Colburn's Sabine Connection

You can't blame the weather!

I have had a lot going on that I never intended to have going on lately, but Iam trying to fish my way through it.  The weather certainly hasn't been a deterrent, as we have been able to fish any where we wanted to for the past week.

I fished with some special folks from Rogers Ark., Robert and Mary Haynes and Robert's Dad, last Friday and we caught some very solid flounder in the bayous.  We left the lake pretty early after waiting out a little more wind than we wanted to fish and caught the flounder, as well as a few trout and reds on Texas Roach Sea Shads and live shad.  We had a very weak outgoing tide, but it was enough to keep the fish moving most of the morning.

The following day, the flounder were still doing their thing as were a few slot reds, but the trout had disappeared.  The tide was even weaker, but the water still looked good.  Every fish hit either a black back Spoiler Shad,glow-chartreuse Sea Shad or soft mullet fished on a 1/8th ounce head.  The fish were also holding on the deeper breaks rather than around the mouths of the shallower cuts.

I am wasting a great weather day today, but you do what you have to do.  Hopefully, I will be back on the water for the next three days! 

Mosquitoes still bite in the rain!

I was determined to make a scouting run yesterday come hell or high water and it came both.  The hell came in the form of more mosquitoes than I have encountered all year long.  It never just poured, but it rained non-stop the entire time we were on the water.  I don't know how much more runoff or rain we will get today, but the water clarity was still good.

For the first time in a while, we could have fished birds the entire time and there were a few good fish under the gulls we did work.  There were a lot more gulls on the south end than up north.  We caught 3 or 4 very nice trout on MirrOdine Xl's fishing over shell west of Blue Buck and left them to chase schooling redfish eating anything that you could get in front of them.

We also caught a few solid trout on bone She Dogs working the shoreline between Green's and Garrison's Ridge. Most of those fish were holding a short cast off the shoreline.  I don't know if we missed something or not, but most of the boats we saw on the way back in (3 boats) were congregated on the barrel channel between Stewt's and Sidney and there were no birds working at that time.  They may have been chasing shooling reds in the rain.

After the first hour, I could get no wetter and had seen what I wanted to see.  Strictly out of laziness, I fished the remainder of the trip with  5-inch paddle tail Assassins rigged on a Mustad power lock plus hook that I found in my rain jacket pocket.  That is a weighted hook so the whole rig becomes just a longer Swim Bait.

Long story..short, we never found another bunch of fish that would not hit that rig as well as anything else we used.  That includes small throwback trout.  Didn't you need something else to spend your money on!

Grass bite slowed, but trout bite getting better!

Friday turned out good, but it was frustrating early.  You could not have asked for better conditions, but the fish were not impressed with the weather.  Sam Creel and Eric Robichaux were ready to go at daylight and we found a few birds working right out of the chute.  After catching a few small trout on plastics we switched to topwaters and I immediately pulled off a good trout on the first cast.

Sam and Eric both hooked solid fish and broke them off.  We were going through She Dogs like they were live bait.  We left the north end and ran to the flooded grass on the La. shoreline.  I missed one good red and we never got another strike.  That was a first as that bite has been money in the bank.

    Sam and Eric finally got their guide to take them to a good spot after lunch!

We then ran back north and I still could not find the fish.  Rather than waste the ideal conditions trying to make the lake work, I ran back to the river.  We bounced glow chartreuse and Texas Roach Sea Shads off the bottom in 15 to 18 feet of water and enjoyed a much better afternoon.

We kept four big slot reds and ten trout up to three pounds.  It never fails when you are pressing that you lose a lot of fish and that was the case as we easily lost as many keeper size trout as we boated.  We also went through a lot of smaller fish.

I couldn't find the reds in the grass again Saturday, but we didn't give them long to do their thing.  We found two good schools in the mid-lake area, but were even happier to find the trout on a flat on the north end in 3 to 5 feet of water.  Our best fish was only 4 pounds, but we caught a lot of fish swimming a 5-inch chicken on a chain Assassin rigged on a 1/16th ounce head.  We never saw the first gull or any bait, but were fortunate to spot a couple of slicks.

I don't recall ever seeing redfish schooling in the ICW, but we fished two different schools working shad on the way back in.  The fish were on the east side across from Cow bayou and they stayed up even with the barge traffic.  I wouldn't hang my hat on that bite, but I would at least give it a look if you pass that way running to the lake.  That action was taking place on an outgoing tide.   

Lake and river still in good shape in spite of daily rains!

I had every intention of running most of the lake today, but the wind changed those plans around noon.  It switched from a modest west-northwest breeze to due south and it was howling when we finally ran back into the river.

We found trout early fishing a Sea Shad under a Kwik Cork in 3 to 5 feet of water on the flats up on the north end.  We never caught any really good fish so we ran to the east side of the lake and fished submerged grass from the Gator Hole to Willow.  Most of the trout we caught in that area were small, but the reds were all slot fish.

