Colburn's Sabine Connection

It is hard to pass on a bite like this!

I could not get back on the water fast enough after just watching yesterday.  I didn't pick up my rod all yesterday morning as I was afraid that we may not get many swings and I was right.  My client caught the trout he was after, but even after all of these years, I still find it difficult just coaching and watching when big trout are involved.

It was cold as heck when Gene and I hit the lake this morning, but we both caught a big trout in the first ten minutes on Catch V's.  I knew where we were going to be wading at dark so we just looked at a lot of new water over the course of the day.  I wanted a shot at a really big fish and I eventually got one right at dark.

A nice way to end the day!

Gene got the first swing when a big fish just crushed his Catch V and took to the air.  He and his fish went round and round several times in thigh deep water and I was trying to get the camera when the big sow came unbuttoned just as he reached for her.  You never know what they are going to weigh, but she certainly had the length. Another hour of casting produced not one strike and we decided to call it a day.

I had just pulled up the Stake Out Stick and already laid my rod on the bow of the boat when a slick popped up a short distance away. I grabbed my rod, flipped a Corky Devil just beyond the magic spot and it was on.  By the time I won the tug of war, there were more slicks all around us.  I feel certain we could have caught a few more fish, but we quickly snapped a few shots, turned her loose, and headed home.

She is back out there waiting on you. 

It took most of the day for the water temperature to climb back over the 55 degree mark.  An incoming tide has consistently produced the best numbers of big trout, but I would not pass up the morning bite.  We have still been catching fish early by fishing slower and working a little deeper water...4 to 5 feet until later in the day.

One more big one!

I had a client this morning that just could not make himself put her back so his personal best is now on the way to the taxidermist.  I can't post his picture because he was supposedly too sick to even answer the phone.  He will obviously have to wait a while to brag on his trophy.  I am sure he was sweating tonight's report, but he can exhale.....no name and no picture.

Since it was going to get stuffed come hell or high water we didn't measure the trout, but she weighed 8.68 pounds on his digital scales.  I will call and get the measurements and exact weight when he gets well enough to answer the phone. 

I was especially disappointed that we kept her only because she had great genes and was dumb as a stick.  Those are both positive traits as far as fishermen are concerned.  The healed over hole in one side of her mouth indicated she had probably been caught and released once before and the glow-chartreuse Sand eel hung in the roof of her mouth meant she must have recently broken some angler's heart!

We caught several more nice trout and a limit of reds, but never caught another trout that made six pounds.  The big fish hit a gold-black back 2000, but the majority of our trout ate Corkies and Catch V's.  We gave up some water temperature, but I feel certain it warmed back up some this evening.     

Squeezed out one more day on big trout before front!

We had our day made well before noon yesterday, but could not make ourselves go home knowing the cold front was on the way.  The day started foggy, but it didn't take a big south wind long to blow our program out.  The water was clear and 56  degrees at daylight and sandy and 60 degrees when we quit.

We caught a lot of large trout, kept nothing over five pounds, and missed several very nice fish drifting 3 to 5 feet of water with Catch V's and Corkies.  It was stupid good before the wind just wiped us out.  Much to my surprise, however, that was far from the end of the good bite.

I don't know of anyone (maybe Jerry Norris who hasn't fought it as hard of late) that has guided on Sabine Lake and I have never seen a wackier wind pattern than yesterday.  When we could no longer fish in the whitecaps pounding the La. shoreline between Bridge bayou and The Pines, I called Johnny Cormier who was fishing somewhere between Stewts and the North Revetment wall..

I was certain that the south wind had them blown out as well, but he thought I was kidding when I told him we were taking a beating. Just as he said, by the time we made it about half way across the lake, the waves were little more than a light chop.  In fact, It was so nice that we thought maybe the wind had just laid down and ran back across later only to get pounded again. 

I have never seen a south wind wipe out everything from Sidney Island to Coffee Ground while leaving everything from just past Sidney to Pleasure Island very fishable!

