Colburn's Sabine Connection

Mother Nature - 2....Dickie - 0

It is cool and looks like we may get even more rain today, but there was hell to pay to get rid of that horrendous south wind.  I just thought Thursday was tough with gusts up to 30 mph, but the water was still in pretty good shape and we managed to get bit a lot, even if most of the trout were small. 

We fished both live bait and plastics and caught fish pretty much everywhere we could fish.  We even found a few birds working over small trout in East Pass, but that didn't last long.  For the most part, I fought the wind with the troll motor while Wes and Ralph fished as best they could.

Wes caught and released this slot red in a semi-protected stretch of the bayou. 

This was a CCA trip that Ralph bought at the Beaumont banquet earlier in the year and they had no intentions of keeping any fish, but I would guess that we easily went through 50 fish over the course of the day.  I would also guess that only 7 or 8 of the trout and one slot red would have kept anyway.  We found one school of trout in the mouth of a bayou and they caught a fish virtually every cast until the tide slacked up a little.

 
No dock and no launch at daylight and the water was still rising! 

I thought the water was as high as it could get even with the big southeast wind and incoming tide until I arrived at the dock the following morning.  There was no launch visible, the docks were all under water and the wind was blowing just as hard as the day before.  While I would never have expected to find the water up in the parking lot, I did try to cancel the trip Thursday night, but they still wanted to give it a try.

We found one short stretch of fishable bank on the ICW under less than two foot waves and caught a handful of small trout on Swim Baits.  Other than that, it was absolutely impossible.  We tried to vertical jig a few deep holes on the river and I could not hold the boat in place long enough to get a lure to the bottom.

The only good thing that happened was that we got back to the landing maybe 15 minutes before the wind switched to the north and it started raining sideways.  Cow Bayou, Adams Bayou, and the river were dirtier than they have been in a while, but it won't take them long to clear up with this north wind.  A lot of water has to go elsewhere before the bite under the gulls that was getting so good picks back up, but there are still plenty of fish in the river and bayous.

Not surpisingly, while I spent the morning burning gas and impersonating a guide, a pair of Pt. Arthur anglers managed to outfish Mother Nature's ugly ways. Someone always does! 

I talked with them at Academy this morning and they said that they got off the water about an hour too late yesterday, but it was worth the soaking.  They were fishing one of the cuts leading into Bessie Heights off the Neches and they kept 2 limits of reds, 3 flounder and 13 trout.  They said the fish started biting around noon and they caught all of their fish on mud minnows. 

High water, high wind, and unseasonably hot!

I squeezed in a few hours today looking at some different water.  I wanted to fish the lake, but the wind was howling by the time I got out.  The water clarity was still pretty good in the river, but the water was HIGH and never released with the weak outgoing tide.

I lucked out running back into the river and stumbled up on several small schools of reds chasing finger mullet right up against the bank.  I very nearly ran right past them due to the whitecaps.  I probably caught and released 12 to 15 fish that were in the slot.  When they slowed down, I switched to a bone diamond Sea Shad and caught four very solid flounder in the same area.

I never fished any of the old haunts and spent way too much time fooling with those redfish, but if that ever fails to excite me I'll quit guiding that day.  I found trout on only one spot out of a number of stops and caught 6 fish up to 3 or 4 pounds bouncing a Hoginar off the bottom.  When they quit, I checked out one or two more spots, never got another strike, and ran back in to take care of business.

When the water is as high as it is right now and unseasonably warm to boot, the fish get very mobile and just don't stack up like they will after a few fronts.  It is supposed to blow like heck tomorrow so we probably won't fish the lake again.  We can still catch quality fish in these conditions, but I have to be lucky to find any numbers.  It still beats mowing the grass! 

A fishing trip long over due!

We managed to get our yards mowedFriday morning before it rained again and Johnny Breaux and I hit the river around noon.  We had just about as much fun as you can have in one afternoon.  We have only been next door neighbors for 30 years so we figured it was about time he came fishing with me!

 
Johnny Breaux with one of several nice trout taken off the river.