Most of the lake is still very clear, but the wind has dirtied up the water on the La. shoreline a little.  It is clearer outside of the grass than inside.  We caught most of our fish on She Dogs and Assassins, but we did catch a few fish under the cork as well.  I don't know if the birds have been working that area, but there were more singles patrolling the area than we saw anywhere else.

The birds have been working over schooling redfish and some decent trout between Garrison's and Blue Buck early and late, but we didn't make it that far today.  We hit one or two spots in the river on the way in and caught some very nice trout on Spoiler Shads and a MirrOlure soft mullet.

While on the subject of MirrOlure, Mike Haring of Mainstream Marketing called me last night and confirmed the rumor that MirrOlure has indeed bought out Paul Brown and the Corky line.  Paul will continue to oversee the operation for a while and there will be no changes outside of the possible addition of some new colors.  Same wire harness, same plastic, paint, design, etc.

I think it will be sometime after Jan. 1, that we start seeing them on the shelf in any outdoor departments that handle the rest of the MirrOlure line.  This is great news for trout fishermen that live any distance at all from Houston.  You  never knew what Paul had left in stock until you walked in the door.  No more swimming for Corkies hung up a little deeper than your waders! 

We had 27 little league football players waiting on us to practice at 5:30 so I was unable to make the Orange Chapter CCA Banquet tonight.  It was their first one and I hope it went well.  They have a good core group of folks that have really worked hard this year to get the new chapter up and going! 

I don't do lightning, but I wouldn't let the rain stop me this weekend!

I don't think the bite will change very much this weekend even if the weatherman is right as we have done well the past three days. For the most part we were able to dodge a few of the heavier thunderstorms by moving around every time they closed off another area.  In spite of all of the rain, the water clarity in the river and the lake remains good.

The bite on the La. shoreline has been very good when you can hang in there and wait the fish out.  Tidal movement is always the name of the game, but the reds and a lot of small trout are biting when they want to rather than when I want them to.  Don't be too quick to write an area off if you were catching them there on your last trip.

We left redfish biting south of the Gator Hole yesterday around midday, but the day before we hit a number of good spots several times before they decided to turn it on.  We have done well with topwaters and spinnerbaits, but an Assassin rigged on an 1/8th ounce head has been the better  choice when the bite is tough.

Chicken on a chain rigged under a Kwik Cork fooled more fish than anyuthing else for us yesterday. We have also done better drifting a little deeper after the easy bite slows down.  We fished some flooded grass long enough to catch a few slot reds, but lost far more than we boated as they have the advantage in that submerged jungle!  

We have had very good tide changes which helps.  Every time I made a pass in the river this week we caught at least 2 or 3 nice flounder in 15 to 22 feet of water.  We caught them, as well as our slot reds and some decent trout on both live bait and plastics.  We found the trout schooling in two different locations in the river yesterday and just caught them cast after cast.  Most of them were small, but there were a few keepers mixed in and the action was non-stop!

If we get a lot of rain dumped on us this weekend it will hurt the river bite some, but the salinity level is very high right now.  I am still not seeing any birds working in the lake and the west side of the lake has been tough on me.  I have gotten two good reports on schooling reds between Blue Buck and the south revetment wall, but that action has been late in the evening and that doesn't work for me.

If there is no lightning involved, I would recommend putting on the rain gear and fishing in the rain this weekend.  It is good!

It is hard to do right!

I don't think that the water clarity in the Sabine River can get any better than it is right now.  For that matter, most of the lake is also just beautiful.  Gene Locke called Friday morning and said that he and Bob Crew already had his boat in the water and were waiting on me.  I threw away a growing "Things To Do" list, grabbed a cup of coffee and we were on the water twenty minutes later.

It was a laid back few hours of fishing and we caught reds, trout, and flounder before a thunderstorm sent us packing.  We easily caught the fish we kept fishing live bait in the river early, but found only small trout with spinnerbaits fishing the grass in the lake later that morning. I did talk with some folks at the game that night that limited on reds that evening fishing Traps behind Stewt's Island.

The following day I was again trying to do responsible things on dry ground only to find myself the victim of another invitation from a client that would not take no for an answer.  He was willing to fish for only a few hours and we did just that.

The conditions were perfect and rather than take advantage of the redfish, we ran straight to the revetment walls in search of trout.  Ryan caught the first fish on a Skitterwalk, but we caught most of our fish right against the rocks with a chrome/chartreuse Mirrodine XL.  They were all good fish from 19 to 24-inches.

On the way in, we drifted all the way from the north end of Pleasure Island to Stewts without ever picking up the troll motor and probably caught and released 10 to 15 more trout on the same lures.  Half of them at best would have been keepers had we been keeping fish. We did have a good fish pull off that may have been a red as we never saw it. We stayed in five feet of water for the entire drift which is about two feet deeper than I have been fishing.

I have not been seeing any birds working at all and this was the first reasonably consistent trout catching that I had done lately.  I will try fishing the flats a little deeper Monday and see if we have really found something or not.