Colburn's Sabine Connection

Sabine has turned the corner!

I wound up missing out on the most user-friendly day of the spring this weekend due to Pony-Colt baseball and the N.E. Houston CCA Banquet in Humble, but they were both enjoyable diversions.  We did, however, have a very good day on Sabine on Friday.  The water was in great shape and the fish were on the move a day after the front passed through.

Darin Freshour earned bragging rights with this big flounder

I fished Aaron Jablonsky, Darin Freshour, and Wayne Walker and as usual, they made the day go by very quickly.  I don't think we were out of the fish all day long for any extended period of time.  We caught trout both in the bayous and on the flats and finished the day catching some very nice flounder back in the bayous.

The water was as clear as it has been all year long and salty as well.  We caught most of our fish on Assassin Sea Shads either bounced off the bottom or drifted under a popping cork.  Our best trout was only three pounds, but they were all solid fish.  We were pretty much confined to the east side of the lake most of the day, but found fish as far south as Green's.  We also were able to locate trout chasing shrimp on the surface late in the day once the wind laid.

We flounder fished only briefly, but did pretty well in that short span of time.  Darin caught a beautiful 22-inch fish on a morning glory Sea Shad and we missed several more.  He and Wayne both put another nice keeper in the boat before we called in the dogs.

The redfish have finally started schooling in the open lake as well.  If the wind will give us a break, the open lake should be very good this week as no one has hit it very hard in quite a while.  I also got two very respectable reports of flounder catches off the river.  The fish were in 12 feet of water and were hitting both small shad and plastics tipped with shrimp.

Artist, Sam Caldwell, visits with Rick Robison at the annual Northeast Houston CCA banquet and auction.

I really enjoyed the annual visit with the hard working CCA guys in the Northeast Houston Chapter.  They hosted a great banquet once again and the crawfish were just right.  My seven-year old grandson wouldn't miss one of these events for the world and his Grandma and Mom decided to make this one as well.  Ron Vera and his crew treated them like royalty and they really enjoyed the evening.  The chapter really does a great job of catering to the kids and they are the future!

Gary Stelly saved our grits!

Thanks to Gary Stelly we didn't get lit up today.  Gary called at nine this morning to record our weekly fishing show for KOGT and was surprised that we were on the water.  It was overcast and there was a little wind, but it looked like most of the rain had passed to the north of Sabine.  We were catching fish and had returned to the park only long enough for a bathroom break.

"Man, I can't believe you're on the water... its got to be blowing y'all away."  He quickly added, "The first two lines of thunderstorms may have missed you, but this next one won't."  He was right and we took his word for it rather than run back out.  We didn't get all that much rain once it roared in, but the non-stop lightning was more safely observed from under a roof!

Prior to all of that, we found some nice slot reds eating single spin spinnerbaits rigged with LSU or glow-chartreuse Sea Shad.  We were using a no. 4 brass Colorado blade and they would hit it right after you stopped it and started reeling again.  When we started missing lighter strikes, we switched to tails rigged on 1/8th ounce heads and caught trout up to three pounds.

We were fishing the north end of the lake and the water looked very good.  We had at least a foot of visibility.  There were a few small groups of gulls working further out in the lake and I have talked with several good fishermen that have found the trout chasing shrimp this past week.  It is nice to finally start catching slot reds as we have been catching mostly rat reds on the flats.   

Big tide has redfish on the move!

We made a short run today to see if the marsh looked as good as the lake and it did.  We caught several slot reds on spinner baits just checking out different spots.  Before we came in, we made two quick drifts on the north end of Sabine and they were indeed quick due to the wind.  It wasn't a factor in the marsh, but it was a little tough on the open lake.

We caught some very solid trout on both drifts before calling it a day.  All of the trout hit plastic tails in 3-4 feet of water over a mud bottom.  The water still looks very good.  Hopefully the predicted rain for Wednesday will not be enough to mess things up again.  I will undoubtedly jinx myself, but it looks as though we have turned the corner on Sabine!

Happy Birthday Eddie!

Had yesterday's trip on Big Lake been a football game, we would have won the first half only to have our tails kicked in the second half.  We finished with a good box of trout up to four pounds, but all of our catching took place in the first four hours. When the fish quit on us just before noon, we were basically done for the day.

We had a great bite on glow-chartreuse and morning glory-chartreuse Assassins drifted over 3-5 feet of shell early.  We tried to get our topwater bite going when that bite ended, but it was much too late.  There was a pretty good topwater bite, but it slowed down after mid-morning.  Adam Jaynes said their topwater bite didn't last very long on Big Lake today either.  He also reported seeing lots of gull activity, but the trout under them were small.

Edmond caught our best trout of the day on Slurp Shrimp

John Mitchell surprised his good friend, Ulysses Edmond, with a trip for his birthday and we took a chance on Sabine today. We lost some time to the fog, but as soon as we were able to get on our flat, we were on the fish.  Ulysses immediately caught a solid trout on a Corky Devil, but he will have to tell you the finer points as to how that came about.  Better yet, let John tell you!

