weighed four pounds, but the majority of them were in the 18 to 10 inch range. 

I had gotten 2 good reports from that area over the weekend, but we never saw the first shrimp jump and probably left before the birds started hunting.  The water wasn't as pretty as I had been told, but it was in much better shape than a week ago.

We were actually hiding from the wind when the fish started biting.  It's been a long time since I fished a 10 inch worm on the reef!  We tried to do the same thing this evening, but really got pinned down with a blistering south wind.  The birds worked a little bit late, but most of our fish hit candy corn or limetreuse Sea Shad in 7 to 12 feet of water.  There may have been a better bite going on in a little deeper water, but everytime we got too far off the shoreline we drifted much too fast.

The best game plan has been to plan a trip on Sundays.  We lose Saturday to gale force winds and rain and everyone with a pole catches fish the next day.  That has happened three weeks in a row and I don't fish Sundays.  The bite has been mostly mid-lake on back north when the wind is calm and lots of folks are chasing birds.

If the same thing happens this weekend, stay away from the birds and look for a few shrimp skipping across the surface.  There has been at least one boat for every bird.  Its hard for other folks to see shrimp skipping.... even with binoculars, but they can darn sure see those birds around your boat!

 

 

Wind continues to change our game plan

Yesterday, Brad Deslatte and I were going to spend the day running the lake in his Flats Cat.  The wind blew all day long and we wound up in the marsh catching redfish on spinnerbaits and small crankbaits.  I have never done much crankbaiting for reds, but I will do more in the future after watching Brad.  They ate the spinnerbait well also, but I knew they would eat a spinnerbait.

I would never even have considered throwing a crankbait in water that shallow, but it works.  He fished it right beside my spinnerbait and it was simply a matter of which lure got there first. We were just checking different spots and still caught eight reds, two flounder, and a drum before letting it rest.

Today we decided to fish the marsh again, but wound up in the lake!  You never know, but you better not pass on any opportunity to get out in the lake with the uncertainty of the wind.  We waited on most of the rain to pass, fished about three hours late this afternoon in perfect conditions, and gave it up when the wind started picking up again.

The water was very sandy on the north end, but fishable.  The terns worked harder than the gulls, but they were all working over schooling fish.  We went through several groups of birds before we found solid trout.  We never saw a lot of shrimp activity, but that is what they were feeding on.  The last two groups of birds we worked were holding over trout up to 3 1/2 pounds.  Most of them were in the 17 to 19 inch class.

We caught most of our fish on a black-chartreuse She Dog and morning glory-chartreuse Assassins.  The late afternoon bite has apparently been pretty strong as we passed several boats going out as we were heading home.  We tied a gatorade bottle on another bad floater about 500 yards south of the rig in front of Stewt's.  It was too heavy to tow so we will try to mark it better next time out.

Missed on the wind today!

Gene Locke and I had the lake pretty much to ourselves if we wanted it yesterday, but a wind that wasn't supposed to blow ended all of that early.  We found a few birds hovering over the whitecaps in the mid-lake area, but the trout under them were small.

The La. shoreline was protected and the water looked very good, but we couldn't get anything going early.  The fish may have worked in that area later in the day, but we never returned.  We are a little more conservative with our scouting trips as the price of gas continues to climb.  The water south of the Dredge Hole all the way down to the Causeway reefs was badly off-colored.  It started clearing up just north of Logan's Park area.

The day was hardly a waste of gas, however, as we moved back into the river and took advantage of a hard incoming tide that lasted all day long.  We fished a fifty yard stretch of one bayou and caught trout and a couple of small flounder for three hours.  There were a lot of small trout, but we had no problem keeping ten trout up to up to 19 inches for supper.  I can't remember the last time I got to bring fish home, but that is the nature of the business.

Most of our fish were in 6-8 feet of water.  We were simply throwing upcurrent and allowing the incoming tide to bounce our jigs across the bottom.  The best two colors were red shad and pumpkin chartreuse and a quarter ounce head proved to be just the right weight.  The water in the river and East Pass is in great condition and evidently very salty.  We haven't caught a bass while flounder fishing in Black's all spring and that is unusual.

I will once again try to take care of a week's worth of honey-do's today before getting back on the water tomorrow.  I carefully chose today because the wind is supposed to howl.  That means the lake will be as flat as a table so I hope you picked today to fish!