Colburn's Sabine Connection

Too many big dirty waves!

I made a quick run this morning to see if things had improved at all on the north end of the lake and they had not.  The water is still high and dirty, the Neches and Sabine rivers are right at flood stage, and the wind continues to howl even at night.  It was white capping in the livewell before I ever left the dock this morning!

I have talked with some die-hard friends that made that wet ride across the lake twice last week and they caught limits of reds and a few flounder in the Game Reserve.  They said the water did not look good in the canals and that they caught all of their fish in flooded ponds.  Not being able to put together a pattern is one thing, but not being able to get on the lake is really frustrating.

As usual, I get far more emails when I fail to post for whatever reason than when I post on a regular basis.  In this case, it has been wind-related rather than my inability to operate my wife's computer. I always appreciate your own reports as they help me eliminate water even when you have done as poorly as I have been doing.  I value your information and share it only with your permission.

Thanks again and I will figure something out as soon as we can cover more water!       

Runoff and wind making it really tough!

I either canceled or rebooked everything for the past few days due to the weather and I still have not found enough fish to merit a paying trip.  "It's gonna get better" is starting to wear a little thin at this point.   

The wind didn't do us any favors again today, but we did find a little clearer water in some of the marsh drains.  It was actually just a different shade of brown, but it was an improvement.  We did manage to catch three solid flounder and several small reds while looking around.

The combination of all of the runoff from the weekend downpour and enough wind every day to keep the lake churned up has done us no favors. Because the saltier water is even deeper in the river right now, I look for the south end of the lake to recover the fastest. There are still plenty of fish in both the Sabine and Neches, but they are very hard to locate when they suspend in deeper water.

We'll keep looking, but I don't have much good to report so far.

  

Sabine Lake is tough right now!

Fortunately, it has been a long time since I drew a blank on Sabine Lake, but I did exactly that yesterday.  We fished the Causeway Reef on a big incoming tide until noon and could not catch a fish.  I don't know that muddy is the right word to describe the water clarity all over the lake, but 3 to 5 inches of visibility was pretty much the norm from East Pass to the Causeway.

The water was muddy in the one canal that we fished in Bessie Heights Tuesday, but we did manage to catch several small reds and eleven keeper flounder on GULP and glow chartreuse Sea Shads.  We found our fish holding closer to the open marsh than the river channel.  An outgoing tide provided the best bite.

With the bayous on the east side of the lake off-colored as well, until we get a break with the water clarity I think the ship channel, Causeway reef, and the jetties are your best shot at finding any numbers of trout.  Even in badly off-colored water wehad a couple of pretty good days on the reef recently, so that will be my starting point.  There have been a lot of redfish in that area even when we are not catching trout.

Dirty water and wind make for a week of tough fishing!

Waiting until the end of the week to post a report is much easier, but it tends to generate a lot of concerned email.There was really no reason to post early anyway as the one good bite we enjoyed early in the week got blown away by mid-week.

The bulging stomach on Malcolm's big flounder turned out to be an 8-inch mullet and a few small shrimp!

We fished Big Lake Wednesday hoping that the water had not dirtied up quite as badly as Sabine, but it was equally bad.  We only kept a few trout up to five pounds, one slot red and two nice flounder.  We never put anything solid together and the wind just got stronger throughout the day.  Most of the fish hit a GULP shrimp under a Kwik Cork, but the largest flounder hit a Corky.

I only thought that we caught trout in dirty water back in February. Johnny helped me Thursday and while his group caught only a few trout on Corkies...he did catch and release a 6-pound trout that found his Corky in water with zero visibility! 

We made a short, but very good trip on Sabine Thursday in spit of the wind only to have those fish disappear the next day.  The water was so dirty on the east side of the lake that our wake looked more like a rut in the road than a wake.  We only  had 3 or 4 inches of visibility at best, but both the trout and redfish bit well all the way through an incoming tide.  Most of the reds were slot fish, but we didn't have a trout over four pounds.

Friday the water was even dirtier on the north end of the lake so we ran straight to the south end.  We had about 10 to 12 inches of visibility on the incoming tide, but we lost it once the tide started pouring out. We went through far more redfish than trout, but the trout were there.  I talked with two groups that fished the south revetment wall and Causeway reefs after we left and they both caught limts of reds under the gulls in 4 to 7 feet of water late that evening.

We caught our fish in 11 to 13 feet of water early and a little shallower once the tide started out.  You could not have asked for better conditions other than the ugly water.  There was little or no wind all day long.  We ran the west side of the lake on the way back and it looked a little better until we reached the mid-lake area.

If the water will clear just a little this week, the grass on the east side of the lake and the causeway reefs are going to light up again.  We are not seeing the shrimp in the grass that we saw a week or so ago, but the fish are still there!      

Nice weather and a solid bite

We squeezed in four hours today on Big Lake today and did okay.  The weather was drastically different from yesterday.  We caught trout and small redfish under two flocks of gulls on the north end on plastics.  We then fished a short stretch of shoreline in West Cove and caught several nice flounder on GULP.

We caught our largest trout, a 26-inch fish, jerking a Bomber long A down over scattered shell.  The water in general looked a whole lot better than it does here on Sabine.  We caught a lot of 16 to 19 inch redfish on red shad Assassins under a Kwik Cork, but never caught a fish over 20-inches.

We talked with two groups of fishermen at the landing that limited on reds and had some nice flounder as well, but all of their reds were small.  They caught their fish on shrimp at the weirs.

I think we'll do Sabine tomorrow and hope for the best ahead of the next front. 

Johnny did good today!

Well, we never made it to the water today, but it was still a good day.  Fortunately we were headed to Big Lake rather than here on Sabine when the storm hit this morning.  We just turned around at Vinton and came back home.  Had we been fishing Sabine, we would have been on the water and that would have been an unpleasant trip back to the landing.

The other good news was that Capt. Johnny weathered the heart test with flying colors and he'll be ready to fish in a couple of days.  All they found was one little chunk of gumbo mud in one of his arteries which is pretty much the norm for a 63 year old coonass that wade fished all winter.  In all seriousness, God is good and I thank all of you for your prayers.  As usual, I received a lot of emails from lots of good folks!

I can't think of a better group to have praying for you than fishermen.  They get so much practice. Most of their prayers are short, to the point, and heart felt.  Ironically enough, I don't think most of them even realize how often they do pray, but I hear a handful every trip.  "Lord, please don't let the wind blow, Lord, please hold that front off a little longer, Please, Lord don't let this fish get off!"  See what I mean?

I repeat those same prayers and more each morning before the clients ever climb in the boat. Looks like the wind might lay down a little tonight so we will try it all over again tomorrow.

Flounder and reds keeping us afloat

The wind still won't give us much of a break and its shorts one day and a jacket the next, but the flounder have been saving the day.  We have been unable to put anything consistent together with the trout due in part to the wind and runoff from the recent rains.

The water has been up in the cane, but the flounder are holding in deeper water for some reason.  We haven't caught a fish over 3 pounds, but our keeper to throwback ratio has been good.  GULP, spinnerbaits, and Sea Shads sprayed with garlic scent have produced all of our fish.  The water on the south end of the lake does not look too bad following the incoming tide, but the north end is pretty beat up right now.

We have also picked up a few nice slot reds with the same baits.  We found a few reds on the rocks by Willow and the flats just south of Green's.  I haven't made it to the Causeway reef this week. but that may well be your best bet for trout right now.

We can use your prayers for Capt. Johnny tonight.  He has to undergo more extensive tests for a possible heart problem tomorrow and we are praying that his problems are minor.  Thanks!