Colburn's Sabine Connection

Fishing still good following Friday's downpour!

As a rule I hate fishing weekends, but I really enjoyed the past two days.  Saturday was cold and overcast most of the day and I expected the great bite we had been enjoying to fall off a little following the downpour on Friday.  What we did not expect to find were birds working over 17 to 20 inch trout from daylight until noon!  We left them a couple of times to check other patterns, but they were hard to ignore.

We checked the bayous out to determine what size fish were moving just long enough to catch and release several small reds and box one 22 inch fish for supper.  We caught a lot of very nice trout drifting 3-5 feet of water with Assassins and Tidal Surge Split Tails in pumpkin and Morning Glory.  We never caught the first trout working two flats that had been very productive with Catch V's and She Dogs. The water was in good shape, but we saw very little bait on the surface. 

It was cold and gray when eight year old Willie Brown boated his first speck.

We left the landing this morning in a misting rain and a stiff northeast wind made it seem even colder.  Chris Jelinek treated his brother-in-law, Bill Brown and his two youngsters, Gracie Ann and Willie, to some saltwater fishing on Sabine and it initially appeared that even after re-scheduling, we were still saddled with a tough weather day.

As luck would have it when you are praying for an easy bite, the gulls worked only briefly at daylight, but both kids managed to catch a few keepers before they quit.  Initially we were doing the casting and they were doing the catching, but by the end of the day, both of them were casting their own rods and doing their own catching!

Gracie was proud of her speck, but the gloves were staying on.

A slow incoming tide most of the morning didn't help us much with Plan B.  We had been catching limits of redfish anytime we wanted on an outgoing tide, but they were not there with the water coming in.  We still managed to put together a decent catch of reds and trout fishing isolated patches of shell in Middle Pass with Assassins and Spoiler Shads.

When the tide finally started out, the redfish and the kids just went nuts.  I do not know how many redfish we caught in a forty-five minute span, but it was a bunch as we had several doubles and triples amongst the squeals of delight.  We only saved a few so they could try redfish on the halfshell, but it was a great way to finish the day.

They will be eating fish at the Jelinek's tomorrow!

The water in the river looked pretty bad, but the bayous and the lake had about a foot of visibility.  The trout were full of small shrimp while the reds had either crabs or mullet in their stomachs.  We are still catching keeper flounder while fishing for reds on the shorelines.  The surface temperature dropped from 55 to 53 Saturday, but we found some 57 degree water today.  If the predicted front comes on in we will surely see even colder surface temperatures this week.   

Wrong place at the right time!

Yesterday was very much a case of staying in the wrong place at the right time.  After about nine in the morning, anywhere around Sabine was the wrong place.  We were doing well on both trout and redfish prior to the storm's arrival and narrowly missed getting pounded.  We hid out in the River Rat and ate shrimpburgers until it passed only to be greeted by clear skies and a twenty mph north wind.

Murray releases another nice red!

The areas that were good that morning were blown out that afternoon.  We eventually hid on one short stretch of shoreline in east pass all afternoon and caught slot reds virtually non-stop. We limited on fish in the 20-23 inch class in the first fifteen minutes and caught and released even better fish until we just called it a day.

The water in East Pass was prettier than the river, but there were still lots of fish in the river that morning.  We also had a huge outgoing tide in the evening.  We picked up our two largest trout, 4-5 pound fish, on a break just north of the DuPont Outfall.  We did not see a lot of bait on the surface, but the salinity must still be decent. 

Two good days of fishing before breaking for Christmas

We were treated to slightly different conditions Saturday morning.  The gulls that worked the day before were no where to be found and a stiff southeast wind was already paving the way for the rapidly approaching cold front at daylight.  There was no doubt a serious blow was on the way.

We ran to the southeast shoreline and fished a hundred yard stretch of shoreline all morning long.  It was protected from the wind and the water clarity was very good.  Both redfish and trout were feeding anywhere from right against the shoreline out to 25 yards from the grass on finger mullet and small shrimp.

We caught fish consistently for three hours before the wind switched around.  Our largest slot red was only 24 inches and we had a couple of trout that were in the 20 inch range, but all of the fish were solid keepers.  We stuck with the same lures as the day before and I do not think one out performed the others.  We threw a Creme Spoiler Shad, a pumpkin Assassin, and a new penny Gulp Shrimp.

We were almost back when the bottom dropped out and the north wind started blowing gravel across the parking lot at The River Rat.  It didn't last long, but it was raining sideways for a little while.

