Colburn's Sabine Connection

Daily storms not to be ignored!

Only twice before have I even considered attempting to tie up and climb one of the fishing piers on the revetment wall to escape a storm.  Both times I found them to be too high off the water to even try.  I found out yesterday that I just had not been sufficiently motivated.

Kathy Moore outlasted storms for her first red

We were in a panic strut back to Logan's Park in a downpour and wind change when back to back bolts of lightning aborted that plan.  I wheeled the boat around and made a dash for the nearest pier.  We were hanging on the side trying to figure out a way to climb the pilings and slide through the railings when the next bolt hit even closer.  By the time my ears quit ringing, Ron Rehfus and Kathy Moore had scaled the pilings and were already up on the covered pier.  They both have mountain climbing experience, but that was impressive!

The southwest corner of the lake took a beating most of the day and the water was off-colored by the time we left.  There were a few birds working, but there were a lot of small trout and lady fish mixed with specks in the 16-18 inch class.  The water on the Louisiana shoreline still looked very good as it was protected, but we caught only a couple of keeper trout and a world of small redfish on a Chug Bug and sea shad under a Mauler.  The best group of fish we worked were chasing shrimp right in the middle of the lake prior to all of the lightning.

We eventually made our way back north hitting the bayous and found some pretty good fish working on shrimp up against the shoreline.  After going through several small reds, we broke a good fish off and had a big red just pull off at the boat on consecutive casts.  Kathy then set up on what she initially thought to be a fish before taking us through, "I've got a big fish...no I'm hung on the bottom....no its a big one!"

It was a big one indeed.  Her first keeper redfish ever was just shy of the 28 inch mark and weighed in at 8 pounds.   It was a long battle on a spinning rod and six pound test.  The better redfish hit Texas Roach Sea Shads bounced off the bottom in 12 feet of water.

I haven't figured out where the muddy water on the north end of both Adams and Cow Bayou is going, but it hasn't dirtied the river much as of today.  The redfish are starting to move in the lower end of the river and small bass are chasing finger mullet and shad on every point.  The water on the north revetment wall looks very good and I think it held more bait than any of the areas we checked.

The jetties are still producing good catches of trout, but you really have to pick your spots with the daily storms.  We have had a slow outgoing tide starting around noon each day and the better fish have predictably shown up when it first starts to move. 

Reds did not want a fly

Dr. Ray and I made a short trip today in his new flats boat so that he could check it out and catch one slot red on fly.  It was hot and still and shrimp were jumping all over the place, but he caught only two decent trout and a handful of small lady fish on a variety of flies.   "Where are all those reds you've been telling me about," got old pretty quick. 

Concerned that they may have moved even further north, I tied a Hoginar on one of two light spinning rods he had in the boat and caught four nice reds in about twenty minutes.  He cut off a Mauler on the other rod, tied on a gold Trap and caught two more before going back to the fly.  Doc is very good with a fly rod, but the redfish were not impressed.

His boat is really set up nice, but we couldn't make his power pole work.  I should have brought along my Stake-out stik, but Doc is not into manual labor.  I was really hoping one of those magnum ladyfish would take a fly.  We saw several small groups of gulls working, but we never checked out the first set.

We got out late, but I think the best bite was right in the middle of the day anyway.  We saw several boats drifting the flats south of Stewt's, but they may have been working birds.  We never ran over there to check them out.  The best is yet to come judging by all of the shrimp still in the bayous.  If we can continue to dodge storms we should be setting up for a great September.

Lake is clearing and the redfish are doing their thing!

Scott, Mark, and Wayne with 3 more slot reds

Mark Spencer, Wayne Riley, Toby Weatherly, Scott Morrison, Tom Boeker, and Jerry Joyce fished with Johnny and me the past two days and we were finally able to stay in the lake and do well.  I think the bite was probably better Thursday than Friday even though the final tally was better the second day.

We caught and released a lot of fish, especially reds, and the group still finished the two days with 92 trout and fifteen reds.  They had no problem using up their red drum tags for the year!

The bite started at daylight Thursday and was pretty consistent until around 2 p.m.  We caught both trout and redfish all over the south end of the lake.   There was a very decent bite under scattered birds, but the best action took place any time you could find shrimp on the surface without the gulls.

Thursday the small specks and sand trout were everywhere, but there were some schools of solid specks on the prowl as well.  Plastic tails in glow-chartreuse, pumpkinseed and cajun pepper produced most of the specks and a few reds, but the Hoginar was the ticket as far as the reds were concerned.  The best bite took place both days as soon as the tide started out.

