Colburn's Sabine Connection

The wind laid and the birds did their thing!

We drew a good weather day today.  Mike Denmon put together a big group and everyone caught fish.  It was a little windy on the east shore until ten, but it smoothed out after that and the birds worked all over the lake.  We caught nothing but small trout right out of the box and elected to go hunt redfish.

The boats that ran the revetment walls early caught some very nice trout, but figuring that would be a crowded area I decided to go waste three hours on the La. bank.  It was a little rough, but the water looked good.  I don't know why we couldn't get bit.

 We ran back to the middle of the lake and caught a zillion small trout and gafftop under the birds.  Once again, I apparently could just not get on the right flock as most everyone in sight was picking up a few solid trout under each group.  Our luck changed when we abandoned that program and found the reds schooled up in the middle of Coffee Ground Cove. Our largest fish was only 25-inches long, but they were all nice slot fish and were full of tiny shad.

We caught our best trout of the day just before quitting around 1:30 on a Geaux Naked She Dog and Swim Baits. When we got back in, everybody had a different favorite color for the day and they all had more trout than we did.  We were the only boat that did well on reds, but that was strictly due to finding that one school of fish about 150 yards off the bank in 4 feet of water.

Crystal white was apparently a very good color for catching keeper trout under the birds.  We fished glow chartreuse, bug juice and Texas Roach and caught a ton of trout, but very few keepers.  We caught every redfish on one of the new River 2 Sea Swim Baits.  I don't know the names of the colors yet, but one was a light green and the other looked more like a natural shad.  Mark and Fleet continued using them when we went back to chasing the birds and they did as well as I did with any of the tails I tried.

I don't know what the water on the revetment walls looked like, but the water we fished was silted up pretty badly and it still didn't slow the bite down.  Fishing the birds has never been my strong suit so don't pass them up based on this report.  I have had my share of great days chasing birds over the years, but I much prefer to fish a shallow water pattern or deep structure and more often than not they frustrate me more than they help me!

Mark Saner fed this nice red one of the new River 2 Sea Swim Baits.

You just gotta be tough to catch fish now!

It looks like we are going to get a little break in the wind tomorrow, but we definitely earned it. I walked out the front door of Daley's today and had to chase my hat down in the pasture next door!

I've got a group tomorrow, but I have canceled all but two groups over the past ten days. You can catch fish in this wind, but you are going to fish only where the wind allows and the ride to that limited area is not enjoyable. I have almost reached the point where I'll have to just suck it up and go or start filleting diedappers.

I made a quick three hour evening trip day before yesterday with a client that called to tell me that he had found a pattern that was wind proof. He already had his boat in the water when he called so it was simply a matter of leaving the ballpark and driving over to meet him. I will not devulge his name because he has been a great client and friend over the years, but I have been guiding (not just fishing) for 41 years and I never saw anyone execute a more disastrous cast with a six foot cast net! No....it was not Brad.

Before I could even pull the throttle back to neutral, he raced to the front deck and launched his net in the direction af a small group of finger mullet. The 30 mph plus wind instantly folded the net up like a soft taco and the entire wad of lead line and mono smacked him in an area just above the thighs and just below his navel. He mumbled something into the wind just prior to collapsing on the deck and breaking the tips off three rods.

Since he still had one rod that wasn't broken, I went ahead and caught a dozen or so mullet while he sat on the back deck and held a frozen two liter bottle of water between his legs and moaned. Other than pointing to where he had been catching the fish, he was of little use the rest of the afternoon. He did chum a little at one point, but the pizza floated.

I caught seven trout in the 2 to 3 pound class and two flounder before losing the last mullet. The fish were just stacked up in about fifteen feet of water and I missed as many as I hooked. All of this was taking place on the Bessie Heights side of the Neches and I very seldom fish over there. My friend's wife said that he is still walking funny, but she thinks it is legit based on the bruises.

I was fortunate enough to be at Daley's today when they finally unpacked what I hope will be just the first shipment of "River 2 Sea" Swim Baits. I haven't made the first cast with one, but they looked good enough that I left with 10 packs. The four colors they got in this order look even better than they did in the catalog, plus they are scented and still cheaper than any of the other Swim Baits I currently use.

Don't forget about the 37th annual S.A.L.T. Rodeo on Sabine this weekend. A single ticket will get you in both the inshore and offshore divisions and tickets can be purchased through Friday afternoon for the two day event. For tickets or more information call 409-736-3999.

