Colburn's Sabine Connection

We left it going on!

The gulls are working a little better again with less wind, but the most consistent bite is still very early for us.  After getting pounded early by the rain the day before, Brian Bommer and daughter, Kate, met me at the landing before daylight Thursday in hopes that it wouldn't rain until later in the day. Well...it didn't storm until 9:00 anyway.

 This nice trout hit just before the storm arrived.
 

It could not have been better for the first couple of hours as we were covered up with redfish and some very solid trout up to 6 pounds.  The trout were eating topwaters and a five-inch Assassin under a Kwik Cork while the reds were hitting top waters, Creme Spoiler Shads, and spinner baits.  All of the fish  were chasing shrimp and mullet in less than three feet of water.

We held on until it looked like we were surrounded by the perfect storm and a cool wind started picking up speed.  We almost made it back before the rain got us.  We spent the next couple of hours in the river hoping it would blow through and when it appeared that it had, we returned to the lake just to see.  The lake was dead calm again and we immediately found a flock of gulls working over reds and 16 to 19-inch trout.

About noon we decide to call it a day and headed back to the landing.  We were smack in the middle of the river when we saw a mixed group of gulls, cormorants, and egrets pecking on the surface.  I very nearly ran on by them, but curiosity got the best of me and we decided to make one more stop.  We caught keeper trout after keeper trout on Sea shads and topwaters until we could stand it no longer.  I never get a last minute reprieve like that when I've struggled all day just to catch a few fish!

We passed another boat doing the same thing in the river across from Old Cow bayou.  I have no doubt that the evening bite is as strong as the morning bite, but I haven't given it a try.  The wind dirtied the water up a little on the north end, but it hasn't hurt the bite at all. If you get out this weekend I would not bet the bank roll on finding lots of birds.  Just be patient, find some bait on the surface on a shallow flat, and tie on a topwater.....and go early!

For best results.....start early!

I fished with Steve and Bruce Burns the past two days and it has been HOT and STILL!  We spent a little time in training Monday as they don't have a chance to do much bay fishing, but we were good to go by the following morning.  Steve said it was a little different than catching goggle-eye with a Zebco in a farm tank! The big trout were very shallow at first light both mornings and they were looking for the nearest topwater.

 Every morning should start this way!
 

I picked up one fish in the 6 pound class and another 5 pound fish on back to back casts Monday morning, but I learned 40 years ago that clients do not pay to watch you catch fish.  By the time we got every one lined out, the bite had slowed and we caught only two more solid fish.  This morning was much different as Bruce landed a 25-inch trout right off the bat and his Dad picked up a 3 to 4 pound fish.  We left the area with 6 solid fish and unlike the day before, elected to drift flats rather than chase the birds.

We found some more very solid trout hanging in 4 to 6 feet of water, but never caught the first redfish.  We were swimming 5-inch Assassins and fishing the same tail under a Kwik cork, but the gafftops finally ran us off the cork.  We did, however, catch some huge gafftop before we decided to abandon the cork program.

Either I didn't run far enough south the day before or we just hit the wrong schools, but we didn't get much more than a bunch of dinks out of the gull chasing Monday.  We made one long round just to cool off about 1 p.m. today and never saw the first bird and very little bait on the surface.  The early morning bite is very good, but it hasn't been lasting long each day. 

No complaints this week!

The conditions have been the same every day this week and I am not complaining.  We have been getting a very early start due to the heat and humidity and the wind has not been a factor until around 11:00 o'clock.  Its a Catch 22 scenario as the wind really makes it tough to find fish feeding under the birds, but you would melt down with out it!

 Mickey cashed in on the early morning bite with this nice red.
 

We fished a different flat every morning and found trout and reds fishing top waters and 5-inch Assassins under Kwik Corks.  We stayed with that program until we just could not squeeze out another fish before running the open lake in search of reds and trout under the gulls.  We never found any fish under the birds yesterday due to a little stiffer wind, but that was the only day.

The clarity is great everywhere except the Causeway area and it isn't too bad there.  We have started running into small schools of redfish banging away at shad on the surface and that comes as no surprise with the amount of bait now  in the lake.  The lake has been flat on our initial run of the morning and we are running through shad and mullet from the time we hit East Pass until we stop, regardless of which direction we run.