He had to fish a little tournament Saturday and I don't know how he did, but the fish are there to be caught.  I caught a 6 1/2 pound trout on the third cast with a Sea Shad in 17 feet of water on the river and the bite never really slowed down after that.  We hit several spots in case one may fail him the next day and the fish were everywhere we stopped.

 
And a big flounder to boot!

We caught one 4-pound trout in about 8 feet of water on a 10w-40 Assassin, but all of the rest of the fish were deep.  We left each spot right after catching a fish or two.  Johnny caught his first big ol' flounder on a tail right before we quit so he was in good shape for the next day.  I got in late this evening and haven't gotten a report, but I know they fished in the rain this morning.  I am going to walk over there right now and see how he did!

I don't know how much more rain we can stand before it starts affecting the bite, but it is good right now and the water has not muddied up much.  We fished an outgoing tide all evening. 

It just gets better with each front!

We gave it a brief shot yesterday, but the wind just blew out everything we had fished the day before.  I think it was partially due to the wind, but we gave up a little water clarity in both the lake and the river and that may well be some runoff finally catching up with us.

We woke up to cooler weather than I expected Wednesday morning, but it was a beautiful day following the modest front and rain the night before.  Scot Moore and Jeff Callens drove down from Bullard and we were on the lake at daylight. Rather than settle for the bird in hand, I elected to run to the south end in spite of a stiffer than expected east northeast wind.

I had gotten several good reports over the past week, but just could not make myself abandon a sure thing closer to home.  The birds never worked hard, but there were at least a few birds working the entire time we were there.  The wind made it really tough to set up on them and we undoubtedly fished through them much too fast.

Scot with a solid trout off the river

We caught a few keeper trout and enjoyed one good school of slot reds, but other than that we caught mostly small trout.  We stuck with soft plastics and the size of the jig head didn't seem to make much difference.  Color didn't make a lot of difference either as we caught them on everything from glow-chartreuse to Morning Glory.

We pulled out at noon even though I knew it had been an evening bite and made a pass through two of the bayous and the river.  Not surprisingly, we caught our best trout of the day and finished the evening tripling on schooling redfish that had the shrimp pinned up against the bank.

 
Jeff and Scot closed out the day with a pair of slot reds.

We got a big rain last night, but I had another test postponed so I am going fishing anyway.  I'll let you know how it goes tonight or tomorrow morning depending on how late I fish!     

You can't blame the weather!

I have had a lot going on that I never intended to have going on lately, but Iam trying to fish my way through it.  The weather certainly hasn't been a deterrent, as we have been able to fish any where we wanted to for the past week.

I fished with some special folks from Rogers Ark., Robert and Mary Haynes and Robert's Dad, last Friday and we caught some very solid flounder in the bayous.  We left the lake pretty early after waiting out a little more wind than we wanted to fish and caught the flounder, as well as a few trout and reds on Texas Roach Sea Shads and live shad.  We had a very weak outgoing tide, but it was enough to keep the fish moving most of the morning.

The following day, the flounder were still doing their thing as were a few slot reds, but the trout had disappeared.  The tide was even weaker, but the water still looked good.  Every fish hit either a black back Spoiler Shad,glow-chartreuse Sea Shad or soft mullet fished on a 1/8th ounce head.  The fish were also holding on the deeper breaks rather than around the mouths of the shallower cuts.

I am wasting a great weather day today, but you do what you have to do.  Hopefully, I will be back on the water for the next three days! 

Mosquitoes still bite in the rain!

I was determined to make a scouting run yesterday come hell or high water and it came both.  The hell came in the form of more mosquitoes than I have encountered all year long.  It never just poured, but it rained non-stop the entire time we were on the water.  I don't know how much more runoff or rain we will get today, but the water clarity was still good.

For the first time in a while, we could have fished birds the entire time and there were a few good fish under the gulls we did work.  There were a lot more gulls on the south end than up north.  We caught 3 or 4 very nice trout on MirrOdine Xl's fishing over shell west of Blue Buck and left them to chase schooling redfish eating anything that you could get in front of them.

