Colburn's Sabine Connection

Catching getting better everyday!

I am not much on fishing weekends, especially holiday weekends, but the weather was perfect and the crowd was not as bad as expected.  I had some folks that don't get to fish very often so we tied on plastics and fished a more user friendly program. 

We have done well all week on some great trout with suspending lures and top waters, but that is a tough gig if you don't fish much.  I hoped we would find a few more birds working, but we did well fishing the passes and cuts with Sea shads in hot chicken and Texas Roach.  We caught a ton of small trout and rat reds, but still finished with a very good catch of trout and one nice flounder. 

Unlike the big fish we have been catching wading and fishing suspended lures, most of these fish were in the 15 to 19 inch class.  We caught our trout in either 3 to 5 feet of water or 15 to 18 feet of water.  The shallow fish stayed active even when the tide slowed, but the deeper fish shut it down between changes.

I did talk with some folks that fished late and they found the reds working under birds in the mid-lake area.  They caught and released several limits with gold Traps and black magic sand eels.  We probably caught 25 rat reds and never caught the first slot fish.  We saw a couple caught south of coffee ground and I talked with folks that caught a few on spinnerbaits around Willow Bayou.

It has been enjoyable just getting better weather and being able to put together several different programs over the past week.  The sow trout are full of eggs so it wouldn't surprise me to see some heavy fish over the next month or so.  You have to weigh them in to win any STAR money, but I hope folks will continue to catch and release their larger fish at least through the spawn.  

   

Check your safety gear and be patient!

I almost missed a heck of a bite yesterday.  I was gassing up the boat when I realized that I had left my GP/'depth finder at the house. (That is still better than leaving every rod in the truck!) I knew that Henry Abel and Rob Holt would get here early so I elected to fish with out it rather than run back to the house.  I don't know how many times I looked down at the console during the day and nothing was there.

As it was, I think we were still late. I had two 4 to 5 pound trout on the first two casts and it was just crazy for the first thirty minutes.  We never caught a trout over six pounds, but only a couple of the fish they kept were under 21-inches.  We got a shot at one really big fish, but did not get as many chances as we have been getting of late.

We passed on the wade bite at dawn, but I told Calem Atkins and Sam Coco where we had been fishing and they did well with top waters for the first hour.  Sam already has a big trout in the freezer waiting on a taxidermist, but he said he would have had two had he not broken off the largest trout he has ever hung.  We caught up with them later in the morning and they were catching trout on top waters under the birds.  Sam was still talking about that fish.

I feel certain it will be wall to wall boats tomorrow if the weather holds.  The only saving grace may be the fact that there is a decent bite all the way from the jetties to East Pass.  Working the birds could be very frustrating.  We checked out a single bird and both Henry and Rob had a fish on when 3 other boats roared in on them.  If one bird will do it.. a whole flock could well result in bay rage!

Enjoy the weekend, be safe, and make sure you have all your gear in order.....fire extinguishers, throw cushions, horn or whistle, running lights, etc.

  

Big trout are on the move again!

We really had a crazy week of fishing. Thursday was the only day that was was tough from start to finish due to a wind that never cut us any slack, but we still managed to catch a few solid trout and and five slot reds.  We caught every fish drifting the flats with red shad and chicken on a chain Assassins. The following day, Kevin and Kyle Johnson joined me and we ran straight to the marsh and boxed a few reds before challenging the lake.

 Kevin and Kyle with a pair of solid keepers!

When we got out there, the wind wasn't that bad early and Kevin picked up a nice flounder right off the bat.  We added two more reds and four trout before the wind picked up.  We caught most of our fish drifting the flats on the La. shoreline fishing Texas Roach Assassins. We had canceled the trip three other times due to the wind and finally just ran out of days as Kyle leaves Tuesday morning for basic training at Fort Benning.  It was a privilege just sharing the day with them!

 Jim and Steve got it going early under a small group of terns.

Earlier in the week Steve and Jim Osborne fished with me and we caught some big trout on everything from Mirrodine XL's to 5-inch Chicken on a chain Assassins.  It was reasonably calm at daylight and we caught several trout in the 4 to 5-pound class under a small bunch of terns.  We caught our larger fish after the wind started blowing drifting in 4 to 6 feet of water.

We are getting very close to the kickoff of the annual STAR tournament and most of the fish that we did not release were full of eggs.  In spite of winds that seem to never quit, much of the lake is pretty clear and there are patches of green water all over the lake.  The water in the river and the bayous is in great shape as well.

If you didn't get a swing at a big trout this winter, you need to get on the water soon.  The wind is still a problem, but we have it going on pretty good right now!  

Lighter winds produce heavier catches!

We have finally gotten back to back to back days of moderate wind and the trout bite on Sabine has improved.  The teams fishing the Cabela's event on Sabine this weekend caught trout all the way from Lighthouse Cove to Black's Bayou on everything from Corkies to topwaters.

 Trey Selman helped his dad,Tom, and James Sparrrow win 3rd place and big trout! 