When we failed to find any gulls after having a decent morning on the flats Friday, we went back to those flats and caught our largest trout of the day between noon and 1:30.  We caught those fish on Creme Spoiler Shads and 5-inch Texas Roach Assassins.  Every where we have fished this week and regardless of what we threw, we could not escape the gafftops and I am talking about a lot of 5-pound plus fish.

 Flounder like this are hard to ignore!
  

I also think there is a heck of a flounder bite going on right now, but we have not even given it a shot.  Most every morning we have picked up one or two big flatfish drifting the flats and we have seen them come out of the water chasing the small shad parading down the shoreline.

I am going to do baseball, Church, and put things back together this weekend, but we'll hit it again Monday morning.  If you get out this weekend,take along more water than you thought you would ever need, a hat, and a bucket of sunscreen!

  

It has been good the past two days!

We have enjoyed back to back good days for the first time in a week and it is strictly due to the wind giving us a break.  We have started each day off well with topwaters and then chased gulls all over the lake the remainder of the morning.

Tuesday was the first time this summer that I have had a herd of reds school on the surface and it is as exciting now as it ever was.  There were no birds around, but they should have been as lots of stuff was dying in the middle of the melee.

Today was crazy in that everytime I put the troll motor down my phone rang and someone had a bite going on that I needed to see.  So I did just that on 3 separate occasions and the move paid off each time!

We caught both reds and some very solid trout on topwaters early on the south end and spent the remainder of the morning waiting out the birds.  I really thought at one point that they may not show, but they cranked it up around noon and it was a good bite.  We caught fish on Assassins and Swim Baits until the clients cried "Uncle".  They were still enjoying the bite, but the heat and humidity was tough.

I made a pass around Blue Buck and the Reef, but the water wasn't nearly as pretty as it was in the mid-lake area and around the Gator Hole.  By the time the wind started blowing we had already cleaned fish and were done.  We are starting to see those big balls of shad in the open lake and the fish are right behind them.

The wind is supposed to be favorable again tomorrow, but it looks like it may be a little rough Friday.  I talked with some folks this evening that said they have been doing very well on the Causeway reef right at dark, but I haven't tried it myself.  Not a lot of gull activity, but a very good topwater bite.

Got it wrong again!

It never fails. Because I couldn't trust any more of these 5 to 10 mph wind forecasts we postponned today's trip and once again I scouted when I should have guided.  We decided to catch some finger mullet and try the live bait bite, but never used the first mullet. The wind was blowing, but the birds worked anyway. 

After catching bait in Old River Cove we immediately ran into two small flocks of gulls.  The first group, if you can calll 3 birds a group, was working over a school of redfish that ranged from 19-inches to way too big to keep.  The second bunch of birds, which included more terns than gulls, was working over small shad and they were solid trout.  Both groups were working on the lake side of the ICW between Stewts and Sidney Island.

The water looked better in the ICW than it did in the lake, but the fish were holding in the dirtier water.  It wasn't dirty like it was back in February, but it wasn't nearly as pretty as the water on the southeast side of the lake.  I did talk with two different goups that caught trout on live bait, but we still haven't given it a try.  They caught their fish in the river so I obviously ran right on by that bite!

Wind didn't make it any easier this week!

We elected to postpone tomorrow's trip for fear that the wind will not lie as predicted by reliable sources like weather underground.  I wonder what their forecast would say each night if they had to sit in a 14-foot aluminum boat in the middle of the lake and type something in.  I bet it wouldn't read, "south winds 5 to 10. lake waters smooth."

 J.R. Smith tricked this beautiful 9-pound redfish with a morning glory Assassin.

It is not that the wind has just shut us down, but it eliminates a lot of productive water.  We did get totally blown out Saturday morning, but we managed to find some trout and very nice redfish Thursday and Friday in spite of the wind.  The water still looks very good in most of the lake so we are only one day of  light winds away from the great bite we had a week ago.