The water was still in the 60-62 degree range Saturday.  It will drop right back down into the mid-50's by tomorrow, but I don't look for the bite to change much except for the gull action.  That has to be just about over.  The best new of all has been that any time we have struggled over the past couple of weeks we just run to the shoreline and continue catching redfish.

I will be back on the water the day after Christmas, but I am on the way to Church this morning and I am going to celebrate Christmas Monday and Tuesday.  I am even more appreciative of the privilege of sharing this special time of the year with our kids and grandkids when I think about the families with young soldiers that cannot do the same.  That privilege comes at a high price and I urge you to take a moment Christmas morning to pray for their families and their safe return. 

I appreciate the many kind words and e-mails this past week and wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas!

Ideal conditions after yesterday's downpour

It was a little chillier than expected early in the day, but we could not have asked for better conditions from start to finish.  Wade French and Sam George drove down from Tyler for a two day trip and we can only hope tomorrow turns out as well with some pretty stiff winds predicted.

We had a very strong outgoing tide this morning and it pulled a lot of water out of the bayous and river.  It started back in during the early afternoon.  The water in the lake still looked very good and we found some 61 degree water after lunch.

Sam George with red that ate a Hoginar under the gulls.

You could pretty much choose your flock of gulls early and that bite lasted longer than it has in a while.  Most of the trout were keepers, but they were not as large as they have been.  The slot reds made up for that as most of the birds we worked were holding over at least a few reds.  Pumpkin Chartreuse Sea Shads, Hoginars, and a shad colored Creme Spoiler Shad produced all of our fish.

The majority of our better fish, both trout and reds, came off the upper end of the lake.  When the gulls quit...don't pass on the terns as they were ratting out some pretty good bunches of reds today.  We caught our largest trout bouncing plastics off the bottom.

Radio show host can catch em, too!

At last, you now have a picture of "The Voice" on KOGT radio.  Gary Stelly took a little time off today and met me at the River Rat Marina right after recording "Let's Go Fishing" on the radio.  Nothing like put up or shut up when the host of the show is looking for proof!

! Gary enjoyed the pull, but he's still a bass fisherman

We had a very enjoyable day and the fish cooperated.  We stuck with Assassins and Creme Spoiler Shads to catch a good box of slot reds and trout.  We found the trout under the birds on a very calm lake and they were all in that 18-20 inch range.  We also found trout with the same lures fishing both East and Middle Pass with no birds around.

We had a hard incoming tide all afternoon and it is a good thing we did or it would have been difficult getting the boat back on the trailer.  Most of the redfish were right on the bank and all of our slot fish were taken after the tide started in for us.  We caught very few rat reds which is a huge change from this time last year.

Redfish everywhere!

Our intention was to run out long enough to get some shots for a sponsor after lunch, but that didn't take long and since we were already on the water.....!  The Louisiana shoreline was protected from a chilly breeze and there was bait everywhere.

We limited on reds in about twenty minutes and played for another two hours.  I have no idea how many fish we caught and released, but it was wild.  We could have caught them on anything, but we stuck with a Creme spoiler shad and a Texas Roach Assassin.

I was concerned earlier in the year that all of those small reds we caught last year had not grown the extra inch or two to put them into the slot.  Forget that.  Even the short reds have been 18-19 inches and that makes for a lot of fun as a red that size can pull your string.

The gulls are still working early in the morning over very solid trout, but they haven't shown back up in the late afternoon.  We had pretty decent water clarity considering how blown out the marshes were following that big north wind.  Most of the water we fished was 55-57 degrees.

Short pants one day....long johns the next!

I dried out soggy bags of Assassins and swim baits today.  It poured early, but it didn't take a ripping north wind long to blow it all out.  I was initially worried that they had missed yet another forecast and I had missed an opportunity.  They didn't and I am glad I stayed home.

You had to make a bumpy ride to get to protected water the past couple of days, but there was a very decent bite to be had in the muggy conditions.  We caught seven or eight very good trout yesterday afternoon on chartreuse-red head Top Dog Jrs. and a pile of slot redfish.  That is not a color I normally throw, but I was pretty much a spectator and the net man until I switched.  We did catch a lot of our reds on bone diamond Assassins, but I think they would have eaten anythging once they started,

Our largest trout may have weighed five pounds and we never turned over anything that looked any larger.  We were fishing isolated shell in 3-5 feet of water, but we saw some good fish taken right off the shoreline by a group of waders. The water looked great and the amount of bait on the flats only increased later in the evening.

