Colburn's Sabine Connection

Decent report on a miserable day

We didn't fish yesterday or today, but surprisingly enough there were a few trout, some decent flounder and a few redfish caught on the La. shoreline on Sabine Sunday.  Both groups caught their fish on soft plastics.  Black-chartreuse, fire tiger and glow chartreuse were the most productive colors.

The flounder were holding just inside the grass line on the main points.  The folks that located the flounder kept 11 and released several more.  They also had two slot reds and a four pound trout.  They weren't targeting any particular species.

The best trout catch came out of three to five feet of water on Tails.  They caught and released over a dozen trout with the largest in the seven pound class!  Today that entire area was blown out by a howling northwest wind and they failed to catch a single fish.  The water silted up badly.

It was cold and windy Sunday, but the same water was in pretty good shape.  With a lot less rain and lighter wind (we may never again have "no" wind) the fishing could improve much faster than anticipated on Sabine.

Just received a call while getting this out.  Jim and Darren Petty caught nine keeper trout up to three pounds working Rat-L-Traps in seven feet of water on the north end of the reefs at the Causeway right before dark.  Caught every fish in a twenty minute span and it was over.  There is hope!

Give it a rest

We tried to force the issue Saturday morning for a little while on Calcasieu and it just was not to be.  The water was too high to wade the shell that had been good to us, the bait was gone and it was cold!

The upper lake was very muddy and even West Cove was giving up some of its clarity.  If we can dodge any more down pours this week it could, however, get right quickly. 

On the other hand, it could take a while for Sabine Lake to get right.  They had some serious flooding on both the upper Neches and Sabine rivers and all of that water has to work its way through the lake.  We are at least a week away from any real improvement on Sabine.

Rain and cold slowed things down

Not surprisingly, six inches of rain and a thirty degree temperature drop slowed the bite down for us today.  The mosquitos weren't as bad as they have been, but it was cold.  We waded the northeast shoreline of West Cove on Calcasieu and it was calm enough, but so was the bite.  Fished an incoming tide most of the day and the fish didn't even try to bite until late.

We tried everything from Rubberbacks to Assassins and Sand eels, but the fish wanted only the original Corky mullet and they wanted it slower than slow.  Chartreuse and pearl was still the best color.  We had two good trout come unglued, but finished up catching only two trout, three flounder and three redfish.  The largest trout was just under five pounds.

The water we were fishing muddied up and was considerably fresher, but the bait and fish were still there.  We've been on an every other day pattern for the past month, maybe the fish will ignore the less than favorable conditions and do their thing tomorrow.  Can't get bit at the house!

An every other day thing!

Thanks to a driving rain storm and some serious lightning, I am back at the house only wishing we could get on the water.  It appears that regardless of how perfect the weather may be, we are finding the fish feeding aggressively every other day at best.  On the tough days we are still catching a few big fish indicating they haven't left, but we are yet to catch numbers two days in a row.

This is not an unusual pattern for our big trout, however, and we have caught only a handfull of trout under four pounds thus far.  If you aren't going to get bit often, big makes it more tolerable.

We had as good a morning as I have had this year on Calcasieu yesterday.  We donated a pint of blood one drop at a time to the mosquitos, but the fishing was well worth the inconvenience!

We made only one wade and by noon everyone had limited, everyone had caught and released at least one trout over seven pounds, and no one complained about the reds moving in when the trout bite slowed.  There was little or no wind all morning and the water temperature was 63 to 65 degrees.  We caught fish over mud and a small stretch of shell with Corky Devils and Catch V's in both chartreuse-pearl and black-chartreuse.

The fish were initially holding over the mud just outside of the shell, but moved even closer as the morning progressed.  The redfish were chasing mullet between us and the shoreline before we quit.  Aside from those trout you just gotta hang on the boga-grip before releasing, we never weighed any of the other fish, but at least a dozen of them were in the 23 to 26 inch class!

We fished the exact same area that was so tough on us the day before.  It looks like it could be a while before we get back on it, however, as it is pouring right now and we reportedly have north winds, more rain, and lower temperatures predicted for the weekend.  It never fails this time of the year!

Slow day on Calcasieu

We got a little stiffer southwest wind than we bargained for and wound up commiting most of our fishing time to the southeast corner of West Cove.  The water temperature was 63 degrees and had good clarity.

We eventually sold out on one small patch of shell having caught a trout over 6 pounds early on and it might have been a mistake.  I will know after a few phone calls, but we saw very few folks out today.  We caught one more trout in the six pound class, two solid three pound fish that we kept and released several small flounder.

We missed no more than two or three fish that we actually had hooked up in five hours of fishing.  (That's wasting a great weather day) We also looked at a lot of water we had no intention of checking out due to a very thick fog that hung around much of the morning.  We couldn't make the fish eat a Corky Devil today, nor did we catch a single red and that was unusual for the fish we have been on.

Our catch was split between a chartreuse Catch V and a silver flake-chartreuse Corky Fat Boy.  We did see quite a few flounder caught by one group of fishermen working the West Cove end of Oyster Bayou.  Most of them were small, but they were there in good numbers.

I am hoping that we just made a bad decision selling out on one spot and that someone did well on a user friendly day.  With some more cold weather due in this weekend, we need to take advantage of the next couple of days.

If you get a chance to go don't forget the mosquito repellant.  They are fierce even 50 yards off the bank!