We also caught a few solid trout on bone She Dogs working the shoreline between Green's and Garrison's Ridge. Most of those fish were holding a short cast off the shoreline.  I don't know if we missed something or not, but most of the boats we saw on the way back in (3 boats) were congregated on the barrel channel between Stewt's and Sidney and there were no birds working at that time.  They may have been chasing shooling reds in the rain.

After the first hour, I could get no wetter and had seen what I wanted to see.  Strictly out of laziness, I fished the remainder of the trip with  5-inch paddle tail Assassins rigged on a Mustad power lock plus hook that I found in my rain jacket pocket.  That is a weighted hook so the whole rig becomes just a longer Swim Bait.

Long story..short, we never found another bunch of fish that would not hit that rig as well as anything else we used.  That includes small throwback trout.  Didn't you need something else to spend your money on!

Grass bite slowed, but trout bite getting better!

Friday turned out good, but it was frustrating early.  You could not have asked for better conditions, but the fish were not impressed with the weather.  Sam Creel and Eric Robichaux were ready to go at daylight and we found a few birds working right out of the chute.  After catching a few small trout on plastics we switched to topwaters and I immediately pulled off a good trout on the first cast.

Sam and Eric both hooked solid fish and broke them off.  We were going through She Dogs like they were live bait.  We left the north end and ran to the flooded grass on the La. shoreline.  I missed one good red and we never got another strike.  That was a first as that bite has been money in the bank.

    Sam and Eric finally got their guide to take them to a good spot after lunch!

We then ran back north and I still could not find the fish.  Rather than waste the ideal conditions trying to make the lake work, I ran back to the river.  We bounced glow chartreuse and Texas Roach Sea Shads off the bottom in 15 to 18 feet of water and enjoyed a much better afternoon.

We kept four big slot reds and ten trout up to three pounds.  It never fails when you are pressing that you lose a lot of fish and that was the case as we easily lost as many keeper size trout as we boated.  We also went through a lot of smaller fish.

I couldn't find the reds in the grass again Saturday, but we didn't give them long to do their thing.  We found two good schools in the mid-lake area, but were even happier to find the trout on a flat on the north end in 3 to 5 feet of water.  Our best fish was only 4 pounds, but we caught a lot of fish swimming a 5-inch chicken on a chain Assassin rigged on a 1/16th ounce head.  We never saw the first gull or any bait, but were fortunate to spot a couple of slicks.

I don't recall ever seeing redfish schooling in the ICW, but we fished two different schools working shad on the way back in.  The fish were on the east side across from Cow bayou and they stayed up even with the barge traffic.  I wouldn't hang my hat on that bite, but I would at least give it a look if you pass that way running to the lake.  That action was taking place on an outgoing tide.   

Lake and river still in good shape in spite of daily rains!

I had every intention of running most of the lake today, but the wind changed those plans around noon.  It switched from a modest west-northwest breeze to due south and it was howling when we finally ran back into the river.

We found trout early fishing a Sea Shad under a Kwik Cork in 3 to 5 feet of water on the flats up on the north end.  We never caught any really good fish so we ran to the east side of the lake and fished submerged grass from the Gator Hole to Willow.  Most of the trout we caught in that area were small, but the reds were all slot fish.

Most of the lake is still very clear, but the wind has dirtied up the water on the La. shoreline a little.  It is clearer outside of the grass than inside.  We caught most of our fish on She Dogs and Assassins, but we did catch a few fish under the cork as well.  I don't know if the birds have been working that area, but there were more singles patrolling the area than we saw anywhere else.

The birds have been working over schooling redfish and some decent trout between Garrison's and Blue Buck early and late, but we didn't make it that far today.  We hit one or two spots in the river on the way in and caught some very nice trout on Spoiler Shads and a MirrOlure soft mullet.

While on the subject of MirrOlure, Mike Haring of Mainstream Marketing called me last night and confirmed the rumor that MirrOlure has indeed bought out Paul Brown and the Corky line.  Paul will continue to oversee the operation for a while and there will be no changes outside of the possible addition of some new colors.  Same wire harness, same plastic, paint, design, etc.