We either caught or pulled off good trout repeating short drifts until the wind totally eliminated that program.  John and I both missed very good trout that escaped at the boat before the guest of honor caught our largest trout on the first drift.  The fish were all over the shallow flat in less than three feet of water.

Our largest fish hit a Slurp shrimp in a pearl color drifted under a Mauler.  We also caught them on glow-chartreuse and bone-diamond Assassins.  Had the wind not cut us short, I think that we would have easily done as well as we have been doing on Big Lake.  We talked with anglers that caught fish under the birds early off Garrison's Ridge and we saw another group catching trout on Catch V's south of Stewt's.

More importantly, when we were struggling in the latter part of the day and catching only small trout, two other fishermen were working the same stretch of water and they had it figured out much better than I did.  We never fished close enough to tell, but I think they were throwing tails.  If they were using tails, they had the right size jig head, the right color, and the right retrieve down pat. All of that was taking place on a strong incoming tide. 

After talking with some other folks at the marina that came off the lake late, I am now convinced that the wind is the only thing holding Sabine down.  One group caught at least a few fish all the way from East Pass to Blue Buck and were disappointed that they couldn't fish the south revetment wall.  They had done well on both reds and trout on Rat-L-Traps in that area late last week!   

It was stupid good!

We fished Calcasieu again yesterday and we hit it right.  By the time we quit, I had put 17 miles on the big motor making the same 500 yard drift over and over!

We started off with a top water bite, but were blown out almost immediately by a stiff northwest wind that blew all day long.  We stopped to make one drift on a flat with 4-6 feet of water over shell and never left.  I have no idea how many fish we caught and released, but both clients easily kept limits of trout up to 3 1/2 pounds.

The water was pretty off-colored, but it didn't make the trout any difference.  We caught them on  Assassins and Tidal Surge split tails in glow-chartreuse, pumpkin-chartreuse, and morning glory-chartreuse.  In case you are wondering...we did try plain old chartreuse and caught only a couple of fish.  I think when all was said and done we did better when the water was at its clearest on glow-chartruese and as it dirtied up the pumpkin worked best.

We never stuck any really big trout, but we had a blast.  I had a pair of good fishermen and it was nice not having to  bust your butt for a handful of bites.  We're going back again tomorrow to see if they are still there!

North wind and low tide just too much!

I was duly impressed with the results of the Texas Marine Big Trout Tournament held Saturday on Sabine.  In spite of a howling north wind that turned the lake upside down, at least three trout were weighed in every hour.  Daniel Williamson won the Ranger with a very respectable 5.41-pound trout and Matt Taylor claimed the two trout-pot with a total of 8.05 pounds.  Both of the big winners reportedly caught their fish on the north end.

As usual, David and Tricia Concienne and all of the folks from Texas Marine did a great job of hosting the event.  They had a 123 anglers fish in the miserable conditions and the number would have been much higher with more bearable conditions.

The day after the tournament, the bayous were as low as they were in December due to the hard outgoing tide and relentless north wind.  Very few launches were available around Sabine due to the extremely low water.  The fact that at least a few fish were caught all the way from the Causeway to East Pass in the tournament was a good indicator that better days could be right around the corner. No rain and a little less wind would help!

I fished with Adam Jaynes for the first time today and he has the tools to be as good as he wants to be.  We had a very enjoyable trip on Calcasieu.  We didn't catch a lot of fish, but we did catch 15-18 inch trout in several different locations on the lake.  We went strictly to scout and kept no fish, but we could have finished with a good box of fish.  We caught them on topwaters and Assassins.  A chartreuse Top Dog,Jr. and a pumpkin-chartreuse Assassin eel produced all of the fish.

West Cove was pretty dirty by the time we checked it out, but most of the lake was in very good shape.  At least for right now, Calcasieu is still way ahead of Sabine.

Calcasieu very enjoyable on Wednesday

Richard Campbell caught our best trout of the day

Mike Cooley of Lufkin and I elected to postpone a trip a week ago for fear that the weather was going to do exactly what it did.  That in itself is unusual, but I had to see it for myself and got caught in a heck of a norther.  We finally made a good decision. We almost postponed again yesterday, but decided to take our chances and once again it proved to be the right decision.

The 20 mile per hour winds didn't happen until late and we took advantage of perfect conditions most of the day on Calcasieu. Mike, and a friend, Richard Campbell, also from Lufkin, caught their first trout about 8:30 and it never slowed down until about 2:00 o'clock.  We never caught a trout over 21 inches, but we caught lots of solid trout as well as a bunch of smaller 13-14 inch fish.

