Colburn's Sabine Connection

Sabine will test your skills right now.

I just got in from the Sabine-Neches CCA Crawfish Boil and they had a good turnout.  Once again, I met a lot of nice folks that read this report on a regular basis and I also had a chance to talk with a number of local fishermen that have been doing as poorly as I have on Sabine recently.  I had to pass on a trip back to Calcasieu with Johnny yesterday morning and wound up fishing Sabine a little while in the afternoon.  I don't know how he did, but I could have stayed home!

The water still looks very bad, even on the south end, and I had trouble even catching redfish.  We had been catching plenty of reds and a few flounder, but I struggled to catch a handful of reds with a swim bait.  They either weren't there or just wouldn't hit a spinnerbait or plastics.  I didn't really grind it out, but I did check out some spots that had been productive.

It looks like tomorrow may be our best shot for the remainder of the week with some serious winds predicted for the next several days.  The absence of a trout bite just does not add up with the water in the mid 60's.  There is enough bait available and while the lake is sur-nuff dirty, I have caught trout in water that looked worse.

I have to continue to fish Big lake as it offers the best shot for my clients, but someone will figure these fish out.  I would not be at all surprised if the largest concentrations of trout are riding it out in the ship channel and the Intracoastal.  I cannot charge clients to help me hunt fish, but if I get an opportunity to scout, that is where I will start.  The deeper water is not dirty all the way to the bottom and all those fish need is a little band of salty water to suspend in between meals! 

Good day on Big Lake!

Man, it feels good to be able to sit down and report something good.  Jim Franklin hosted a big group of folks on Calcasieu Monday and we really had a good day in spite of a hard south wind that was sucking in today's front.  The lake was as muddy as I have seen it this year, but we just kept moving south until we finally found a little clearer water.

A quick group picture and it was back to catching!

Dwayne Lowrey and I split the group and ran several spots that had been productive, but struggled until about mid-morning.  Dwayne waited out a small stretch of water that had been holding fish the day before and when the trout finally turned on they did it in a big way.  The trout were eating topwaters in about four feet of water and they were taking it down like they knew a front was on the way.

I think the largest trout caught was in the seven pound class. Jim also released another six pound-plus fish and a lot of the fish were in the 3-4 pound class.   We eventually stopped long enough to shoot some pictures, drink a coke, and off-load some of that coffee that requires a move to a little higher ground when you have to shed waders!

Paul White finally got a grip on Wes McGuffin's big red!

The only problem with the bite was that no one in the party was 6'10" and you had to take water over your waders in order to reach the fish.  You had to suffer through that initial jolt of cold water running all the way down to your socks, but it was bearable as long as the fish bit.  Wes McGuffin and Paul White emptied their waders in my boat before we ran back and I thought we were going to have to turn on the bilge pump.

Wes had a 32-inch red demolish a bone Spook and had to tread water and reel at the same time until Paul could wade over and help him out.  We all thought it might be a trophy trout until they finally got it under control.  I think that extended tug-of-war put the final five gallons of water in his waders!

Dwayne releases another nice trout.

The water temperature was 63 degrees pretty much everywhere we fished.  I was very surprised that the water had dirtied up that much since Saturday.  The big south wind didn't help matters and Jim canceled today rather than fight a steady 25 mph north wind.

Fish or no fish, it is always fun fishing with both Jim and Dwayne and Monday was no exception.  Dwayne and I took advantage of an opportunity to sit and watch the others fish and talk about everything from boats to techniques that work on trout from Big Lake to Baffin.  He just put his Majek Extreme on the market and it is in very good condition.  Jim may have his up for sell as well.  Dwayne is running a Mercury and Jim has an E-tec on the back of his.

Sabine is still in very bad shape so we will continue to make that trip across the river until things improve.  I hope that I am on Sabine the first day the trout turn on because they have to be hungry and they haven't seen many lures lately.      

Karen found the missing reports!

I fished with Mike Cooley and Dave Flanagan Saturday and had Mike not said something, I would never have noticed that a lot of recent posts didn't get published.  That doesn't help anyone now, but I will try to keep a better eye on it.  Mike said that he couldn't figure out if I had died or if I had a great bite going and didn't want to tell anyone.  Its the bad reports I hate to type up!

We have been fishing Big Lake since the last round of flooding here on Sabine.  The water clarity was about as bad as I had seen it on the east side of the lake Saturday, but there were still some trout to be caught.  The problem was that the size was not there.  We moved to the west side of the lake around noon, found a little better water conditions and did better on both the trout and the redfish.  Our largest trout was only three pounds.

The water temperature climbed to 64 degrees by the time we quit.  We drift fished all day, but the waders did a little better just staying in one spot and grinding it out.  I talked with Adam Jaynes this afternoon and he said that he caught four or five nice trout on topwaters early this morning and small redfish the remainder of the day.