I am saving yesterday's pictures until I decide on one for my column in TSFMagazine, but you'll just have to believe me when I say that we have been on some BIG trout.  I do not share other folk's catches unless they agree, but there were also several more fish in the 7 to 8 pound class captured and released late yesterday.

I just love to sit down and report this kind of fishing as it does not happen for me as often as you may think.  I am frequently reminded through emails questioning my prowess as a guide that a large number of my posts are not very positive, but I just don't catch fish every trip with clients are even when scouting.

I would hope, however, that you would never pass up an opportunity for fish on Sabine based on my reports.  I post them with the intention of giving you a head start, not as a deterrent.  The good news is that it is a physical grind right now enduring the weather, but the big trout are on the move!     

Big wind and big trout!

It was just one of those really good days that you get if you fish enough bad ones. Its always a crap shoot in January and February, but every once in a while you hit it just right. I am thankful for one or two swings at a big trout each trip, but we got lots of swings today. We intended to wade all day long, but never got out of the boat due to a stiff wind out of the east that eventually swung around to the southeast.  It pounded us all day long.

Henry Able, Larry Berkman, and Rob Holt caught a pile of nice trout today.  Larry favors a burnt orange anything, but he wore them out on a pearl Fat boy!

We never found any water over 56 degrees, but the clarity was as good as I have seen it over the past couple of weeks.  We drifted a little deeper (3 to 5 feet) than I have been fishing and the trout were there.  We caught our first six keeper trout on 10W-40 Assassins, but the largest fish was only three pounds.

We switched to Corkies and Catch V's at that point and I don't think we caught another trout under three pounds the rest of the day.  We had two good tides and the bite never slowed down much.  We just caught a pile of 3 to 5 pound trout, kept one 6-pound fish, and released some larger.  We caught very few trout that didn't just inhale the lure.

I may have postponed my last trip due to wind.  We have already had three great trips this month on days when the wind has just howled that I tried to cancel.  Larry Berkman was on his game today catching our first 6-pound trout and several more 5's.  He caught every one of his fish on a Corky (his first time to use one) and had at least one more really big fish explode out of the whitecaps that he never felt hit his bait.  We were drifting fast and the waves were high at that point! 

We have caught a lot of big trout this month and I think it will only get better in February.  We are going to find out....wind or no wind! 

And I tried to cancel a good one again!

Kyle Couser and Johnny Cotten talked me out of postponing their trip Saturday and I am glad that they did.  When we talked Thursday the wind was supposed to howl Saturday and we would be fighting the rain and a fresh norther.  When we left the landing it was 65 degrees, dead calm, and overcast!

As soon as we entered the lake, we found small flocks of gulls working over slot redfish and that lasted until just before noon.  A light southwest wind then switched to a flag starching north wind and light rain.  We put on the rain gear and proceeded to beat on trout up to five pounds the remainder of the afternoon.

Johnny wore us out with his Crazy Croaker!

At times we were fishing in some pretty serious waves, but the fish could have cared less.  We were catching most of our trout on Corkies and Catch V's until I handed Johnny a pearl-chartreuse Crazy Croaker and he changed all of that.  He wore Kyle and me out until we quit for fear that we would not be able to get the boat on the trailer with the water pouring out of the bayous.  We were still catching fish every drift when we called in the dogs.

The water clarity was good and 58 degrees was pretty much the norm.  The redfish were feeding on very small shrimp in 4 to 6 feet of water.  The water was out again today, but the wind was not a problem.  I think we are going to have a southeast wind tomorrow, but we will just have to drift in a different direction.  Maybe the weatherman will miss it again!

Crummy conditions, but a better than average bite!

You just never know what to expect in January or February.  The wind switched around to the south today, but it was blowing pretty good in the afternoon and we also lost a couple of degrees of water temperature.  The warmest water we found was 55 degrees, but most of the lake was in the 53 degree range.  We still had about a foot of visibility, but 2 days of hard north winds really dirtied up some water that had been very good to us recently.

