Colburn's Sabine Connection

Today's down pour won't help the cause!

The weather forecast for today proved to be a tad conservative as I was forced off the water very early  due to a driving rain.  I could hardly see the bow of the boat when I quit and it was worse than that by the time I got the boat on the trailer.  Between lightning bolts and a gusting wind, it was tough just getting home.

As a matter of fact, it was so bad that I was embarrassed to be seen pulling my boat through town. It quickly cleared out due to a 25 mph west wind, but the damage was already done.  The bayous were on the rise again and every ditch in Orange County was full.  The water temperature was in the low fifties, but it will undoubtedly drop a little if we get some colder weather out of this.

Before the front hit, the bayous were clearing a little which in turn helps out the river, but this was a set back.  It is going to be very tuff on Sabine for a few days!   

Some wade fishermen more innovative!

We scouted Calcasieu yesterday in hopes that it was in better shape than Sabine Lake.  We fished a stretch of shoreline in West Cove that looked decent and managed to catch 11 keeper trout.  I called  Johnny Cormier who was fishing the north end at that time and  He had caught a few keeper trout, but said the north end looked pretty bad also.

The water we fished was 54 degrees, but we couldn't get bit on a topwater.  We caught every trout and one other fish that I didn't know about on pumpkin-green Assassin eels rigged on 1/8th ounce jig heads.  We were so excited to be catching fish that we didn't try anything else.

About that other fish.  We ate gumbo with Jim's Mom when we got in and she was not surprised at her son's antics, but was still laughing when we left.  I cannot tell off completely on an old friend, but this was too innovative not to share with all wade fishermen.   

You are still Mom's little boy even when you are 60 years old! He has spent a considerable portion of his life in waders both trapping and in the pursuit of ducks and geese, but never fished in them prior to yesterday.  He only started fishing artificials two years ago as he was convinced that nets or live bait made things much easier.  Getting out of the boat to fish made absolutely no sense at all.

We only had one stringer between us and he would wade over, fish in hand, each time he caught a trout.  I saw him splashing around with a fish that I figured somehow eluded his powerful grip, but never gave it a second thought.  Only after we got back in the boat did he confess that a flounder that he had pinned against his chest came off the hook and fell inside his waders.  He uses the David Thibodaux technique for unhooking flounder both in and out of the boat, which leaves you with a very nasty t-shirt at the end of the day.

I asked him how he thought he could release it if it was too small after two hours in his waders and his answer did not surprise me.  "I could tell the minute it hit bottom and quit wiggling that it was a keeper."  This wade fishing thing might not work out with Mr. Jim!

We postponed today and may or may not get in the rest of the week, depending on the wind.  January weather is tough on the guide business.

Too much wind and rain for Sabine.

It is not all that unusual this time of the year to postpone parties for fear of bad weather only to scout and and do well anyway.  Such has not been the case the latter part of this week.  If you were one of the four groups that agreed to reschedule... be happy!  After getting completely shut down Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, I made a run today to assess the damage of all the runoff.  Things had indeed changed since Tuesday.

The flags on the courthouse tell the story each morning.  When they are starched in any direction it is not good!

Had I waited until this afternoon it would have been drier and a little warmer, but the grandkids were not going to miss the Mardi Gras parade.  The parade was much better than the fishing.  There were a few areas that were not too muddy, but for the most part, the north end was ugly.  I was surprised to see several boats on the water and hopefully some of them caught fish.

The bayous are just a little off-color right now.

We still have a lot of muddy water in both Adams and Cow Bayou to get rid of and it is supposed to start raining again Tuesday.  The water temperature was still in the mid-fifties which was a little warmer than I expected.  If it does continue to rain, we are going to spend a lot of time on Calcasieu hustling big trout over the next few weeks until Sabine Lake gets a little more user-friendly.   

No one along to enjoy the bite!

It doesn't say much for your prowess as a guide when you can't talk anyone at the marina into making a scouting trip with you.  After postponing scheduled trips for the remainder of the week due to some serious wind forecasts, I wasn't going to pass on today's perfect conditions.

Stripers on the grill not a bad Plan B for supper!

I returned to the same area we fished yesterday just before noon, climbed out of the boat, made a cast with a pumpkin Assassin and the bite was on.  As a matter of fact, I was pushing my Stake Out Stik a little deeper in the mud when the trout jerked the slack out of my line.  I intended to keep two or three trout for supper tonight, but I could not make myself fillet even one of the fourteen fish I caught before returning to the boat.

These were not seven and eight pound trout, but they were all in that 4-6 pound class and it is hard to justify killing those kind of trout when I can pick up a pizza on the way home.  I hate to fish by myself and there was  long list of names running through my mind that I wished were with me during the melee.