 

Like Capt. Chuck says, "It was stupid good!"

We were having a pretty darned good day up until 1:30 Tuesday and then it went from good to what Chuck calls "stupid good'!

Shon was on leave from the Air Force and happy just to be out of a cold Montana even though our initial boat ride was a little on the chilly side. When his buddy, Justin, booked the trip it was freezing in Montana and 70 degrees here. Catching fish was just a bonus for him.

We started out the day fishing two feet of off-colored water with a bug juice Flats Minnow and a stinky pink Assassin and quickly picked up two keeper reds and a pair of trout. After catching several more near miss keeper reds we ran south and fished the grass around Willow and the Gator Hole. It wasn't great, but we caught a couple more keeper reds, three more trout and several throw back reds.

Shon and Justin really got after the redfish!

When the wind started lying down around noon we ran back north and quickly finished out our limit of reds. We caught and released several more slot reds before making one more circle through the lake just to see if the birds were going to work. We were probably a mile south of the fishing piers on the north revetment wall when we saw our first flock. By the time we left, maybe an hour or so later, we were covered up with birds and big redfish.

We had been culling down rather than up all morning trying to keep the better eating fish so we were very much in a catch and release mode by that time. i have no idea how many big reds we went through, but we were worn out when we just quit and the birds were still working. I am sure that you could have thrown anything in front of them, but Shon and Justin caught every one of those fish on a pearl/lime Tidal Surge Mullet and a roach Big Minnow.

I did totally screw up one shot at a great trout thinking it was another red and trying to quickly horse it to the boat and get out of their way. Justin had just picked up the net when she broke the surface and shook the lure loose right at the boat. She was big!

Ninety percent of the birds, and there were a lot of them, were terns feeding on tiny shad. We found some fish under them, but any time there was a gull or two mixed in it was money in the bank. The water was looking much better on the La. bank than even a day before and the water in the middle of the lake looked really good. Every trout we cleaned was full of eggs. We just need a little help with the wind for things to really break loose.

Mother Nature turned it up a notch Friday night!

We evidently really hacked off Mother Nature by beating up on her trout and reds Friday because she turned it up a notch Friday night. It was white capping in the live well Saturday morning and we hadn't even left the landing.

After just killing the fish the day before, Johnny and I found ourselves with two boat loads of customers and no where to fish. We joined the crowd hiding out on the north revetment wall for a while, but the bank fishermen were catching more fish on live shrimp under a cork than the boaters were. We were staring a very bad day right in the face when God sent us a school of hungry redfish just after noon and we were able to save the day in a couple of hours. We finished with 15 slot reds, three trout and a couple of flounder.

The reds were holding tight to the shoreline in less than three feet of water and reaping havoc on huge schools of shad and mullet. We caught them on Flats Minnows, Assassins and Swim Baits.

The wind wasn't quite as bad Sunday morning, but it was blowing hard enough to keep us off the La. bank anywhere south of Bridge Bayou. No, I don't normally fish Saturdays, must less a Sunday, but Brian Bommer had been on an all work and no play schedule for quite a while and his options were limited. His twins, Ben and Matt, joined us so it was a win-win no matter what, but catching fish made it a whole lot more enjoyable.

Ben and Matt wrestle another slot red aboard!

  We had to return to the same spot three times before the reds showed up, but they came back in with more recruits. We caught them on spinnerbiats, Gulp, Swim Baits and tails fished under a Kwik Cork. We caught red after red until we started talking about who had the best fried chicken and decided to call it a day. Bug Juice and chicken on a chain were our most productive colors and we stayed with the shorter paddle tail Assassins and Flats Minnows.

At least two other groups of folks took advantage of the lighter winds later in the day and they just hammered trout up to seven pounds on 5-inch tails and Topwaters. One of the groups fished 5-inch Assassins and topwaters while the other group fished a pink Skitterwalk and swam chicken on a chain Die Dappers on a 1/16th ounce head. Most of those trout were taken in less than three feet of water as well.

Darin Johnson says they still have openings for their free Kids tournament on the Island Saturday morning. The Sabine Neches CCA chapter is hosting the event and there will be awards, hot dogs and drinks served up at the final weigh-in. Daley's Fish n Hunt has also donated a fishing package for every child that enters. The event is open to children 12 and under and they must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. For more information call Darin at 409-790-9855.

It was absolutely crazy!