All told, we probably had a total of two hours of good action during the day, but it was a very good bite while it lasted.  Several times we both had fish on and I don't believe we caught a fish under 20-inches.  I left the landing wearing my waders, but we never got out of the boat.  We would drift into fish, stake out until they quit biting, and drift until we hit another bunch.

Our largest fish pushed 6-pounds and we released every fish we caught.  I was fishing a little different water in hopes of locating solid trout for clients later in the week and I hope these hang around.  We caught fish on Corkies, Catch V's, and pumpkin-chartreuse plastics.  We never caught a fish deeper than 3 1/2 feet deep.  We also never caught the first redfish. The majority of our trout were holding over scattered shell.

Can't catch a break with the wind!

Today was marginally better than yesterday in that we drank coffee and left the boat on the trailer long enough to see if the weatherman would get it right two days in a row.  He did, and not unlike Monday, a stiff wind only got stronger.

Yesterday, Albert Bates and I did not wait on the wind to get even worse and we paid a modest price for being impatient.  The possibility of sticking one big trout will do that to you.  There was lots of exposed mud in the bayous and no water at all in the shallow marshes.  In spite of back to back cold nights and a northwest wind, the water temperature was still 54 degrees and the water clarity in the lake was not bad.  End of good news!

Unwilling to cave in to Mother Nature we ran out in the lake and immediately got stuck on a flat several hundred yards off the ICW.  Only because it was Albert's boat, he had his waders with him, and he's 25 years younger, he climbed out and pushed us into deeper water.  I had even more good reasons had those proven inadequate!

Since we idled up on the flat rather than hit it running wide open, it was a short push to deeper water, but it was into the teeth of the wind.  When I put his troll motor down to turn the bow around, we also discovered that it had quit playing somewhere between our initial stop in the bayou and beaching.

Unable to chase redfish in the bayous or river without a trollmotor, we called in the dogs and returned to more mundane tasks like mowing, etc.  I just put my boat up and it may well be blowing harder than yesterday already, but I will not work in the yard two days in a row.

The waves were too big yesterday to see any bait activity, but the water was still clearer than expected even on a very low tide.  It looks like we may get a break tomorrow and we will try again.  We are lucky to get in a fifth of the trips booked in January and this year has been no different.                                                                                                     

Great conditions....bad guide!

It was icy cold at first light Wednesday morning, but there was very little wind and it warmed up nicely later in the day.  We caught some flounder early while waiting for the water to warm up, but I got it all wrong later.  I could not have asked for better conditions and it was obvious that we were in the middle of a lot of fish. We planned on wading in the afternoon and as soon as we drove up on the flat a trout broke the surface hustling mullet.

There were slicks all over the place and the water temperature had risen from 53.2 to 59 degrees.  I immediately missed two strikes and pulled off a good trout on a Catch V beforeTodd Armstrong had the same thing happen on a 2000.  Two casts later, a nice trout took my Corky Devil before it could even sink and we couldn't get our waders on fast enough.

We fished the next hour and a half without another strike.  Todd had never waded for trout, but he hung in there as long as he could before he had to get back.  Asking a client to stay later than he intended is a good idea only if the fish show and there was no guarantee that was going to happen.  When we left, the tide was starting in and there was a lot of bait in the area, but that was the first time I had fished with Todd and I wasn't willing to take a chance on keeping him out until dark on a hunch!

I talked with Albert Bates today and he said they indeed caught trout up to six pounds on suspending baits after the incoming tide picked up.  I saw him drift fishing a flat on the way in and he said they were catching their fish in about four feet of water.

The weekend might be tough once this front passes through, but the forecasts look better for next week at this point.  I was really surprised that the water clarity was as good as it was in parts of the lake.  Coffee Ground Cove just looked terrible as did the river, but the further south we ran, the better the water looked.   

One day out of three and no trout to boot!

The past three days have been anything but user-friendly.  I tried to get Clayton Ehlert on the water Wednesday while he was on his Christmas break.  After a heck of a year on the mound for the Aggie's last year, the Jr. pitcher knew it would be a steady diet of classes and baseball over the next several months and just wanted to get out.  We had a very small window of time as he has to go back to College Station this weekend.