Lots of wind and ugly water

A wind that howled all day long held up lots of muddy water while eliminating most of the better spots on Sabine.  Surprisingly enough there were still some keeper trout coming off the reef on the south end on red shad and fire tiger soft plastics.

I am still reading reports of large specks coming off the north end of the lake, but we haven't even been able to muster up the courage to try it.  The bayous, the Neches and the Sabine are still high and extremely muddy and that water all dumps into the north end of the lake.  I may well be missing something, but it is ugly!

The extreme back end of the bayous off the lake itself are clearing a little and there are a few flounder and redfish holding in those areas, but its hard to make a day in areas that small.  The wind is supposed to lay tomorrow which should help, but we are going to take another swing at some big trout on Calcasieu while it is still going on.

Guides guiding guides

Every once in a while you hit it just right and today was one of those days.  Unsure about how badly all the rain had affected the bite on Big Lake, Chuck Uzzle and I took the conservative route and guided each other.  We should have had clients!

I am not sure how many fish we caught and released, but we dogged it off at 5 p.m. when we were unable to revive the third trout over 28 inches following a few pictures. When we left it was only getting better.

  Both the trout and the redfish hit She Dogs, Corky Devils and Catch V's as long as they were chartreuse.  During the middle portion of the day the fish were holding over shell in off-colored water with probably a foot of visibility.  Our first 8 pound fish hit a Corky Devil in about four feet of water.

We later moved to the south end of the lake and the water was much clearer.  It had freshened up, but not enough to hurt anything.  The tide was boiling in when we got there and the fish were already biting.  We didn't see nearly as much bait in the clear water, but it may well have been eaten up.  It was a phenomenal bite that you don't get to experience too often.

On the initial wade in the dirtier water we were able to catch fish the entire length of the small reef as long as we kept our lures over the shell.  In the clearer water there was no shell at all and we caught every fish at the end of a long cast away from the bank.  We were forced to spend the day in water just a few inches too deep for vertically challenged anglers and the incoming tide

I don't think the little front due in tonight will shut them down, but we'll know for sure by this time tomorrow night.  We took 108 back to Vinton and killed three pounds of mosquitoes between Hwy. 27 and I-10. Its nice to be able to file a good report for a change!

Six feet high and rising!

More out of curiosity than anything else we decided to make a run on Sabine today.  Tomorrow and possibly for at least the next week, we will do our fishing on Big Lake.  All of the muddy water from the weekend deluge was stacked up due to a stiff south wind.  The water was exceptionally high in the marsh.

  We ran from East Pass to Garrison's ridge without finding any clear pockets of water along the La. shoreline.  Cow bayou, Adams, the Neches and the Sabine are all running high and muddy right now.

We did manage to catch one four pound trout and five keeper redfish in a pocket of clear water in the back of Green's.  Even that water was getting dirty by the time we left.  We caught every fish on a salt and pepper phantom Sea Shad rigged on a one-eighth ounce horsehead jig.  The jig head is identical to the road runner head only poured on a larger hook to accommodate a larger plastic body.

With Toledo Bend generating and still on the rise it is going to take a while to get rid of all of this water.  The last time this happened, however, the bite on the reef came to life before the east shoreline even cleared up.  We should be so lucky.

Let you know how we do on Big Lake tomorrow!

Water improving on La. shoreline

Took a day off yesterday to clean up and dry out the boat.  Wading has a way of muddying up everything in the boat and we have been wading for a month now on Big Lake. 

Talked with several folks last night that fished Sabine Friday and they all concurred that the water from Madam Johnson's to Garrisons had really cleared up.  They also reported that little or no bait was present and the fishing was  slow in the main lake.  The cuts and backwater produced what fish were caught.

The good news was that everyone I talked with caught at least a few fish.  The best bet was still a suspending lure like a Catch V, Corky or Catch 2000.  All of the trout were caught on either chartreuse or pearl or a combination of both. A decent number of slot reds were also caught on Red Shad and pumpkin chartreuse Assassins.  Two different groups caught their redfish working the moss line just off the bank.  They said the reds were holding in that thin area between the shoreline and the back edge of the moss feeding on small crabs and mullet.

The water temperature was running between 53 and 57 degrees which is much warmer than it has been.  We caught trout on topwaters last week in water that never reached 51 degrees all day long!  It is raining even as I write this so we'll just have to see how long this weak front will camp out over the lake.

Don't forget that you need a non-resident La. license to fish these cuts, bayous and small lakes on the Louisiana side.  If you launched in Texas, also remember that you can only return to the dock with Texas legal fish!

Sabine remains tough

It wasn't like we were unaware of what is going on over on Big Lake.  We have been right in the middle of it all week long and have had both good and bad trips.  The lake is in such good shape and the possibility of catching a trout over seven pounds is very possible on any cast right now.

Another 10+ was caught Wednesday along with a number of fish over six pounds.  In spite of all of that, we opted to check out Sabine today just to take care of homework..  The trout we finally found were holding in the back ends of the cuts leading back to most of the major marsh lakes.  There were a few reds mixed with them, but we never caught a fish over three pounds.

Even the La. shoreline was badly off-colored and the warmest water we found was 53 degrees.  Every fish hit a red shad Assassin rigged on a 1/16th ounce head. The trout wanted it crawled slowly across the bottom.  We did unexpectedly catch and release four or five small flounder.  They might be trying to come in, but it will take a better bite than that to declare the spring migration as officially on.

In the mean time, we will head back to Calcasieu to take a shot at a trout that makes getting wet on a cold day all worth the misery!