Colburn's Sabine Connection

Break in the weather didn't help much!

I took off this weekend for the opening day of the Youth Baseball League and the weather could not have been better.  I spend a lot of time racing from the marina to the baseball field every evening this time of the year.  I help Chad Broussard coach a great bunch of seven and eight year old youngsters and I enjoy it every bit as much as fishing.  Free snow cones provide sufficient motivation and even foul balls are life changing accomplishments!

I got two reports off the lake(even while we had runners on base), but there was very little catching going on.  The wind wasn't as bad as it had been, but the water clarity was still pretty bad.  The only other guide I talked with caught two trout and four flounder off the Causeway reef before catching three big black drum on the jetties.  Most of the consistent catching continues to take place in the Entergy Outfall or around the Keith Lake chain.

The other report came out of Madam Johnsons and they had launched on the La. side of the lake.  They kept nine 17 to 20 inch rat reds and five small flounder that they caught on Gulp curly tail grubs.  If the wind gives us a break, I will probably be back on Big Lake Tuesday morning.

More fishing than catching for me on Sabine!

I postponed every trip this week, but still burned a lot of gas and covered a lot of water determined to figure out something on Sabine.  I am aware of the fact that the fish have to feed sometime, but I still haven't figured out where or when it is happening.   The water is badly off-colored, but we are struggling with more than the lack of confidence associated with fishing in the mud. Due to a howling wind everyday and the ongoing pipeline work, I have done very little catching. 

I initially hoped that it was going on in the evenings (we seldom fish late afternoons), but outside of a handful of terns working over small trout on the south end, we found little else.  Yesterday we ran the entire east shoreline, all of the bayous, and the  game reserve and caught only a few small reds and a couple of flounder.  The water clarity was a little better than the lake, but not a whole lot better.

Because it gets more expensive each day to hunt fish, there are few boats on the water. With very few folks excited about wasting gas, there are not many dependable resources to help minimize some of the running. I saw no more than 4 or 5 boats on the lake the past few days and they were huddled in East Pass and Black's.

If I have failed to call you back to re-schedule, I apologize and have not forgotten about you.  I will start filling in some tentative dates tonight to assure you a date, but you don't want to fish on Sabine with me right now.  We are still getting in most of our trips and doing well on Big lake if that is an acceptable option for you.    

More wind than predicted, but at least we could fish!

It was good to get back out on the water after losing several days to "unfishable" winds, but the catching part was more difficult than expected.  The weatherman blew it with his forecast for light winds as we fought a very tough wind from about 10 a.m. on.

We fished Big Lake and worked birds on the north end until the wind picked up.  It was a very easy bite, but most of the trout were small fish.  We ran to the southeast corner to get out of the wind and caught several rat reds and three slot fish up to six pounds.  Most of the lake had pretty good clarity, but the north end was still dirty.  We never fished the east bank as most of the traffic was over there all day so I do not know how good or bad that protected water looked.

We finished up drifting in Turner's with Texas Roach Assassins and put two solid trout in the box before calling it a day.  I got several calls from friends fishing Sabine while on the water and they were struggling with very dirty water and the unexpected 20 mph wind.  I still think Big lake is the best option for right now, especially with the birds working when the wind is tolerable.

If the weather gives us a break, we will be back on the lake most of next week. Until then, I hope you can share a blessed and enjoyable Easter with the family!

Much too pretty not to fish!

The gale force winds finally stopped for at least one day, but I was taking care of other obligations.  We tried to get on the water only one time in the past four days and just could not do it...at least not do it and expect to get paid!  Once again, I appreciate all of the e-mails any time I miss a few days of posting reports.  They may possibly alert my wife to the fact that I might be dead and not still out on the water.  I have a bad habit of keeping folks on the water a long time when the fish just will not cooperate.

We are going to fish Calcasieu again tomorrow, but I did get a pair of respectable reports off Sabine tonight.  One group finished with five flounder, three reds, and seven trout that they caught drifting the causeway reef and fishing spinner baits on the La. shoreline.  Their trout were small (still Texas legal), but their flounder were solid fish and the reds they kept were in the upper end of the slot.

Les Burnet said they quit at noon to go to a baseball game, but they kept nine trout and a red that they caught under terns just south of Green's out in the lake.  They hit two other groups of terns just west of the pipeline, but the trout were small. They caught all of their fish on chrome-blue back Traps.  Both groups said the water was in bad shape, but at least the wind wasn't blowing and the fish were there and feeding.   