Every time we get the trout half way figured out, the weather changes and so do they.  I hope the larger fish will bunch up again like they did following the last cold front.  We were fishing 68 degree water yesterday and the big trout showed up when the water was averaging about 56 degrees. 

Tomorrow the wind is going to blow.... or maybe not.

It seems that it never fails. A group of very good fishermen out of Houston that fish with me several times each year tried to pick the best wind-day on Monday and chose Tuesday.  The wind was blowing well before daylight and only got worse.  We caught both reds and trout on a flat early on Catch V's and Assassins, but it was not an easy bite.

We ran back into the river at noon and picked up a few more keeper trout, but it was a struggle all day long.  At the end of the day, the box looked pretty good, but the ratio of fish per cast was bad.

Today the wind was supposed to be even worse according to the earlier forecast.  How about foggy and not a breath of air most of the morning.  I waded with a group on Big Lake for a change of pace and it was a good trip. Fred Connors caught a 28 inch trout on the third cast and everyone caught fish up to four pounds.  We probably caught 10-15 slot reds and that was unusual for me on Big lake this time of the year.

Joel Saunders and I caught our fish (trout and redfish) on electric chicken Catch V's and a Morning Glory Assassin.  Most of the others caught their fish on Corkys.  Joel and I both lost a couple of big fish, but they could have been reds as we never saw them.  All of the fish were in three feet of water or less!

As it turns out, I could have stayed here on Sabine and done just as well.  I told a friend where we found our fish yesterday and he limited on trout in the first hour, make that the second hour as he was lost in the fog the first hour, and caught and released redfish until he decided to go home.  Those fish were hanging on two small patches of shell in 3.5 feet of water.

I hate cold weather, but I am ready for these trout to get back on a mullet diet and stack up on the flats like they were two weeks ago.  It may happen again early next week!

Every fish is big when you are five years old!

I fished with Doug Reynolds and Bill Vautrain Friday and we had a pretty solid day.  We were unable to get back on the big trout that we had been catching on the flats, but we finished with a very respectable catch of trout and redfish in spite of the wind.

Doug and Bill with four nice slot reds.

We caught all of our trout under the gulls on the north end very early.  There were lots of birds working at daylight. When that bite slowed for us, we caught our slot reds and a few small flounder working the shoreline and a shell bank off East pass.  We caught a couple of the reds on Hoginars, but most everything else hit a pumpkin or glow chartreuse Assassin or Split Tail.

"So they have spots on em.....huh?"

Today I enjoyed a bus man's holiday and took my eight -year old grandson, Andrew, and his cousins Connor and Jordan, fishing.  We fished cut mullet all afternoon and had a big time with the drum and redfish.  I think they enjoyed driving the boat and digging through tackle as much as fishing, but they did in fact keep score. Jordan is the youngest, at five, but he caught his fair share of their 26 fish.

Five year old Jordan takes his fishing seriously!

They are not the least bit discreet about their fish catching. They loudly celebrated every fish from the initial bite until the the two fighting over netting rights wrestled the fish over the side of the boat.  We did not keep a single fish, but we got our money's worth out of every bite!

The wind blew pretty good all evening and we had a very low tide, but the bite was still very good in East Pass.  I had been seeing gulls working over trout every evening, but they didn't show today.  The water temperature was up to 62 degrees and off-colored well up into the bayous.

Slot reds everywhere...big trout were hard to find today.

We had yet another very good day today.  We were covered up with gulls working over 16-18 inch trout the first hour or so, but they broke up pretty quickly.  We could have easily limited before the tires were dry on the boat trailer.  When we caught three quick keepers under the first group of gulls we stayed in the area well after the birds left and continued to catch and release keeper trout.

We did not catch as many big fish as we have been catching on my mid-morning pattern and I think it was due to water clarity more than anything else.  We did pick up two big trout, but the flat that had been the best for me lately was badly off-colored.  For that matter, so was most of the lake.

We started fishing for redfish around noon and I have no idea how many slot reds we caught and released over a two hour period.  It took about ten minutes to limit on 22-25 inch fish and we just caught and released reds non-stop the rest of day.  For the first time this year, it is starting to look as though all of those 17-19 inch fish we caught last year did in fact grow up and stick around.

We had a slow outgoing tide most of the day and the water dropped out pretty good.  A fairly stiff wind pounded the La. shoreline most of the day and that did not help our program at all.  The water around Johnson Bayou and Green's was much dirtier than it has been.  We found water temperature in the lake anywhere from 57- 59 degrees.