Colburn's Sabine Connection

Hopefully south end of Sabine and jetties will survive latest round of flooding

Sorry that I didn't get this out as quickly as promised, but we kept the Grandkids last night and they like the computer better than television.  It used to be stories and popcorn, but at five and eight years old, they have out grown all that nonsense.

We no sooner put the troll motor in the water Friday morning on Calcasieu than the rain started and a southeast wind blew even harder than predicted.  It only got worse from that point on. After agreeing that it wasn't going to happen for us, we loaded up and drove back to Sabine in hopes that it wasn't raining as hard.

Three tough dudes with solid catch of trout

It was raining even harder and never stopped.  It always settles out much quicker, but the water in the main lake was silted up very badly on Calcasieu.  It rained us out again today and is stil raining, but the fishing will recover much quicker over there than on Sabine.

Back to Thursday.  Dr. Fred's buddies stole a little of his thunder Thursday morning.  Paul Shaw, Charles Glass, and Bill Graber fished the Sabine jetties with me on one of those days when it was all you could do just to stay in the boat.  A southeast gale kept us pinned to the rocks, but the trout were there. 

Paul stuck a five pound fish on the first cast on a morning glory Assassin and from that point on we caught or missed fish until the pounding got the best of the guide.  There was more "keeping your balance" than there was reeling anytime a fish was on the hook and it was a group effort to net it and get it in the ice box.

We caught a couple of trout in the channel as well, but they were deeper and more scattered.  On the gulf side we repeated several drifts along an 800 yard stretch and caught fish the entire length of the drift.  The water on the outside was much prettier.  My hat is off to all three of those guys as it was a rodeo, but they all made the eight count as well or better than I did!

I really don't think color mattered much as we were using everything from morning glory to bone diamond.  We stopped to fish at Willow on the way down the lake before the wind came up and the water pouring out of the bayou was finally starting to look really good.  There were shrimp everywhere and the rat reds and lady fish were all over them.

I feel certain that you can put that glimmer of improvement back on hold, however, with all of this rain! 

More tomorrow night

It is late and I will give you the details tomorrow night, but we had a really good morning on the Sabine jetties today.  We fought some serious wind, but it was well worth the misery.  I am headed back to Big Lake in the morning only because I am afraid the weather will be too bad to fish the jetties again.  The rain is bad enough, but that southeast wind is a killer.

Best bite south on Sabine....gulls working hard on Calcasieu

If I was in the Pony Express my horse would be dead by now.  Round trips from Adams Bayou to the jetties are long hauls.  I ran the marsh twice last weekend looking for redfish and caught way more bass than reds.  Then we ran to the south end of the lake and caught 14 very solid trout drifting the reef at the Causeway.

Monday we fished the reef again as well as the jetties.  We did poorly on the jetties, no surprise there, but I talked with some folks that said they did well.  I am not the guide you want to want to fish the jetties with.  I usually do only as well as the boat on either side of me and I feel like I ought to be somewhere else the whole time I am down there!

We then ran back to the reef and kept two flounder, a red, and 16 trout.  Tuesday we fished the river half the day and then ran all the way to the Causeway reef again.  We caught only a few trout, but we missed several nice fish in the short time we were down there.  We had been catching our fish in 13 to 17 feet of water, but they were much shallower Tuesday.  They also wanted Morning Glory Sea Shads more than any of the other colors we offered them.

The water at the Causeway is the clearest the lake has to offer right now on a good tide change.  The rest of the lake is extremely fresh and still badly off colored.  Judging by the current in the Sabine since they started generating even harder last week, it could be a while before things pick back up on the north end.  I had heard the water was still dirty at the jetties, but I thought it looked great when we were down there.

I had a party cancel this morning so Gene and I drove over to Calcasieu around noon.  It looks just like Sabine is supposed to look this time of the year and the gulls are working over shad and shrimp all over the lake.  I have no idea how many trout we caught, but we brought home 18 up to about three pounds.  We stayed with one flock of gulls an hour and fifteen minutes and I haven't done that in years.

We didn't run much of the lake, but the bite is apparently much better further south as most of the local guides were returning from that direction by the time we got on the water. The majority of the fish under the gulls we worked were 13-14 inch fish.  It was a treat just being able to see your lure 2-3 feet under the surface!