We started out this morning fishing topwaters on the Louisiana shoreline and the fish were already feeding  when we got there at daylight.  We found both reds and specks in the Green's area and Johnny located fish even farther north.  We caught most of our fish on a bone-chrome or black-chartruese head She Dog.  Our largest trout off the shoreline was a little over three pounds.

Scott with a perfec slot red

The gulls did not work nearly as well today, but when they did work they were serious.  At times we were in so many redfish all you had to do was drop a Hoginar straight over the side.  The same colors in the plastics worked well again today.  We found fish from Blue Buck all the way to the first rig out from Logan's Park.  We caught more gafftop and ladyfish mixed in up north, but there were some solid slot reds and trout in there as well.

I have never seen lady fish in Sabine as big as some of the flashy acrobats we stuck the past two days.  One of the fishermen in Johnny's boat hung the first one and it took us all by surprise.  It exploded out of the water and easily weighed three pounds or more.  We eventually hooked three or four more that size over the two day period and they will get your attention with their speed and power!

Tom hung a tag on this one

The lake has continued to clear and the bait and the fish are moving back into the lake all the way to the north revetment wall.  The jetties were all, but unfishable Thursday, but I talked with two groups that caught easy limits of trout early this morning on crankbaits and pearl Spoiler Shads.  Neither group had any redfish, but they did pull a couple off right at the boat.

I also talked with some folks from the Lumberton area tonight that limited on redfish this morning fishing live finger mullet on the flat behind Stewt's Island.  They were drifting the mullet under a popping cork hunting trout and the reds came up on them twice.  Their catch included seven trout up to four pounds and they were back at the house by 9:30!

It could all change by the weekend, but the weather doesn't look like it will be a problem.  If you have been waiting on the redfish, the wait is over.  It has been some kind of hot by noon so take along lots of cold water and a good sunscreen.  I am taking the weekend off to play with the grandkids.      

Beware of the crocodiles!

Graham Hall brought his two boys, Andrew and Ian, down today and we stayed with the basics as they had not had many opportunities to fish.  Ian was more concerned with the crocodiles he spotted than the fish, but that was understandable as his surroundings were a little different than the landscape in Scotland. Rather than run south, we fished the bayous and finished with a respectable catch that included flounder, trout, and redfish.

Both boys caught a redfish on their first cast so it was all downhill after that.  We caught the majority of our fish under the birds working over shrimp.  Bone diamond and chartreuse-red flake were our most productive colors in Sea Shads.  We fished live finger mullet for a little while, but the ladyfish would not leave them alone.

The water in the bayous and the river is looking better each day.  We have a lot more scattered moss to deal with than we did last year, but the fish are right in the middle of it.  The water was really stacked up with a good incoming tide and the storm in the gulf.  The wind howled all day long, but the guides I talked with tonight still caught solid trout in the lake.

The trout and a few slot redfish came off the Louisiana shoreline and the south end of the lake.  Some of the better trout taken on the La. shoreline hit Skitterwalks, but most of the fish were taken on tails fished under a Mauler or on a quarter ounce jig head.  We are still getting some big outgoing tides that are really moving a lot of water by noon each day.   

Dallas boys did it again!

Sunday's fishing proved to be a carbon copy of the day before, minus the rain.  As a matter of fact, it got down right hot by mid-morning.  We probably did a little better on the trout at the jetties than we did Saturday even though we left much earlier.  The Dallas group needed to get on the road by noon so we retreated to the lake to try and locate more redfish.  We did!

When the tide really started pouring out they just went nuts.  Most of the reds were in the upper end of the slot.  Everyone in the group caught at least one oversized red that they tagged and there were some very nice trout mixed in with them. Johnny also won an extended tug of war with one humongous drum that didn't know it wasn't supposed to eat a plastic tail.

I don't know if Denton Wilson can find redfish, but if you get him around them he can darn sure catch them.  He fished with me the first day and Johnny on Sunday and the story was the same.  He does a good job of staying in touch with his lure and has great feel.  Those two qualities are most beneficial when bouncing a jig over shell in a strong current.

We stayed with the Assassin Sea Shad Sunday and adjusted the size of our jig heads according to the speed of the current.  I spent today cleaning the boat and restocking for the remainder of this week.  The bite has been very good, but the rocks at the jetties take their toll on both jig heads and plastics.

Gene called tonight and said they caught a lot of sand trout and some pretty good specks drifting the Causeway reefs today.  The speed of the outgoing tide and a stiff wind in the wrong direction shut them down around noon.  He added that the water looked very good and they even saw a little gull activity.