Brian Frederick and Gary McElduff won the event with 10 fish-33.47 pounds.  Aaron Hommel and Adam Jaynes made a big charge the second day to finish second with 28.58 pounds. Tom Selman fished with James Sparrow and his son, Trey, and fisnished third with 28.39-pounds while earning big trout honors as well with a 6.91-pound fish.

 Braydon Wood won $500 for catching winning redfish. 

Teams could add a third member if the youngster was under the age of 16 and the addition paid off for the Selman team as well as the Waltrip-Linscomb team.  Tom was quick to point out that his son, Trey, contributed to the their final catches both days and Braydon Wood earned Waltrip and Linscomb $500 by catching the winning red.

 Brian Frederick and Gary McElduff earned !st place check with 33.47 pounds.
 

It looks like we should have a decent weather week and the bite will only get more user-friendly.  The fact that several of the teams reported good bird action on the south end should really open things up.  Maybe it will thin out the crowds in Lighthouse Cove and around Green's.

Good weather...good company...good fishing!

We unexpectedly found ourselves in clear water with a light wind most of Friday morning.  We only fished the east side of the lake, but I can promise you the water over there was as pretty as I have seen it this year.  A big incoming tide had the water pushed up in the grass and the bait was up in there as well.

Wade and Kelly French joined me for the day and we were in the redfish from dawn until about 12:30.  After the wind picked up we moved and never found the fish again.  I have no idea how many redfish we went through, but Kelly caught the first three starting with her first cast of the day. She caught all of her fish on Gulp, but we also caught them on spinner baits and red shad Assassins.

 Kelly used a Gulp shrimp to catch em early and often!
 

We kept a few for a redfish on the half shell dinner once back in Tyler and threw everything else back.  I was a little surprised that we never caught any over sized reds having gone through as many fish as we did.  We saw one group of terns working over schooling fish, but we never caught the first trout.

I couldn't make the  Day 1 weigh in at the Cabelas Trout tournament here in Orange today, but apparently some of those guys found the trout.  They could not have asked for better conditons before the rain moved in and they took advantage of the light winds.  It looks like the wind will give them a break tomorrow as well and with 17-pounds topping the leader board first place money is still up for grabs.

I made a mistake Friday by stopping at the store on my way home with my boat still hooked up.  When I got home I discovered that  I hadn't put every thing away and it belongs to someone else now.  I hope they really like to fish, but I am thinking that going fishing with better equipment wasn't the motive behind the shopping spree.  It was my fault for not taking the time to put everything away!   

The wind is still the boss!

The wind just will not give us a break.  For that reason I have spent far more time on Big Lake than here on Sabine, but even that program has been blown out the past two days.  We found some really good trout on a shallow flat in the main lake early last week and the wind has been the only thing to slow the bite.

Unlike here on Sabine, the water has just been beautiful on the tide change and the bait is all over the lake.  We started out catching our better trout on topwaters, but by the end of the week we were catching everything on Corkies.  We caught several 27-inch fish and one 29-inch fish that we didn't weigh.  We haven't kept a single trout and have picked them up just long enough to get a few pictures.

On both Thursday and Saturday, the redfish moved in and killed the bite.  At least they were good redfish.  We did catch a few trout up to 3-pounds the day before we found these fish drifting the southwest corner of West Cove.  There were a few birds working and the water was green, but  we had big fish on the brain and left them pretty quickly.

Two things while on the subject of Corkies.  Our better fish are hitting a Fat Boy or Devil when they will hit nothing else.  Also, if you are running low I don't believe anyone currently has more in stock than Terry's Reel Repair on 39th street in Groves.  I think they will be easier to get next year, but I pick up a few as insurance every chance I get! 

I am fishing over here the rest of the week, but it looks like we will either fish tight to the La. shoreline or in the river.  The flounder are starting to move again and the redfish are doing their thing when you can get to them.  Any time the wind lets up it has been "game on" in the lake, but that hasn't been an option the past two days.

Everything has been a month late this year and the wind was no longer a problem after the first week of May last year.  I hope that we are not going to have to deal with this kind of wind the entire month.  The Cabela's Speckled Trout kicks off Saturday out of the City boat ramp on Simmons drive in Orange.  I think the winning fish will come out of the ship channel or off Big Lake.  Someone may sneak in with a good catch out of Keith Lake or Bessie Heights, but the Lighthouse Cove area is semi-protected and has already produced some very solid fish.   

Trout still eating Corkies

Time for just a quick report before we hit it again after lunch. We made an unplanned trip yesterday which usually proves to be the most productive outside of the fact that it doesn't pay well and caught 12 to 15 trout up to six pounds and a pile of slot reds.

The fish were chasing finger mullet over shallow shell.  We caught the trout on Spooks and Corky Fatboys. After the reds destroyed a Corky or two, we switched to 5-inch Assassins rigged on 1/8th ounce heads. The trout did not want the tails, but we did catch one or two more on the Spook.  Today could hardly be described as a scouting trip as I already know the fish are there, but we missed a couple of really nice trout that I would like to give a second chance.

If the wind continues to blow less than 15 mph the bite could just explode around here!