Don't let this report keep you off the Sabine jetties.  I think they are the place to be when you catch a favorable tide change and the wind isn't too bad.  The best box of fish I have seen in a month came off the jetties Monday.  They had trout up to five pounds and four Spanish.  They caught every fish on a chrome-blue back Top Dog,Jr. on the gulf side of the Texas jetties.

 

Slow bite, but a bite none the less

After canceling yet another party for fear that the weatherman would be right, I made a scouting trip with Gene Locke and Bob Crew Wednesday.  The weatherman missed again, but it was probably best we canceled anyway.  We drove around the lake and launched at Logan's Park on Pleasure Island.  I was shocked at how much water was standing on the island and the lake level was very close to the top of the rocks on the revetment wall early that morning.

By mid-afternoon, it had fallen some, but we have lots of water still coming down both the Sabine and Neches so things won't improve too quickly.  I don't know what the deal was, but there were so many dead shad around the launch that you had to hold your breath until you got out of the parking lot.  It was bad!

Because of a strong southeast wind, we were unable to fish either revetment wall.  The water had dirtied up even more, but it was fishable.  We spent the entire day drifting the reefs at the Causeway and Blue Buck Point.  The water clarity didn't improve much on either tide change, but we caught and missed enough trout to keep things interesting.

I think Gene finally kept 7 or 8 trout up to three pounds for a fish fry and we lost or released at least that many more.  That's not exactly non-stop action, but it was not a bad bite considering the conditions.  We caught our fish on five inch Assassins in pumpkin-chartreuse, morning glory, and red shad.  It took a drift sock and 3/8ths ounce head to keep the bait near the bottom.

There are still lots of floaters in the intracoastal and the ship channel so slow down and take your time.  There isn't a fish out there worth tearing up equipment are hurting yourself!

For those of you that had a trip scheduled that we postponed recently, believe me when I say that I hate to cancel them as much as you do.  We'll get them in when conditions improve, but I think its just too iffy to gamble a guide fee on right now.  I appreciate both your patience and confidence.

Slow down and watch out for floaters!

Considering the actual amount of fishing time we squeezed into five hours, we had a very decent day on Sabine.  The water continues to get fresher and more off-colored, but the trout are feeding when you can find them.  They have been on the move lately and I think it has more to do with the bait than the fresh water.

We abandoned the 8-10 foot breaks much earlier today and made our stand in 16-19 feet of water.  We didn't catch a trout over four pounds, but we kept 14 very solid fish.  We could have easily had 8-10 more fish as we missed a number of strikes as well as fish that we got to the surface, but that is just part of drifting deep water with soft plastics.  We could have just as easily boated fewer fish as several of them shook the hook in the net.

The trout were not right on the bottom which made it a little harder to keep the plastic in the strike zone.  They were suspended about four feet off the bottom and you had to keep your bait there to get a bite.  The best combination for us was a 1/16th ounce jig head and a five inch bone diamond Assassin.  We found the fish with limetreuse, but they wouldn't hit it nearly as well as the bone diamond.

When we finally ran for cover, we were drifting a quarter ounce head and using a drift sock.  I feel reasonably certain that we also pulled off a couple of nice flounder as well.  Joe Persohn called while we were out and said that the ship channel between the Causeway and the jetties was akin to a mine field for boaters.  He said there were countless floaters which included everything from deadfall to timbers.

We saw numerous floaters on the north end as well.  There were so many, in fact, that I quit running Adam's Bayou and the river before daylight.  We drug most of a large tree up on the bank north of East Pass late last week, but it was gone this morning.  A lot of this waterlogged debris is just below the surface so slow down and keep your eyes on the water!

Not an easy one, but there is still a bite

We had a better day yesterday than the day before, but it was still far from great.  I had two couples that had purchased a trip at the Galveston CCA banquet and all four were very competent fishermen.  We beat one small stretch of relatively clear water to death early on until a southwest wind blew us out.

We boated three trout and a keeper flounder on pumpkin chartreuse and limetreuse Assassins swimming them just off the bottom in nine feet of water.  We missed one very good trout right off the bat and got just enough strikes to keep us in the area, but it was still a grind at best.

After yielding to the wind, we drifted the same Assassins for a half an hour or so in 6-10 feet of water with no luck.  We then elected to make one final drift in 13 to 16 feet of water, immediately started marking lots of bait and fish, boxed three nice trout, and missed at least four more.  We called it a day without making another drift around noon, but it was encouraging to find trout in another area.