Good trout bite, great redfish bite!

Peter, Dan, and Denton worked on the redfish today!

While the weather conditions were very similar both yesterday and today, the fishing was anything but!  We waited out a heavy rain under the covered patio at The River Rat at daylight yesterday and eventually decided to give it a try.  For the first time in a couple of weeks, we fished the east side of the lake and the bayous rather than chance the jetties.  It still looked bad when we left the landing and we didn't want to get too far from the house.

The water looked good, but the trout were hard to find.  We did catch several throwback reds and some small flounder at Willow before moving into the bayous.  The water there was in great shape and we caught rat reds chasing shrimp under the gulls most of the afternoon.  We caught them under a Mauler and fishing Sea Shads on quarter ounce heads.  A ton of action, but very few fish made the ride home.

Today, we ignored the weather man and ran to the jetties in a light rain.  We fished with one eye on a very dark horizon all morning long, but it was well worth the gamble.  Johnny was helping me work a group out of Dallas and we were finally forced to evacuate the jettis due to lightning and an unexpected switch in wind direction with 20 trout up to five pounds already in the box.  Most of the fish hit a limetreuse or pumpkin chartreuse 5 inch Assassin Shad rigged on a quarter ounce head.

When we ran back into the lake, we drifted the same baits over the deep shell and the redfish bite was on.  We caught a lot of rat reds, but we also boxed five slot fish and tagged another just over the 28 inch mark.  We aso caught a few nice trout mixed in with them as well as some big sand trout, a couple of flounder, and more drum than we wanted to catch.  The best bite was right at the peak of a hard outgoing tide.  Over the course of the day, the wind blew every direction but straight down.

The water did not look nearly as good at the jetties as it did earlier in the week, but the bite was much better.  We made a loop through the lake on the way back in and never saw any bird activity.  David Thibodaux said that he found some yesterday, but they were mostly working over smaller trout and ladyfish.   He fished the second half of the day.

Storm shut down jetty program at least temporarily

We tried dealing with the wind at the jetties Wednesday morning, but it was a losing battle.  We ran back to the lake and caught a few fish on the reef before returning to the jetties.  That was a mistake!

The cloud bank that hovered offshore all morning decided to move in and it did it in a hurry.  When the temperature dropped significantly, we knew it was time to call in the dogs. We were fortunate to get loaded back up on the trailer without tearing anything up.

At this point, we haven't gotten a great deal of rain and I talked with two groups that caught some solid redfish on the north end prior to all of the afternoon wind.  They found their fish out in the open lake bouncing Rat-l-traps and Hoginars off the bottom.  One group kept five reds and the other group kept seven reds and four specks.  They said the water looked pretty good.

Depending on the weather, we may work the north end tomorrow rather than making that long haul to the jetties.  If we don't get too much rain out of this, it might finally be getting right!

Jetties still the most consistent bite

Tommy put it on the Mayor on Friday

We just keep milking it to the point that I am starting to think that I know what I am doing down at the jetties.  Make no mistake about it, I really don't and I would leave that bite tomorrow if I could get something consistent going in the lake.  That said...if you can stand the heat and more traffic than I am used to, it is as good a trout bite as I have ever seen!

We have fished both sides of both jetties and the ship channel depending on the wind and strength of tide.  Some days the gulf side is better than the channel, but it doesn't usually take long to figure that out.  I fished with T.W.Garret and Tommy Reed on Friday and we limited on our first pass on trout up to 25 inches.  We caught them on pumpkin-chartreuse, glow-chartreuse, and bone diamond Assassins.  They were eating a pearl chartreuse She Dog as well.

Tracie held her own with the boys

Saturday I fished Cade Fowler, Tracie Ray, and their friend Steve and it was lights out again.  The water in the ship channel was as pretty as I have seen it this year.  After 37 years of guiding it was my first time to launch at the Causeway on a Saturday and that is a circus.  I had always run down from the north end, but never enjoyed all of that pre-dawn hospitality before.

Tracie Ray can flat out fish.  She told me that her Dad started her out fishing, but that Cade has taught her most of what she knows.  To his credit, he armed her with a very good graphite rod and low profile reel and she knows what to do with it.   Aside from catching at least a third of the keeper trout, she drove the car, counted all of the fish twice, and packed their lunch.

The bite was a little slower early due to the number of boats working the rocks.  Catching a limit was still fairly easy, but it got even better later in the day.  The better trout that we caught at daylight were holding tight  to the rocks and very shallow.