We released a lot of fish and still wound up with a very nice mess of trout.  After going through some big trout earlier in the week, the game completely changed for us Wednesday.  We never caught the first trout on a topwater and I kept one wet most of the day.  At the same time, they could not leave a limetreuse or pumpkin-chartreuse Assassin alone, but we caught most of our larger trout on a pearl-chartreuse Crazy Croaker.

All of the fish came out of 3-4 feet of water and they were hanging close to the shell.  The water clarity was good everywhere we went, but especially clear on the eastern side of the lake. 

I had a rare no-show today, but made a short run in the middle of the day anyway on Sabine just to see what the water looked like after the rain.  The river looks terrible, but there are still stretches on the La. shoreline in the lake that are plenty clear enough.  The water was stacked up in the grass and there was a lot of bait activity in the only two bayous we checked.

Most of the water I ran was 67-69 degrees, but it was as high as 70.8 in the dead end cut.  There were also two boats in there fishing flounder.  I think the wind will have the final say-so this weekend in the Texas Marine Big Trout tournament.  It is going to be wide open for anyone to win!   

When ya gotta go....ya gotta go!

Thunder was the last sound I wanted to hear early this morning as we had a very good day on Big Lake yesterday. Then came the obligatory down pour, so I begrudgingly spent the remainder of the day taking care of unfinished business.  Had the weather cooperated, I would not have been posting this report during daylight hours!

We waded and caught some very nice trout up to 25 to 26 inches early on topwaters.  It was almost like they were passing through all morning long.  Everyone would catch fish for 10-15 minutes and then it was casting practice for a half an hour or so, but the bite never just shut down.

The decision to leave was an emphatic, "When ya gotta go....ya gotta go."  We knew when we climbed out of the truck that we had to be back by one o'clock, but the bite was continuing to improve at that time as the water cleared.  Had it been my decision, I would have stayed and asked for forgiveness later!

Johnny stayed in the boat with his folks and they also had a good day catching trout on topwaters.  He said they also found a few birds working over trout all the way from Turner's to West Cove.  We will see what effect all of this rain and wind from a different direction has on the bite tomorrow.

I don't think anyone has much of an advantage in the Texas Marine Big Trout tournament slated for this weekend on Sabine.  I still think it will take a trout over five pounds to win, but with the wind and off-colored water, every one is in the hunt.

We are going to try to fish flounder later in the week, so I will at least be able to tell you what the water looks like from Coffee ground to Blue Buck if the wind will give us a break.  If it has to blow, I hope that it stays out of the southeast or there will be a lot of boats piled up on the Causeway reef.

Paid the price, but got it right!

Almost without fail, any time I cancel or postpone a group for fear that the weather will ruin their day, I wind up fishing alone in near perfect conditions.  Yesterday was the exception, however, and Mike Cooley can celebrate the fact that we moved his trip to next week.

The wind was dead calm at daylight and blowing out of the southeast very lightly even as late as 9:30.  Gene and I were fishing anything we wanted to fish and catching fish.  As soon as he pointed out that the front I was so worried about was not going to come in until late that evening, I elected to run to West Cove to check out a small reef.  His personal observations usually doom us, but he really out did himself this time.

We never made it.  By the time we got as far south as Joe's Cove, we were covered up with black clouds and a north wind was screaming down the ship channel.  We waited as long as we could stand it before making the run back in the driving rain.  And did I mention that it was too cold for shorts!

We were fishing Assassins and topwaters early, but every guide boat that passed us running from the weather was rigged to fish either live shrimp or soft plastics under a popping cork.  All of this was taking place on Calcasieu as you may have already figured out.  I am glad that we didn't have to make that run across Sabine in that same wind!

Calcasieu is much more user friendly than Sabine right now, but that said, there is a very good flounder bite in full swing on Sabine when the wind doesn't beat you to death.  The fish are now on the shorelines as well as the mouths of the cuts and that really helps the crowding issue.  I know that glow and chartreuse get all the hype, but we do just as well this time of the year with pumpkin or rootbeer.  Those colors are very hot as long as the small crabs are hanging around the roots of the cane lining the shoreline.

Sabine still tough...back to Big Lake

We will start all over again Tuesday in the face of what I hope to be the last significant front of the year.  We had a very tough outing on Sabine Friday.  We stayed pinned down on the La. bank and caught only a handful of flounder and rat reds all day long.

We cancelled the following day based on Friday's bust and it was a good thing we did as the weather got really nasty Saturday morning.  I had a client that just bought a new flats boat talk me into a short wade late that afternoon and we caught enough fish to warrant the rough ride.  We waded the south end and found a fair sized school of small reds working over a 2-3 foot flat.

We could have easily kept two limits of slot reds, but most of the fish were in the 15-19 inch range.  We caught every fish on morning glory-chartreuse tails.  We also never caught the first trout!  If this incoming front doesn't ride in on too much wind, we will be back on Calcasieu this week looking for another big trout.