I think it will be sometime after Jan. 1, that we start seeing them on the shelf in any outdoor departments that handle the rest of the MirrOlure line.  This is great news for trout fishermen that live any distance at all from Houston.  You  never knew what Paul had left in stock until you walked in the door.  No more swimming for Corkies hung up a little deeper than your waders! 

We had 27 little league football players waiting on us to practice at 5:30 so I was unable to make the Orange Chapter CCA Banquet tonight.  It was their first one and I hope it went well.  They have a good core group of folks that have really worked hard this year to get the new chapter up and going! 

I don't do lightning, but I wouldn't let the rain stop me this weekend!

I don't think the bite will change very much this weekend even if the weatherman is right as we have done well the past three days. For the most part we were able to dodge a few of the heavier thunderstorms by moving around every time they closed off another area.  In spite of all of the rain, the water clarity in the river and the lake remains good.

The bite on the La. shoreline has been very good when you can hang in there and wait the fish out.  Tidal movement is always the name of the game, but the reds and a lot of small trout are biting when they want to rather than when I want them to.  Don't be too quick to write an area off if you were catching them there on your last trip.

We left redfish biting south of the Gator Hole yesterday around midday, but the day before we hit a number of good spots several times before they decided to turn it on.  We have done well with topwaters and spinnerbaits, but an Assassin rigged on an 1/8th ounce head has been the better  choice when the bite is tough.

Chicken on a chain rigged under a Kwik Cork fooled more fish than anyuthing else for us yesterday. We have also done better drifting a little deeper after the easy bite slows down.  We fished some flooded grass long enough to catch a few slot reds, but lost far more than we boated as they have the advantage in that submerged jungle!  

We have had very good tide changes which helps.  Every time I made a pass in the river this week we caught at least 2 or 3 nice flounder in 15 to 22 feet of water.  We caught them, as well as our slot reds and some decent trout on both live bait and plastics.  We found the trout schooling in two different locations in the river yesterday and just caught them cast after cast.  Most of them were small, but there were a few keepers mixed in and the action was non-stop!

If we get a lot of rain dumped on us this weekend it will hurt the river bite some, but the salinity level is very high right now.  I am still not seeing any birds working in the lake and the west side of the lake has been tough on me.  I have gotten two good reports on schooling reds between Blue Buck and the south revetment wall, but that action has been late in the evening and that doesn't work for me.

If there is no lightning involved, I would recommend putting on the rain gear and fishing in the rain this weekend.  It is good!

It is hard to do right!

I don't think that the water clarity in the Sabine River can get any better than it is right now.  For that matter, most of the lake is also just beautiful.  Gene Locke called Friday morning and said that he and Bob Crew already had his boat in the water and were waiting on me.  I threw away a growing "Things To Do" list, grabbed a cup of coffee and we were on the water twenty minutes later.

It was a laid back few hours of fishing and we caught reds, trout, and flounder before a thunderstorm sent us packing.  We easily caught the fish we kept fishing live bait in the river early, but found only small trout with spinnerbaits fishing the grass in the lake later that morning. I did talk with some folks at the game that night that limited on reds that evening fishing Traps behind Stewt's Island.

The following day I was again trying to do responsible things on dry ground only to find myself the victim of another invitation from a client that would not take no for an answer.  He was willing to fish for only a few hours and we did just that.

The conditions were perfect and rather than take advantage of the redfish, we ran straight to the revetment walls in search of trout.  Ryan caught the first fish on a Skitterwalk, but we caught most of our fish right against the rocks with a chrome/chartreuse Mirrodine XL.  They were all good fish from 19 to 24-inches.

On the way in, we drifted all the way from the north end of Pleasure Island to Stewts without ever picking up the troll motor and probably caught and released 10 to 15 more trout on the same lures.  Half of them at best would have been keepers had we been keeping fish. We did have a good fish pull off that may have been a red as we never saw it. We stayed in five feet of water for the entire drift which is about two feet deeper than I have been fishing.

I have not been seeing any birds working at all and this was the first reasonably consistent trout catching that I had done lately.  I will try fishing the flats a little deeper Monday and see if we have really found something or not.