When it seemed that the bite might never end, I called Gene to see if he could get out, but he was busy trying to resurrect the stock market.  While we were talking, the trout pinned a school of mullet up against the bank and I ended the call in mid-conversation.  I caught 2 or 3 of those fish on a black-chartreuse Corky.

Thanks to a thunder shower that motivated me to run back closer to home and a small group of pelicans marking the spot, I still got to eat fish tonight.  They were all over a mix of stripers and reds chasing mullet in the mouth of a cut.  I Will never know if you could have caught them on anything in the box as I caught fish after fish for the better part of an hour on a firetiger colored Spoiler Shad.

Most of the reds I caught and released were slot fish and the largest striper may have weighed 12-14 pounds.  I kept two in the 6-8 pound class to put on the grill and they were good.  We will finish them off tomorrow.  I fished an outgoing tide all afternoon.  The river was muddy as were the bayous on the Texas side of the river, but the water in the lake was much improved.

The surface temperature in the river was 52 degrees, in the bayou it was 56 degrees, and in the open lake it was 54 degrees.  The entire time I was catching trout it was drizzling with very little wind.

 

I still haven't warmed up.

You really had to want to fish to stand in the water and cast today.  A biting northeast wind and 49 degree water made it difficult to keep your mind on your business.  We did catch seven very nice trout, but I did not actually participate in the catching part.

Three of us stood basically shoulder to shoulder casting to one small patch of shell on the Louisiana shoreline and I never got the first strike.  Lyle caught one 25-inch trout and his brother-in-law, Sean, caught the other six fish.  His largest trout was just over 27-inches and the others were all over 20-inches.  They didn't keep a single fish as they were just killing time before a wedding rehearsal.

I hadn't been on Sabine in a week, but the fish were still pretty much where we left them the week before.  The water didn't look too good, but there was bait in the area.  They caught every fish on a pumpkin-chartreuse Assassin rigged on a 1/16th ounce head.  We never got the first strike on another bait and we offered them a number of choices and colors.

If the weatherman is right, this is going to be a very difficult week due to big winds from every direction.  I also do not look for the water to warm up too much through the weekend.   

Rain hasn't hurt things too much...yet.

I awoke with every intention of working my way through a long list of "got to do jobs" yesterday, but a friend called and before I knew it we were back on Big Lake.  Two more jobs were added in pencil when I returned home last night, but I pleaded temporary insanity and even got supper out of the deal.  I did get some of them done today and scratched off several more that just didn't look that important.   

We decided to look at some different water Thursday afternoon and I now know why we did not catch any redfish Tuesday....they were all stacked up on one flat in less than two feet of water.  I caught a few on a topwater bait, but Gene just wore them out on a Crazy Croaker.  The water was still in very good shape after the rain on Wednesday.

We didn't spend much time on the north end of the lake, but those that did caught trout up to seven pounds.  Many of those fish, as well as one of the seven pound trout ate black-chartreuse Sand Eels. Two very good catches of trout were taken under the birds just south of Commissary Point.

The folks that caught those fish said it was wild  early that morning, but the gulls never showed back up in the afternoon.  They caught those fish on Gulp shrimp fished under popping corks.  I have never done this, but they used a small split shot and a straight shank hook rather than a jig head.

They hook it through the head until that end wears out, then turn it around and hook it through the tail and catch some more.  I mean....like its just hanging there.  They then save what is left to fish on the bottom in the ship channel for flounder.  They get their money's worth out of a pack of Gulp!

Running to Big Lake has been strictly by choice as I have not been disappointed with our trips on Sabine of late.  That said, I have either read or heard much better reports the last couple of days than I have been able to post.  It is quite possible that I need to hire a guide and start thinking outside the box.

The recent rains have hurt us more on Sabine than they have on Big lake, but that is to be expected.  The solid bite we had going has tapered off a little, but it still isn't bad.  A couple of local anglers that fish darn near as much as I do caught 11 trout up to four pounds and five keeper reds drifting between Johnson and Madam Johnson yesterday evening.  They said they never saw the first sign of bait and caught everyone of their fish on gold Traps!

 

Big Lake is heating up!

We called a trip off this morning due to all of the rain, but could not have asked for a more perfect day on Tuesday.  It was a little cooler than expected, but there was no wind and it was overcast all day long.  We fished Big Lake for the first time since Christmas and the fish are definitely doing their thing.

The lake was in fantastic shape.  We stayed in 3-4 feet of water all day long and you could see bottom everywhere we fished.  We caught a lot of quality trout up to four pounds, but never turned over a bragging size trout.  It wasn't because they weren't there, however, as we saw several sure enough big fish hustling mullet during the day.  There had been a good topwater bite of late, but we caught all of our trout on Corkies, Crazy Croakers, and Catch 2000's.

