Colburn's Sabine Connection

Stick to fishing days

Waiting two days to write a report enables one to forget a heap of discomfort.  We made a pre-dawn wade yesterday morning and caught 17 trout up to 26 inches.  That was the good news and it took that kind of action to keep us in the water.  Every piece of flesh that was exposed had knots on it as we were under a constant siege of mosquitoes until well after the sun came up!

It wasn't like we didn't get covered up at the launch as well, but we convinced ourselves they wouldn't be nearly as bad on the water.  Mosquitoes will fly over water for a little more blood.

The fish were holding in about four feet of water even in the dark so we were able to just sit down every once in a while and wipe them off our face.  I think every keeper fish hit a black-red head Top Dog,Jr. or a dark green-black headed Ghost.  We lost several more fish that were very good trout or redfish right at dawn.  The tide was really sucked down low, but the bait was all over the extended shoreline.

Today I enjoyed the company of a gentleman that brought along a foster child that he was obviously very proud of and a good friend.  We fished strictly for bites with live shad and finger mullet in the bayous and the river and had a great time.  We caught flounder, trout, redfish, croaker, sand trout, sheepshead and even a channel catfish.  The youngster outfished us all and made sure we knew it!

I don't think the trout are in the river like they will be a month from now, but we have not had a trip in several weeks that we did not catch at least one big trout in the river on the return trip to the landing.  We have one or two spots that we always hit regardless of how good or bad we do in the lake. Carol Tellure had two slot reds and a 25 inch red when we saw her at about nine.  She caught those fish on shad under a popping cork working the shoreline just north of Phoenix Lake.

We're not giving away any secrets here as Carol is all over the lower end of the river on a very regular basis and will not fish artificial lures.  She says she is afraid she will be fishing them when the fish start biting and she will never know they started biting!

Richard Corder, KOGT"S fishing D.J. is still in intensive care following a stroke, but is improving.  He can use your prayers!

Northeast wind making it tough in open lake

We finished the break-in on a friend's new four stroke this morning and covered a lot of lake just riding.  A strong northeast wind had a lot of it blown out, but the water still looked good all over the lake.  There are very few cuts on the La. side that don't have shrimp moving out on a good tide change and the ladyfish are right behind them. 

There is still a tremendous amount of bait moving on the La. shoreline.  We eventually came back into the river and caught some very nice flounder in one cut.  The north wind is really messing up a pretty good program we had going on specks up to five pounds prior to this north wind so I am ready to see it at least switch around to another direction.

The bite on the upper end of the lake has slowed down.  If you can catch a favorable wind day, the Louisiana side of the jetties has been on fire for trout.  The best bite has been early in the morning.  We'll try the lake again tomorrow.

Lake weathered recent flood well

Garret Swain with Sabine Lake trout

David Swain brought his bass fishin' sons, Tanner and Garret, down from Longview Friday and we had a heck of a time. At ages ten and thriteen, they can flat out fish!

The lake was in much better shape than I expected following the flood.  If there was any change at all, it may have been that there was even more bait in the lake.  We found white shrimp pouring out of a small cut about two in the afternoon and the small trout and rat reds were all over them.  We also never stopped to concentrate on flounder, but they are stacking up on the shorelines.

Tanner Swain with trout that blew up on his She Dog

Our largest trout hit She Dogs in chartreuse-pearl and gold-chartreuse and a bone colored Catch V.  We also caught keeper fish on Assassin's shrimp cocktail fished under an Extreme Popping Cork.  The fish we found with the popping cork were in 4-5 feet of water, but all of the rest of the fish came out of less than two feet of water.

The youngsters hit a home run on the trout, but struck out on the reds.  Garret battled two  magnum sized reds only to have one break off a Catch V and the other pull off on a Sea Shad.  Tanner also lost his battle with a nice red that hit a limetreuse Sea Shad crawled across a small reef in four feet of water when his brother's line kind of "got in the way".

We never saw any gull activity at all in spite of the perfect conditions.  Even when we found shrimp skipping across the surface there were no birds around.  I did talk with another group of fishermen that did very well at the jetties on trout up to four pounds.  They caught all of their fish on the Louisiana side working topwaters right up against the rocks.  They were done by nine o'clock!

Wind hurt more than the rain

We squeezed in a few hours of fishing Friday between thunderstorms and did well on trout up to six pounds, but paid for that limited success on Saturday.  The trout we caught Friday were shallow, but would not hit a topwater for us.  We caught them on Catch 2000's and soft plastic jerk baits.  We used both the  five inch Assassin and the Tidal Surge Split tail eel.  Had I known what was in store Saturday, we would have fished even longer Friday.

Trey Bosard with trout taken off river.

We found one small school of trout under two gulls in the Garrison Ridge area Saturday and that was it.  We covered a lot of ground, but the south wind just wiped us out.  The water still looked good today in spite of all of the rain.  I don't know what a week of rain might do, but we'll take our chances if we can get the wind to lay back down.

  Daniel Allder's dandy 28 inch trout caught on Sabine Lake on 6/8/2006

Fishing and weather are hot on Sabine

Once again, I am a little late in getting off a report, but the news is good.  I griped about the wind all spring, but no wind can be a problem from ten in the morning until late afternoon.  We have been through a lot of water and gatorade the past two days!

We had two very good days both Thursday and today, but they were not easy days.  We put eight good trout in the box early Thursday and proceeded to die over the next six hours. 

Bill Vautrain with Sabine trout.

We would have done just as well in the WalMart parking lot.  About three o'clock we found the largest gafftop I have ever seen in Sabine Lake schooling on top.