Wind beating up spring break fishermen!

The wind, regardless of which direction it chose to blow, has been non-stop since last Thursday.  It seems like we have fished in a big wind every day for the past two months, but 25mph-plus eliminates too much water.   We were pinned down Friday on Big Lake, but managed to have a decent day on trout only because the fishing pressure was light.  We caught our fish drifting the shallow flats with a MirrOlip and tails either bounced off the bottom or fished under a cork.

Saturday, the wind blew even harder until late in the afternoon and every place that afforded a little protection and a chance to catch fish was covered up. I had a group elect to wait out the wind the remainder of the weekend and finally agree to reschedule when we awoke to the same wind and a little rain to boot.  They were holding up at the gambling boats in Lake Charles each day and it was proving to be more expensive than fishing.  They were obviously very unlucky as I seldom talk with anyone that doesn't win every time they go over there!

The good news on Big Lake was that in spite off all of the wind, the water clarity was still in pretty good shape.  The bad news is that if this wind doesn't give us a break pretty soon, I might have to trade in my boat for another tractor and clear land for a while.  With the cost of diesel, that may not be an option either!

I talked with Capt. Mike Rector and he said that they ran a lot of backwater on Sabine this week and it was as muddy as the main lake.  It will take a little more than the wind to let up for Sabine to get really good, but the bite can start up again overnight on Big Lake!

Good weather, good company, good fishing

I fished Calcasieu today with Adam Jaynes and we took advantage of a very good weather day.  Adam recently acquired his Captain's license and is ready to do business.  He is going to be a credit to the profession for a lot of years!

We had intended to look at a lot of water today, but we found the fish at the second stop we made and just hung in there once the wind picked up.  Adam picked up two solid trout with a Corky on an early wade in Turner's, but we had no tide and really couldn't get anything going.

This nice trout ate a MirrOlure jerkbait.

We ran further south and found the mullet and the trout on a flat in less than two feet of water.  We caught and released one 27-inch trout and kept Adam a very nice mess of 17 to 19 inch trout for a fish fry.  Adam caught one of those fish on a Corky Fat Boy and we caught the rest of them, including the big fish, on a Mirrolip...a minnow type jerkbait.

We ran back to Turner's late and caught and relased at least a dozen more trout on Texas Roach Assassins.  We found those fish holding over five feet of shell, but they were hard to stay on due to the wind.  Captain Adam ran me back to the launch aound 5 p.m. so that I could get back to a meeting and he went back out.  I haven't had a chance to talk with him tonight so I don't know how he finished up.

The water was still pretty dirty on the west side of Turner's, but looked pretty good everywhere else.  Water even half that clear on Sabine would save us a lot of gas money!

No big fish for us today.

The water was a little dirtier on Big lake today than it was yesterday.  There was no problem with the water temperature as it was right around 60 degrees everywhere we fished.  The area we fished yesterday was really beat up today and the wind was blowing right in our face. We never turned over the first big trout all day long.  We caught most of our trout in the afternoon for some reason.  Prior to that, it was two small trout and a bunch of rat reds.

Once again, the tide was ripping out all day long like someone pulled the plug.  Not surprisingly, much of West Cove was badly off-colored today, but that area usually clears up quickly.  For that matter, the water in the northeast corner was still pretty clear since it was protected from the wind.

We caught our trout and redfish on a Mirrolure jerkbait and Sea Shads in red shad and Texas Roach.  We did not see any gulls working over fish today which was a little unusual even with the stiff north wind.  All of our fish came out of four feet of water or less.

I talked with two very good Sabine Lake fishermen at the grocery store tonight and they were disgusted as they had been catching trout even when it was pretty darn muddy.  They intended to wade, but saw no reason to even get out of their boat.  They drifted two flats on the La. shoreline and caught one small rat red in four hours.  If it will clear up just a little bit we can catch fish, but it is soooo dirty right now!

Sabine Lake is DIRTY...Big Lake is GOOD!

We fished Sabine yesterday and it was bad.  I cannot recall ever seeing it as dirty.  The Dredge Hole, Madam Johnson's, and Blacks were not much better.  We got blown out of the lake later in the morning, but it wouldn't have mattered.