 A big incoming tide aided by the south wind has stacked the water up in the bayous and backwater lakes and I have not had a chance to explore that bite at all.  I will use tomorrow to check some of that water out.  Hopefully that bite will be on and we will have a great Plan B to turn to!

Wind has slowed the bite under the gulls.

The wind has been tough to deal with the past couple of days, but more so due to the fact that we have been unable to take advantage of the user-friendly bite under the gulls.  We virtually had the lake to ourselves Tuesday with overcast skies and a manageable wind.  We found solid trout under almost every flock we worked and kept two good limits of 2 to 3 pound fish before the lightning ran us off.

The wind picked up the pace Wednesday and Thursday and we had to fish right to catch fish again.  I wasted most of the morning betting the birds would work in the white caps before turning to plan B.  We didn't just kill them, but we salvaged the day with four nice slot reds and several solid trout.  We found the fish drifting one flat on the La. side of the lake.

We were drifting in a hurry, especially once we were well off the shoreline, but the fish were there.  The majority of our bites came out of 4 to 6 feet of water on Texas Roach or red flash Assassins.  We missed far more fish than we caught as it was tough keeping the slack out of your line.  The water on that side of the lake has not looked better than it did through today.  The wind could change it all over night, but I do not think that will happen.

There is a tremendous amount of bait in the open lake and the fish are holding tight well after the gulls leave.  Even in the white caps you can see the trout taking small brown shrimp off the surface.  Larry Strickland and a friend boated a 28-inch trout early Wednesday morning and ran straight to the weigh-in station.  The sow had already spawned out and didn't even make 7 pounds.  That is very unusual on Sabine and Calcasieu as our trout are heavy even when they are not spawning!

I don't think the spawn is over as many of the smaller fish we have cleaned are full of eggs.  If we don't hurt a trout during the spawn we try to put back the fat 23 to 24-inch fish.  They are the future if the oil doesn't come our way and snuff out everything from shrimp to muskrats.  I pray every night that I don't see the day when we gather round the kitchen table and tell the grandkids about fishing, poling the marshes at the break of day and all the simple joys that we took for granted. but cannot replace!   

The birds are doing their thing.

I woke up this morning looking for my church clothes before I realized it was Monday.  I very rarely guide on Sundays, but did so yesterday as a favor to a long time client with a small window in which to fish with one of his sons in for a visit.  We had a great day, but I have two weeks worth of stuff to do today before hitting the lake again tomorrow.

We had only one bad day in the past eight and that was due to the weather alone.  We sat at the landing for two hours due to the lightning and pouring rain, but gave it a try anyway.  We were left with a  stirred up lake and stiff wind the remainder of the day and it was brutal.

Every other day, including the very next day, the weather cooperated and so have the fish.  The calling card has been the gull action, which I hate but do because you just have to do it.  We have started each day looking for good trout on the shallow flats with top waters and Swim baits and managed to catch a few before running all over the lake looking for the right school of fish.

The bite on the La. shoreline has been a little slow, but the birds are everywhere else all the way from Middle Pass to Blue Buck.  Hands down, the best case scenario is finding better trout chasing both shrimp and ribbon fish well after the birds move on.  When that happens, you can stay with a school of good fish for a long time without attracting other fishermen.

 Larry Strickland caught this oversized red in the middle of some very nice trout.

I have not found any big schools of red in the open lake thus far, but we usually  manage to catch one or two good fish most days along with a lot of smaller rat reds.  We are also catching some bodacious gafftops under the birds which bodes well only for STAR tournament fishermen.  They can pull, but the fun ends at the side of the boat!

 Howard Watson won this battle with 10 pound test and a light action spinning rod.  You never know what's under the birds!

Howard Watson had a huge drum claim his Assassin Sea Shad while fishing the birds just north of Sidney Island and the fight was on Friday morning.  He eventually won the war with his light action spinning rod and 10 pound test mono and we released the beast after a few photos.

The lake is in great shape with far more bait on the surface on the south end than the north, but that hasn't made much difference to the fish.  The slowest bite to come around thus far has been the live bait bite and that could simply be due to the late shad hatch.

I very much hate chasing birds, but it is admittedly productive and a great time to get the kids into some easy catching.  Plan on going either early or late as the middle of the day is overly warm!