I would have never bet that we would have been blessed with a day like today while running across the Beaumont Civic Center parking lot in the pouring down rain and a stiff wind last night. There were a number of optimistic folks at the Golden Triangle CCA Banquet that did in fact speculate that today would be different. You guys were right!

In a word it was "perfect". We will not get any better conditions for the remainder of the year and I will not have a better catching day. My party canceled for fear that the weather would not blow through early and I just could not stand wasting those kind of conditions. Every one I talked with on the water had either already done well when I arrived or was doing well at the time.

I sat and watched Brad and two friends hammer some very nice trout under a group of gulls that held and held until I got tired of watching. Johnny pulled up around 10 o'clock and he had already caught trout up to six pounds fishing both the birds and slicks. He is working a big group with me tomorrow so he left and ran in one direction and I ran further south.

Over the next three hours I caught slot reds and several over sized fish on swim baits, topwaters and tails until I just wore out. I called Brad and they immediately ran over and finished out there limits pretty quickly. A little after noon I ran further south and more into the open lake west of the dredge hole and found several small flocks of gulls that were working over trout chasing shrimp and small ribbon fish.

I caught 10 or 15 fish on a glow-chartreuse Tidal Surge mullet and a Bug juice Flats Minnow rigged under a Kwik Cork. I switched to a She Dog to fish the next flock and the game changed instantly. The first trout was at least six pounds, then I caught 3 or 4 in the four pound class, pulled off a huge trout that I thought was a red until it got to the boat and finished up with a pig that just barely made 27-inches.

I had to get back for my Grandson's birthday party or I would still be there. When I released the last trout I cranked up the big engine and did not look back. I cleaned two reds for supper tomorrow night and made it home just in time. if the wind stays down it could be equally crazy tomorrow, but it can't possibly be any better!

One more thing. When I first found the redfish I was swimming a Die Dapper on a 1/8th ounce head and missing a lot of fish that actually ran a few feet before pulling off. I don't know if it was just the mood they were in or whatever, but I started letting them run a few feet rather than setting the hook immediately and I never missed another fish. If you experience the same thing give it a try before hitting the panic button and switching baits.

It is nice to look forward to fishing the next day again!

They're back!

I stood beside my boat yesterday, cell phone in hand, thinking "don't go...go...no don't go" for about twenty minutes. Based soley on the premise that "you don't know if you don't go", we decided to give it a shot. Suffice it to say that the 20 mph wind that gave us reason to pause at the landing was even worse on the water!

Once on the water, the bad news was that about 80 percent of the lake was blown out...the good news was that most of the La. shoreline was fishable and the water was still in good shape. I can't tell you where the trout went because we never caught the first one, but we caught redfish until we got tired of catching redfish and we caught them on a variety of lures in water from 1 to 5 feet deep!

We caught fish on tails, topwaters, Mirrodine Xl's and Swim baits and not one of them was a trout. The bite was akin to what we experienced all winter. Not unlike most folks, we probably did better on the trout on the north end and the revetment walls than we did on the La. side last week, but we still caught some solid trout in that area. We saw only two other boats all day and one of them was stuck in the middle of redfish as well.

I learned long ago not to cuss any bite, but I sure thought we had the trout thing turned around. The north end was really dirty and beat up, but I am anxious to get back over there as soon as we get a break in the wind to see if those trout moved as well.

Keith Daley over at Daley's Fish n Hunt called yesterday to say that they bit the bullet and put in an order big enough to convince a distributor to get them more of the Geaux Dawg Series She Dogs. I will let you know when they arrive right after I get more than two of the Geaux Trout this time. An over sized red is still wearing one of mine and the other has very little paint remaining!

Aside from going so far as to put an order aside for customers until they can can get over there after work, I have never seen any tackle dealer go to such great lengths to get virtually anything a customer asks for. We waited all fall for any retailer to get in an order of Assassin's Stinky Pink and the new Die Dappers. Daley's was able to get both on the rack a week after they opened their doors. Even as tight as money is right now, if it can be gotten they will bust their tail to get it for their customers!

I am headed their way right now as I am booked the remainder of the week. I look forward to visiting with at least some of you at the Golden Triangle CCA banquet tomorrow night.

The wind laid down and the fish have just gone nuts!

I still cannot believe that I was unable to take advantage of todays' weather. By 10 o'clock I had already gotten three calls from folks that were just killing both the redfish and the trout. One group had a 3-man limit by 8 o'clock, called a friend that wasn't even on the water and they launched and limited before lunch!