We will be back on Big Lake tomorrow and Tuesday and fish Sabine the following two days.  I thought taking the time to type these reports at night was the hard part....I hate computers.  Thank God my wife knows how to make them work!

It may never quit raining!

I have had enough rain.  We tried to get out twice today and never put the boat in the water.  As it turned out, I am glad that the worst of the storms hit on the way to the marina.  I don't recall ever rescheduling this many trips, but its just too hard for folks to get their money's worth right now!

We did bite the bullet and fished Big Lake yesterday in a much stiffer wind than predicted.  We even got to see the sun for about ten minutes and it was enjoyable.  I scouted with Gene Locke and Brad Deslatte and we spent the majority of the day hiding out on the flats west of the ship channel.

The fish never really turned on for us, but we missed enough and caught enough to warrant paying attention.  We finished with nine trout( no big fish), a flounder, and a redfish.  We caught a couple of solid keepers on Catch 2000s and Crazy Croakers, but most of the other fish that we kept ate red shad Assassins.  I don't know that we ever caught a fish deeper than three feet.

The best looking water we found was on the east side of the lake.  The surface temperature was in the low sixties everywhere we fished.  I talked with Johnny this morning and he had a slow day as well, but did catch a trout over six and another that he guestimated to be over 8 pounds.  We have been fishing together a long time and he errs on the conservative side so I am sure it was at least that!

We just got a ton of rain today and the woods north of town are flooded, but there has still been a pretty good redfish bite on Sabine when you can get out.  Spinnerbaits, gold spoons, and Assassins have been the hottest lures fishing 3-5 feet along the La. shoreline. The water is badly off-colored, but it hasn't bothered the reds, yet.

Muddy and slow today!

We made a short run on Sabine today after watching the wind blow all morning.  I thought it had died down, but it was still blew pretty good all evening as well.  The water clarity was really bad all the way from Middle Pass to Madam Johnson's.

We finally tied on a spinnerbait and never took it off again.  We caught two redfish in the slot, several smaller fish and two little flounder before calling it a day.  Most of the fish we caught were less than ten feet off the bank. I  am not sure what it is going to take to get the trout going, but they have been scarce for us the past couple of weeks.  They are catching more trout in Bessie Heights and Keith lake than we are in the lake.

Let's stay dry and do the Boat Show!

We were going to fish half a day after a client had to cancel late due to being under the weather, but it didn't work out.  Before we could get to the lake, we pulled in a young couple that had been paddling their 14 foot aluminum boat with an umbrella most of the morning.  They weren't too far from  their launch site, but they weren't making much headway and the wind was not helping them at all.

We ran back out and fished Black's just to say we fished.  The water wasn't just terrible, but it wasn't clear for the bayou.  We could do without more rain. We caught 9 or 10 small redfish, a flounder that would have kept, and two pretty good stripers on pumpkin-green Sea Shads.  We didn't even look at the lake.

I'll be over in Beaumont tomorrow and Sunday at the Texas Marine in-house Boat Show.  I'll do a seminar Saturday morning and another Sunday afternoon.  I am going to share some things that I have done a little differently this year that have really worked well.  It beats fighting the rain unless you are volunteering your time with the crab trap roundup.....hope to see you there!   

Let's stay dry and do the Boat Show!

We were going to fish half a day after a client had to cancel late due to being under the weather, but it didn't work out.  Before we could get to the lake, we pulled in a young couple that had been paddling their 14 foot aluminum boat with an umbrella most of the morning.  They weren't too far from  their launch site, but they weren't making much headway and the wind was not helping them at all.

We ran back out and fished Black's just to say we fished.  The water wasn't just terrible, but it wasn't clear for the bayou.  We could do without more rain. We caught 9 or 10 small redfish, a flounder that would have kept, and two pretty good stripers on pumpkin-green Sea Shads.  We didn't even look at the lake.

I'll be over in Beaumont tomorrow and Sunday at the Texas Marine in-house Boat Show.  I'll do a seminar Saturday morning and another Sunday afternoon.  I am going to share some things that I have done a little differently this year that have really worked well.  It beats fighting the rain unless you are volunteering your time with the crab trap roundup.....hope to see you there!   

That was a fast moving front!

I appreciate all of the concerned e-mails, but "yes" I am well and I have been on the water most every day.  We enjoyed 3 3/4 consecutive days of super weather with surface temperatures up to 66 degrees and caught not only a lot of fish, but some big trout as well.  Because this is all old news at this point, I will just hit the highlights.

I was waiting to post my report in an effort to hang on to a good stretch of shoreline for some clients on Tuesday that specifically wanted a shot at a big trout, but they canceled the night before with the front due in the next day.  It never fails, the front got here late.