Any of the first four or five we caught woud have probably won that division in the S.T.A.R. tournament.  We were not trying to catch gafftop, but they didn't know it.  They were blowing up on both shrimp and shad and were mixed in with trout and redfish.  This was one of those catch a fish every cast deals, but we soon discovered that everything in the school was XL.  After boxing two quick keeper trout, we caught and released a beautiful 31 inch red out of the same school.

The next cast produced the highlight of the day. A fish we all initially thought to be a redfish turned out to be a 28 inch speck that is now on its way to Pittsburgh, Texas.  There is something a little unjust about a fish like that caught by a crappie tournament fishermen from east Texas fishing saltwater for only the fourth time.

We caught and released one more oversized red before leaving those fish still very much in a feeding frenzy around four o'clock.  Every fish we caught, including the big trout, hit glow-chartreuse or pumpkin Assassins and Tidal Surge Split Tails.  We showed Richard Albair the big fish at his marina and he immediately closed shop and hit the lake.  He said he did very well on trout on the north end under the birds late. 

Today, we worked even harder for our fish. but still wound up with a good catch that included a slot red and a flounder.  We only had one trout under 18 inches while the best two topped the five pound mark on the boga.  We caught all but one of those fish working slicks out off the revetment walls with glow-chartreuse Assassins and split tails rigged on quarter ounce heads. 

Doug Reynolds and Bill Vautrain really worked their tails off as the fish never really turned on for us all day long.

We worked one small bunch of birds late that produced one more keeper in Coffee Ground Cove. 

Doug Reynolds with his personal best trout off Sabine.

We never made the run to the south end of the lake today, but did yesterday to see if we could get Bill Garland hooked up with a good red. 

As it turned out, we were a little late and made the long run for nothing, but it kept us on the water long enough to get him into two big reds late.

The bird activity is much better in the late evening, but you can still find fish by working the slicks and looking for shrimp on the surface in the mornings if you'll slow down.  I don't think you have to run south to do well!

They have been catching fish all week long at the jetties, the short rigs, and back in the pocket on the La. side, but you pretty much have to sell out on that program as it has been a very early bite. 

Bill Garland with Sabine Lake red.

I talked with folks that did well yesterday and today on trout up to seven pounds.  The seven pounder was a personal best for Steve Brower that hit a solid black Spook right at daylight back up in the pocket on the La. side of the jetties!

Slime worth the time

I made a short trip to the jetties this morning with a good friend looking for the right gafftop for his son.  The S.T.A.R. tournament will do that to you, but the opportunity to swap a catfish for college money is hard to pass up.  Few things in fishing are more boring than sitting and watching someone catch one gafftop after another on dead bait!

The water looked good enough, but the trip reaffirmed why I don't fish down there more often.  His youngster caught gafftop until we could no longer see the scales on the Boga grip for the slime, but never caught a fish over 5 pounds.

When he used up the last of the bait, we ran into the lake for one short pass down a section of the south revetment wall.  We immediately caught a keeper red and three good trout on fire tiger Assassins.  I switched to a pink Catch 2000, missed a trout well over five pounds and caught another in the four pound range.  They caught three more keepers and we hurried off the lake to get them to the dentist on time.

We were in the lake less than two hours, including the ride back to the landing.  I never saw any gull activity, but we ran through two small groups of trout driving shrimp to the surface and I feel certain we saw a school of reds that we were afraid to check out.  We would have never made the dental appointment!

Weather looks good for the remainder of the week.  The wind has been user friendly and that helps with the crowds.  Jack Rutledge fishes the Galveston Bay complex most of the time and he recently assured me that we don't know what boat traffic is all about.  I haven't been in the lake at dawn or dusk the past two days, but several regulars in the area said the gull activity had been pretty consistent during those periods of low light.

We will be on the water the rest ofthe week, but we are going to give the jetties and the gafftop a rest.  Louisiana licenses expire this month...ugh!

Mike McLaughlin releases big 30 inch Red. 

Absolutely crazy!

Much to my surprise, rather than continue to muddy up, most of Sabine lake was clearing up Thursday morning.  Mike McLaughlin and Jack Rutledge of Houston booked before the rains, but were willing to take their chances with the runoff and it paid off.

We ran to the same flat at dawn that had been our savior the past two days and the fish weren't there.  Rather than wait on them, we ran back to the bayous, missed several nice redfish and boxed a good trout and three solid flounder.  About noon, the shredded tarps on the remnants of the camp in East Pass hung limp and the bite was on!

We had just eased back into the lake to take advantage of the smooth water when Johnnie Cormier called.  "I don't know here you are right now, but it looks like the fish are fixing to do their thing,"  I was running in his direction when I darn near ran through a flock of gulls sitting on the water a half mile short of his location.  It was obvious that he and one other boat were in the middle of fish, but we never pass on sitting birds.

Before I could lower the troll motor they up and left, but we never picked the troll motor up again.  I caught a good trout on the first cast, Mike hooked up at the same time, and fish started blowing holes in the surface all around us. An hour or two of that kind of craziness and before you know it you are a good guide again!    

The only time all three of us didn't have a trout on at the same time was when I had an oversized red pull us off the main school.  They were chasing shrimp across the surface in every direction.  Our largest fish hit bone-silver She Dogs or morning glory Sea Shads, but the smaller trout would hit anything you threw at them.

When the madness finally eased up, we made one more round before going calling it a day only to find three birds working over the same action less than a mile south.  We motored over to Johnny, told him about those fish and took it to the house.  Both jack and Mike said they had never seen anything like that and it was impressive watching fish blow up in every direction for such an extended period of time.

We had several reds miss top waters in the midst of all the trout, so it looks like they may be on the verge of doing their thing on a regular basis.  Johnny said he had seen two schools earlier that morning, but a shrimp boat ran through the area before he could set up.