Brad called and said they were right in the middle of some great trout and catching them on both topwaters and tails. Julian Stith and his girlfriend called to tell me they had 13 trout with one over seven-pounds. I met them on the water yesterday and gave them some Bug Juice Flats Minnows and they are apparently Julian's new favorite bait. I am glad they worked for you and I appreciate the heads-up, Julian.

The unexpected frenzy actually started for me Wednesday on a short trip to check out a boat with two Houston clients. We wound up doing more fishing than boat riding and kept three reds and 14 trout. Thursday morning the wind was blowing a little harder out of the northeast than I anticipated so we didn't spend much time on those same fish. As it turned out, there wasn't a bad place to fish Thursday.

It is very unusual for me to fish only one client, but I enjoyed the day fishing with Monty Palmer of Pt. Neches. We limited pretty quickly on both redfish and trout up to five-pounds and spent the rest of the day checking out a number of other areas. We caught fish from the north revetement wall to Green's Bayou. We also caught far more redfish than trout in 2 to 3 feet of water. The better concentrations of trout were only slightly deeper and any time you found one fish you found several more in the same spot.

We caught our fish Wednesday with a pearl-lime tail Tidal Surge Mullet and did pretty good with it Friday as well, but there was no doubt that they wanted the Bug Juice Flats Minnow even more. I fished everything from Stinky Pink to Chicken on a chain just experimenting while Monte continued to hammer them with Bug Juice. I don't know what the water looked like on the south end of the lake, but it was in great shape everywhere we fished.

The only thing to bitch about Friday were the love bugs and gafftops and there were plenty of both. Hopefully, this will be the turning point for the daily gale force winds and we can start catching up on some of those canceled trips. If I haven't already called you give me a call and we will rebook while the bite is on. It is excellent right now!

River still a respectable Plan B

The conditions were completely different Thursday and Saturday, but we still did pretty well both days fishing Plan B. We probably could have fished the lake Thursday in a pretty stiff northeast wind, but I elected to stay in the river since that was the only place I had been able to scout.

Dr. Fred and one of his sons, David, fished with me and we had a good time with both the redfish and flounder. They fished exclusively with Gulp and a Swim Bait and I spent most of the day with a crankbait tied on. They caught all of the flounder and a few reds while I caught nothing but reds. I went though a lot of 18 to 19 inch fish, but there were some nice slot fish as well.

  Andrew still likes a spinner bait better than a crankbait and so did this red!

Saturday we weren't doing baseball for the first time in a while and my grandson and son-in-law were more than ready to get in a fishing trip. Darren shot pictures all day while Andrew joined me on the front deck and matched me cast for cast. The conditions were exactly opposite from Thursday, but the fish were still hanging in the same areas.

Saturday morning it was raining and the wind was just howling out of the south as soon as we hit the river. The water was all sucked out Thursday morning and up in the bushes on Saturday. We didn't catch as many flounder because Andrew stuck with a spinner bait while I threw the crankbait. He did not like throwing the lighter crankbait in the wind!

Fortunately, the river has proven to be a very good plan B at a time of the year when I don't normally fish it very much. The crank bait bite has been a change and enjoyable and there are some really nice flounder to be caught, but i am more than ready for the wind to let up so that we can get back into the lake.

They must have had a tournament out of Lake Charles Saturday as a steady parade of bay boats and flats boats ran past us in the ICW around 7:00. Most of them ran right past the Sabine River headed West. I don't know how they did, but based on our day, I am thinking a lot of them should have stopped at the Sabine River!

I talked with Darin Johnson over at Daley's Fish n Hunt last week and he said that the Kid's Fishing Tournament is officially set for May 21st out of Logan's park on Pleasure Island. It is sponsored by the Sabine Neches Chapter and there will be hot dogs, chips, drinks and Awards following the 10:00 am weigh-in. With no idea of what kind of turnout to expect, they are limiting the field to the first 50 entries.

The deadline for entering is May 13th. You can drop by Daley's and fill out an entry form or go on line and fill one out. The entry forms on line can be accessed by going to ccatexas.org, scrolling down to Sabine-Neches Chapter and then hitting the word "calendar" on the bar at the top of the page. If all else fails. just call Darin at 409-790-9855. This is a great opportunity to get the kids on the water in a safe environment. A parent or guardian must accompany the children!