Clayton worked on some very nice reds prior to returning to College Station and gearing up for baseball.  The Aggie hurler had no problem casting into the wind!

A big outgoing tide and steady 20 mph wind made it tough to even launch.  The north end of the lake had muddied up badly with the marsh sucked down to the mud and the wind just made it impossible.  We gave it up quickly and agreed to try again the following morning.  Robert Credeur proved there is always a Plan B as he was cleaning a couple of reds and three catfish when we limped back into the landing.  

Robert tookadvantage of Plan B on the river!

He caught his fish with cut bait fishing the main river channel.  he said the fish quit as soon as the tide quit going out.  His largest cat weighed 34 pounds.  That is a lot of fish on a rod and reel and 12 pound test!

The following morning the water was still very low, but the wind was manageable.  The water was even dirtier than the day before, but we found enough reds running the banks in 1 to 3 feet of water to keep us busy until early afternoon.  We missed far more than we landed, but it didn't matter as we were not keeping any fish anyway.   Clayton caught the largest red of the day, a 28-inch fish that weighed almost nine-pounds.

I tried to get on the water again today with Mr. and Mrs. Paul Laird, but we called it off due to the wind.  They didn't want to call off the trip until the last possible minute due to my track record for canceling only to find the weatherman missed again.  We all agreed the wind was howling this morning and we will do it another time.

I went from the penthouse to the outhouse in a hurry with my trout fishing this week.  My two best areas were either reduced to mud flats, getting pounded by the wind, or both and I did not catch the first trout.  I am more accustomed to dealing with cold muddy water this time of the year and that may well be the case next week.  The good new is that they are still around, no one is fishing them, and I will be back!  

It was as good as it can possibly get!

We are only five days into the new year and I already know that I will not have a better day on trout the remainder of the year than I did today.  I would like to think that I may catch a larger fish, but I will not catch more fish in the 25 to 27-inch class in a single outing.

We talked ourselves into canceling today's trip due to everything from predicted downpours to 20 mph north winds.  It was the third time in as many weeks that we have rescheduled and this time we made a mistake. When I awoke and there was no wind, I stood in the front yard in a drizzling rain until I could take it no longer.  When I shut the big engine down around noon, it was foggy and still raining, but the lake was flat.

 Now does this look like 20 mph north winds? It rained off and on, but you can't ask for better conditions than this!

I buried the Stakeout Stik and was putting on my waders when a slick popped up a short distance away.  I grabbed the nearest rod, made one cast with a pink Crazy Croaker, and won the battle with a trout that looked to be 6 to 7 pounds.  I didn't even know what lure I had thrown until I got the fish along side the boat.

After pulling off two more fish I switched to a Corky Devil with a larger hook.  I was debating on whether or not to get out of the boat when another slick popped up.  I didn't weigh the trout, but there was a time when I would have had her mounted. I removed the hook without ever touching her and she idled out of sight.  Maybe my grandson will catch her one day.

All I could think about during the incredible bite were clients still looking for even one trout over 6-pounds.  The only fish I weighed was a seven pounder that I picked up with the Boga to get my lure back.  I would guess that over a two hour period I easily had 16 to 18 fish, some a little smaller and some a little larger, and I left them biting to go check on redfish for a trip Wednesday.

The only other fishermanI saw all day long was Albert Bates and I urged him to go hit the spot.  I called him later to tell him I had found some more trout in the 3 to 5 pound class and he came and joined me.  He said he missed one fish in the short time he fished the first spot, but did not feel good about the Corky he was using.

I caught two more very nice trout before leaving it with him and he was fighting a trout when I left.  I was throwing a Corky Fat Boy and he was using a Catch V.  The fish on the first stop were in 2 1/2 feet of water, but the fish we were sharing at the end were in 4 to 5 feet of water.  The water was much dirtier than it had been, but the trout didn't seem to mind.