We took a chance on a front arriving a little later than predicted and did well on Big Lake today.  We were looking for a big fish and got our shot just prior to exiting in a hurry.  I never carry a net when wading, but it would have paid off today.  The big trout had only the tail hook of a Top Dog hung on the outside of her jaw and we missed our one shot at grabbing her.

I have no idea how many trout we caught before we ever got around to wading.  We found two groups of gulls working over trout and reds.  We caught and released a bunch of fish with a shad colored swim bait and a morning glory Assassin.  The water clarity was pretty good, but this rain may mess it up a little.  I will know more after tomorrow's trip. 

Early "reef bite" might be the real deal!

It was bittersweet driving off yesterday knowing that we were leaving a very good bite that we would not be able to fish today.  We took advantage of a front that was slow to get here, but it is making up for the late arrival right now.

I compared notes with Robbie Trahan, a good young guide out of Johnson's Bayou at the Holder Show Wednesday and he had caught a few fish on the Causeway reef the day before.  He had to finesse them, but the more important news was that he caught trout.  We fished that same water about two hours the same day and could not figure them out.  Robbie is especially tough on the south end of the lake!

Yesterday was all together different.  We found terns working over small trout chasing shrimp to the surface so there was little doubt that the fish we were marking were trout.  We had one nice flounder, two slot reds, and fourteen trout up to three pounds when we left to check out some backwater spots.  We caught every one of those fish on morning glory Sea Shads rigged on 1/8th ounce heads in 8-12 feet of water.

We caught one more slot red, three more keeper flounder, and released two trout over five-pounds before hastily leaving in order to beat the wind change.  The water still looked bad, even the backwater, but the fish were there and that is all that matters.  We never made it north of the dredge hole to see what that water looked like. We caught the two larger trout on bone She Pups, but the rest of the fish ate a spinnerbait.

With gas prices continuing to rise daily, I hope that these reports can help you pass on the tougher fishing and, more importantly, at least get you into the most productive water without a lot of running.  I appreciate the positive responses and respect those that do not want their information shared, but even the bad reports help me eliminate long fishless runs.

If we can get the Causeway reef bite going it will save folks that just want a consistent bite a lot of running.  It has long been a community hole so it is no big secret.  As long as you are courteous and do not cut off anyone's drift, you should not have to worry about the super stars glaring at you like you are stealing.

To consistently catch reef fish, regardless of the amount of traffic... control the speed of your drift, check different depths looking for both bait and fish on the depthfinder, and carry more colors of plastic than you ever thought you would need.  We also have days when a five or six inch tail produces better than a shorter version or sometimes it is just the opposite.

Last, but not least, I think braid is a tremendous advantage for this type fishing, but remember that it floats and your jig will not sink as quickly.  As a rule, I have to fish a head about an 1/8th of an ounce heavier than I do with mono.  I also use a fluorocarbon leader only because you can break a rod tip or possibly take on water trying to free a jig that hangs up on straight braid!         

Trout trying to cooperate in a very dirty lake!

Very seldom does canceling a trip at the last minute work out best for both parties, but that was the case Saturday.  In spite of the favorable weather forecast, my client sweated out his daughter's playoff game right up to the last minute. They won and qualified for the championship .  I can think of no better reason for postponing a fishing trip.

That gave me a chance to get back out and hunt on Sabine again and we had a very good day.  We ran far enough south in a thick fog to find a little better water clarity and the fish were there.  We started the morning with a couple of nice slot reds, which came as no surprise, and then began to peck away at 18-21 inch trout the remainder of the day.

Had we not spent two hours checking out the Causeway reef we would have done even better.  There was a ton of bait on the reef and fish as well, but we could not make them bite.  We returned to the clearer water( about 8-10 inches of visibility) and the trout were still there.  We had a big incoming tide and there was a lot of bait in the area.  We found water temperature ranging from 63 to 69 degrees.

We caught almost all of our trout on Assassins rigged on one-eighth ounce heads.  We fished a southeast wind most of the morning, it did switch around part of the day, and just repeated long drifts.  We caught fish as shallow as two feet and as deep as five feet.  We missed far more fish than we kept and still finished with 12 very nice trout and three redfish.

The trout may well move again before we can get back out due to the wind predictions, but it was nice to see that there are still trout in Sabine lake.  We got only one bite on the Causeway reefs, but I think they are going to light off in the very near future.  If you have not been on Sabine in a while, cross the pipeline only between the posts designating a crossing area.  The dredge material is within 2 to 2 1/2 feet below the surface on either side of these cut throughs.