I spent Saturday on Sabine with my Grandson and was very surprised at the water clarity on the east shoreline.  We caught redfish on plastics and spinnerbaits until he just wore out and announced that it was time for him to drive the boat! There was  an incredible amount of bait on the flats and I would have loved to waited out the trout, but I learned my lesson with my kids.  I kept them the water when they were his age until they thought I was punishing them for something and I am sorry for that.

There was no place I would have rather been yesterday than standing waist deep in the water chunking Corkies on Big Lake until about 2:30.  At that time, the spectacular conditions were dramatically erased by a blue norther that raced across Hwy. 82 a little faster than anticipated and we were dodging falling chunks of ice before we made it back.

Prior to the arrival of the front, the water was in great shape and 66 degrees.  That was pretty much the case on both lakes since last Friday.  Both lakes continued to clear and warm and the fishing got better each day.  Very seldom do we get any break in the wind, so I am going to consider that a given each morning and hope for the best.

The redfsih bite on Sabine, as well as the flounder  bite, has just been unreal, but trout have been hard to come by for us.  That could change over night.  It was pretty much a choice of which fish to target on Big Lake prior to the arrival of the front.  We were catching good numbers on red shad Assassins and Crazy Croakers, but our larger trout ate Corky Fat Boys and Super Spooks.

We did have a 29-inch trout that was very thick across the back and a fish just under 28 inches that was on the poor side.  We caught them wading and released both fish without weighing either of them.  It looks like we are going to have two pretty good weather days before it starts raining again this weekend.  I don't think we gave up much surface temperature to Tuesday's blow, but I'll know more tomorrow.

I   

There is no water too muddy!

We have finally gotten a break in the weather and I wanted to get this in before we hit the water this evening.  Hopefully it will help you with your weekend plans.  Its still a gamble due to water clarity, but I believe it is a good gamble with lighter winds and warmer weather.

I thought we were going to get a good wind day yesterday, but I was mistaken.  We fished Calcasieu and it was cold, but the east wind was not a factor early that morning.  By noon, it had swung around to the southwest and it was ripping!  I cannot recall ever seeing Big Lake that dirty nor seeing so few boats on the lake this time of the year.  There was less than two inches of visibility...had it been any dirtier our lures wouldn't have sunk.

The good news is that I now know for a fact that both trout and reds will bite in the dirtiest water you will ever fish.  I have eliminated one more negative variable. We had one fish in the boat that committed suicide early that morning before I switched to a red shad Corky Devil after lunch.  The fish somehow found it and would hit it, but I missed more fish than I caught on the first several drifts.

We were drifting a flat in 1 1/2 to 2 feet of water with 2 foot waves.  The water temperature was 58 degrees.  After two long drifts we had a limit of reds in the boat, but we were still missing a lot of fish.  We both tied on red shad and red flash Assassins rigged on one-eighth ounce heads and the catching was on until we just finally quit.

We caught and released a pile of redfish with the red shad, but the trout wanted the red flash.  We lost the largest trout of the day, a 6-7 pound fish , at the boat, but we were going to release her anyway.  We were cutting up and playing around with the Stake-out stik and she just came unbuttoned.  We kept two limits of trout and a couple of smaller specks to eat, but never had a chance to go back and check the areas where we have been doing the best.

We fished them too quickly the first thing in the morning and convinced ourselves the water was too muddy!?

Cormier fished Sabine and called late to say that the wind pinned him down in an area he did not want to fish and he didn't catch much.  He said the water was still dirty both in the lake and in the marsh.  I know we had back to back days of horrendous winds, but I was still very much surprised at the poor water clarity on Calcasieu.  With no more rain and decent winds, it should clear up quickly.

Unexpectedly good day on Big Lake!

"We don't care how bad the weather may or may not be, its now or much later!"  That was Wayne Walker's reply after I suggested that we re-schedule again following the mid-week down pours.  I had already rescheduled two groups, but Wayne was going to be tied up with business obligations over the next five or six weeks and it was yesterday or not at all.

Wayne, his dad, Jerry, and Darin Freshour met me at a convenience center on I-10 and we made a last minute decision to fish Calcasieu rather than Sabine due to all of the runoff. The wind did pick up in the afternoon as predicted, but we found a little patch of semi-clear water and had an unexpectedly good day.  By noon we had five nice trout in the box, had missed a few more strikes, and watched a group of wade fishermen just wear the trout out.

We left and fished two other spots that were just too muddy before returning to the clearer stretch of water after lunch.  When we called it quits, we had two limits of trout in the 17 to 22 inch class, but caught none of the big fish that we had been catching the week before.  The surface temp in the morning was 49 degrees and we caught all five fish crawling Corkies over the shell.

In the afternoon it warmed up a few degrees and we caught most of our fish on Crazy Croakers fished a little faster.  We caught all of our fish in less than three feet of water.  The water was about as off-colored as it gets in both the main lake and West Cove.  Big Lake doesn't need any more rain for the short term either!