We rescheduled today's trip and my eight-year old grandson and I drove over to Pleasure Island just to watch folks fish and crab along the revetment walls.  What else would a guide do on a day off?  Even though the wind was blowing right in their face, we did see a few trout caught on finger mullet and shad fished under a popping cork.  We never saw any big fish landed, but they were keepers and at least there were a few fish in the area.

With Dam B now releasing even more fresh water and rain scheduled for the early part of the week, I don't look for the bite to get any easier.  The jetties are apparently not much of an alternative either as I talked with two groups of jetty regulars Friday that were back in the lake very early due to dirty water and no bite.

I also visited with Joe Persohn this week and he said this has been one of the toughest summers on the jetties he has had in many years.  You can take that assessment to the bank as that is not unlike having Noah tell you that you may want to buy a little flood insurance as soon as possible.  More often than not, he is already on his way back when most fishermen are just getting out, but even the early start hasn't helped thus far this summer.

His sons love fishing those chunks of granite as much as he does and he has been sharing his secrets with them since they were babies.   Rest assured that there will be a Persohn enjoying sunrises at the jetties for years to come!   

Watch out for water hyacinth and floaters on north end of the lake!

Ron Williams caught this nice trout in 9 ft. of water swimming an Assassin. 

We were more than a little surprised when we found ourselves having to dodge massive rafts of water hyacinth in the lake at daylight this morning.  There was a lot of floating debris in the intracoastal, but the hyacinth was all over the north end of the lake.  Both rivers, Black's Bayou, and most of the north end of the lake were much dirtier than the day before.

I don't know if that stuff is just getting here or what, but it was a major change overnight.  The fishing was tough, but Ron Williams did manage two swings at very nice trout.  The first fish was easily the largest and Ron had everything under control following two jumps and and a long run, but the fish just pulled off.  A few casts later he stuck a 5 1/2 pound fish that fought the entire battle on the surface.  He released her after snapping a few pictures.

We talked with another angler that had picked up five trout on topwaters, but we never got the first strike on a topwater or Catch 2000.  Both of Ron's trout hit a pumpkin Assassin that he was swimming on a 1/8th ounce head in 8-10 feet of water.  We finished up in the river catching only rat reds and a few ladyfish.  It was tough!

Water clarity and fishing better than expected

After the past two days on the water it looks as though we may still be in the hunt following all of this rain.  The north end of the lake is ugly, but the Sabine river is in pretty good shape and the bayous are not bad either.

We basically spent the past two days running the bayous and backwater looking for redfish, but did spend enough time in the lake this morning to find some very solid trout chasing shrimp on the south end.  The live bait bite has improved daily and the folks fishing mullet or shad on the bottom in deeper water are catching both trout and a few slot reds.

The south end of the lake looks especially good at the end of the out going tide.  The wind was tough to deal with in the afternoon both yesterday and today, but most of the lake has been very fishable in the mornings.  I saw two good mixed catches of reds and trout that were caught on finger mullet fished on Carolina rigs in 12-16 feet of water.  Both catches came off the Intracoastal between Stewts and the north end of Pleasure Island.

The only folks I talked with Sunday said that the water at the jetties looked much worse than the water in the lake.  We will be on the lake for the remainder of the week, weather permitting, and will hopefully find something solid to report for those forced to fight the crowds on the weekend.  Don't forget that your La. license has expired.  Fishing could get even more expensive if caught with an expired license in one of the La. bayous or game reserve!

Rain, rain, rain......rain*#!

The rain has just shut us down since Friday.  We tried to get out twice, made it out once for four hours, fished alone the following morning and postponed the rest of the week.  The one morning that we were able to get out we kept six trout and five flounder that we caught on finger mullet in Black's Bayou.

As expected, the water is looking a little worse each day and more rain is predicted for the remainder of the week.  We were going to do a half day trip this morning, but the rain started early so we drove back home and put the boat up.  I have been checking some of the marshes and backwater as you can run anywhere you want as a result of the flooding, but there is very little activity.  There are a lot of mullet in the trails, but the lakes have been dead.

I hope that it is drier at your house and that you enjoy the holiday with your family.  Gumbo is more in order here than barbeque and we will have to eat it under the patio cover to keep the crackers dry.  When was the last time you  watched a fireworks show in your Frogg Toggs?