Saturday, limetreuse Assassins were the ticket for us.  I have fished wire leaders before when having to deal with spanish mackerel, but they really abused us around noon.  Both Cade and Tracie were using monofilament line and even with leaders they got cut off at very frequent intervals.  We started watching and the mackerel would actually strike the line just beneath the surface when it flashed as they twitched the lure.  I was using braid and they never hit it the first time.

We also got into our first good school of redfish for a short time with the largest right at the 28 inch mark.  We fished through that same area the day before and never caught the first red.  We had a big outgoing tide Saturday and the largest trout didn't show until the tide really started pouring out.  A large number of boats headed out to the short rigs and most of them did well on trout up to 24 inches.   

Can't get off the south end of the lake

John Thorkelson with 16 pounds of redfish

I promised John Thorkelson and Ken Miller that I would post pictures of their reds, but we caught them the week before the Redfish Cup and I was a little afraid to post anything.  The fish were much to big to help a tournament fisherman anyway, but we werent into sharing a lot of information that week.  Here's your pictures fellas.  Sorry for the delay.

Ken Miller with his 26 pound redfish

Tuesday we had a very good morning on the south end of the lake.  Rusty Korthauer of Tyler brought his son, Ryan, fishing as a treat for excelling in school and he graded out well on the water to boot.  We fished an outgoing tide most of the day and caught a very good box of trout up to four pounds.  We stayed with Assassins and quarter ounce heads even though the larger trout were holding fairly shallow.  We struggled early at the jetties, but finished strong in the lake.

I seldom if ever agree to fish four people, but we did it today and had a great trip.  I won't list their names only because I think they were supposed to be somewhere else....like work?  Anyway they are all very good fishermen and it took that to make it work.  I ran the troll motor and never made the first cast as we were battling a stiff outgoing tide and a hard southwest wind.

We were on the jetties at daylight and could have gone home with four limits by 8:30.  Their best fish pushed five pounds and most of the trout they kept were in the 2-3 pound class.  They also had two slot reds.  The water did not look good, but he fish didn't seem to care. 

Rusty and Ryan shared a great day on Sabine Lake

Right at daylight the big trout wanted a lighter colored Assassin fished tight against the rocks on a light jig head.  As the tide picked up momentum, they switched to heavier heads and continued to catch fish.  At one point, it was almost like pitching hydrilla for bass on Rayburn.  The seaweed was stacked against the rocks and you had to fish your way through it to get bit.  The fearsome foursome did just that and reeled in trout, seaweed and all.

Interestingly enough, we had one Gulp fisherman in the group and he went through far more redfish than the other three.  It didn't appear to help at all with the trout, but the reds chased the smell. We fished the south end of the lake and caught a few more trout while looking for redfish and the tide was still going out when we left at 2:30.  The water never did really clear up, but it really doesn't matter if the fish will keep biting!

Redfish Cup will test your mettle!

Brad Deslatte and I fished the Oberto's Redcup this weekend and I feel like I left the country.  We knew it was a shot in the dark, but we competed well and finished in the money at 13th place.  I was afraid to post anything last week because I wasn't even sure if I could talk to my wife without breaking a rule.  Thanks for your patience and thanks to all of the readers that emailed congratulations.  I also enjoyed meeting a lot of folks in the crowd that took the time to come up and say that they enjoyed the reports.

We stayed in the marsh and caught a lot of slot fish up to seven pounds.  We missed three or four more that would have helped, but I don't think they would have gotten us in the finals.  It doesn't take you long to realize that the Redcup is a big deal that requires both a lot of time and money to stay in the hunt.  My hat is off to the guys that stay on top every year!

The lake is turning back on in spite of all of the fresh water.  There has been a great bite at the jetties on both reds and specks, but I think most everyone knew that.  A lot of the local fishermen have taken advantage of flat water and done well at the short rigs as well.  If you haven't been to the jetties it has been a topwater and soft plastic bite.  Some days the channel is as good as the gulf side, especially if you have live shrimp.

There were some very good trout, not great numbers taken off the south end of the lake Saturday.  Some of the fish were caught on finger mullet free lined and drifted over shell in 5-7 feet of water.  There were also a few big trout up to six pounds taken out of the same area at daylight on pearl Skitterwalks.

Brad and I stopped on the way back to the weigh-in Saturday afternoon just to check the water in the mid-lake area and it had cleared considerably.  Once again, I appreciate your patience and I will be back on Sabine fishing with folks starting Tuesday.