The water was 56 to 58 degrees and the fish were absolutely slamming the bait.  It was a blast as you could see them all most as soon as they turned on your lure.  Our best colors were pumpkin-chartreuse and chartreuse with pearl sides.  We spent most of the day on the north end of the lake, but Chuck fished some stuff west of the ship channel and did just as well with topwaters.

If you missed out last year and are still looking for a shot at a big trout, I wouldn't wait much longer to head this way.  There were a few really big trout caught in December, but it wasn't as solid as it will be over the next couple of months.The biggest difference in Big lake and Sabine for me is that I don't catch the numbers of trout over seven pounds on Sabine that I do on Big lake when it is going strong.  If the conditions are decent, we expect more than one shot at a big fish over the course of a day.

You do what you feel like you gotta do when you get to Big lake, but if you elect to wade, I would not advise anchoring the boat and covering up a quarter mile of shoreline with three or four waders.  The home folks are slowly getting used to seeing Texas anglers climb out of the boat to fish, but they still aren't going to give them too much acreage to get it done!         

January weather to kill for and a very good bite!

I really enjoyed meeting a number of new folks at the Houston Boat Show last night that said they found these reports helpful or at least found them to be entertaining when bored to death.  I also appreciate the folks that turned out for the seminar on a week night.

It was colder than anticipated this morning, but we could not have asked for a better day to fish.  Not unlike Wednesday , the trout did not let an outgoing tide slow them down.  We finished up one fish short of a very easy limit only because I miscounted.  It is always better to be one short than...!

We caught our fish at daylight on tails bumped off the shell in 6-9 feet of water.  Glow chartreuse was by far the best color.  The rest of the day we made long drifts in 2-5 feet of feet of water, but regardless of which flats we drifted, we found the majority of the trout holding in water from 3.6 to 4.1 feet deep.  We caught only a handful of fish any shallower or deeper.

We did not get even a single shot at a bragging size fish today, but all of the trout were very nice fish that I would never complain about if I could get them guaranteed for every trip.  We caught them on Corkies, Catch V's, and tails and once again missed a lot of fish that hit very light or just pulled off.  This has been a great opportunity to develop some confidence in fishing suspended baits as we are getting lots of swings.

The water we fished was 58 at daylight and bumping 60 by mid-afternoon.The water clarity was much better in the north portion of the lake.  This has been an unusually good bite for me for this time of the year.  As a rule it is feast or famine, but this bite has really been consistent.  It gets a little scary when it is this easy in the winter.

I am starting to think that I have it all figured out which inevitably results in a wet butt and a zero on the next trip. The only thing that can make it any more enjoyable right now is for those big fish to start showing up again and I think we are very close!   

It was textbook winter trout fishing today!

We left the landing at daylight under very cloudy skies and a stiff northeast breeze.  The ugly start gave way to perfect conditions later in the morning, but we were saddled with an outgoing tide all day.  We started on a 8-12 foot break in East Pass with soft plastics and caught two solid trout very quickly.

Mike Anding fooled the best fish with a Catch V

We then moved to the flats and drift fished 3-5 feet of water with Catch V's and Corkies.  Mike Anding caught our best trout of the day, a five pound plus fish, on a Catch V, but I believe most of the fish we kept were caught on Corkies.  We pulled off far more fish than we kept, caught and released several more 16-18 inch fish, and boxed 12 trout from 3-5 pounds.  Surprisingly enough, we never caught the first redfish!

The water temperature on the flats we fished ranged from 58 to 61 degrees.  The water was still in very good shape, even in the river, following yesterday's downpour.  The fish were right where they should be this time of the year for the first time since last week's colder weather.  If these conditions hold, look for some really big fish to start showing up.

I will be at the Houston Boat Show all day Thursday.  Prior to doing a seminar that night I will be at the CastAway booth most of the day so drop by and we'll at least talk about fishing.  I'll be back on the water Friday and Saturday and hopefully get to file another decent report.

If you haven't gotten anything on the books yet, give me a call or drop me an e-mail.  We have had a surprising number of new folks already book dates and it is always easier to cancel than hope for a last minute opening! 

It was tought today, but promising.

Not surprisingly, aided by a wind that limited the water we could fish, the trout won again today.  We stayed in the lake until the early afternoon and never saw the first boat.  For the most part, we just checked spots and kept moving concerned that we were on the clock as far as the wind was concerned.

We were able to get to the La. shoreline early before the southeast wind got too bad and the water was in great shape.  We missed two good fish and caught and released a pair of 17 inch trout right off the bat in three feet of water.  The water temperature was back up to 59 degrees today.

We later caught and released a few rat reds before saving a limit of slot fish to eat.  The redfish were out on the open flats hustling small shrimp and mullet. Most of the fish hit suspending crankbaits or Assassins.  When we quit, the tide was still going out.