Colburn's Sabine Connection

Trout bite is hanging in there!

When a 5 1/2 foot alligator gar is the highlight of your day you are either doing very well and looking for any diversion or doing very poorly.  Fortunately, in our case we were doing well and the big gar just unexpectedly crashed the party Wednesday morning.

Ted Grabowski, Mike Bilberry and I had already limited on trout and were just catching and releasing fish when the gar intercepted a small trout half way back to the boat.  It was really crazy for a while, but we finally wore him out.  The trout bite was just more of the same as we caught fish almost everywhere we fished.

Thursday morning Dr. Fred had two of his sons down, David and Keith, and we really had an enjoyable laid back morning. We didn't manage to limit, but we finished a relatively short day with a good box of trout, two flounder and one slot red.  We caught some fish under a cork on Sea Shads, but most of the fish were caught swimming a Sea Shad or Flats Minnow pretty quickly on an 1/8th ounce head.

We have had some big out going tides this week and they have made the catching much easier.  Capt. Adam and I scouted around and took a few pictures this morning and the bite was still good in spite of a blistering northeast wind.  Adam caught and released another very nice flounder, but we haven't caught many reds this week.I just hope we have enough water to launch tomorrow morning! 

Happy Birthday Denny Allensworth!

I would be less than honest if I failed to admit that I was not liking our chances when Denny Allensworth climbed out of his car along with his wife, Camille, and daughter, Yerusha, with two push button spinning reel combos in hand.  Nor did I feel any more confident when he announced, "Captain Colburn, this trip was my birthday present and we have really been looking forward to it, but you've got some rookies on your hands today!"

It was still dark and the wind was already blowing a steady 15 miles per hour out of the southwest and forecasted to blow even harder......it did.  We made it as far as East Pass on our initial run and fished that area and Black's long enough to put a nice flounder, a slot red and a pair of trout in the boat.  In the process we caught and released a lot of smaller trout and Camille got her push button reel abused by a big red.  It would happen three more times during the day.

Camille won a long tug of war with this nice slot red!

There was a lot of traffic in the ICW, Cow Bayou and the river due mostly to the wind, but we managed to catch a bunch of small trout, a pair of slot reds, some very nice trout up to three pounds and one more flounder just drifting unoccupied stretches of shoreline.

I forgot...Camille did get her little reel gutted one more time by a big trout that did all of its fighting on the surface.  Both she and Yerusha stayed with me cast for cast all day long and I can promise you that Camille takes losing any fish very personal...especially a big one.  She thoroughly enjoys every bite and the only time she wasn't laughing or at least smiling was when a fish won the battle.  It was fun!

Yerusha holds up a nice flounder that ate a Bug Juice Flats Minnow in East Pass.

Half way through the day, Yerusha agreed that fishing with a push button was a liability and we got her going with my Shimano Stradic and a a new Laguna spinning rod that I hadn't even had a chance to fish.  It proved to be a timely decision as she caught our largest trout of the day shortly after making the switch.

Every keeper fish we caught, with the exception of those that came out of East Pass, were caught on Flats Minnows and Sea Shads.  We caught a bunch of fish on a Swim bait, but very few keepers.  The hottest colors for us were bug juice, Calcasieu brew, and chicken on a chain.  I guess the sand trout bite is still wide open as there were two or more boats on every main point from East Pass to Phoenix Lake.

Hopefully, the little front due in this weekend will push more shimp into the lake and the gulls will start bird dogging schooling trout and reds.  The drought and high salinity levels have everything backed up for now.     

 

It won't get much better than this!

Chris Pepper, Cary  Blevins and Danny Henderson picked Wednesday and Thursday months ago for what has become an annual outing.  They could not have picked better weather and we were blessed with great tide changes as well.  The only hitch in the two day trip was that every love bug in this corner of the state decided to elope in my boat and you can only smash so many black bugs on the floor before it gets ugly!

The only difference in the weather both days was that Thursday was a little cooler most of the day and we had a stiffer northeast wind.  In our case, the wind only made things more comfortable as we spent two days in East Pass, Black's, and the ICW all the way from Middle Pass to Paval Island.  We dinked around in the river some as well, but the better trout and redfish were all over big shad in 8 to 12 feet of water on the breaks along the ICW.

Cary caught our largest and most of our redfish the first day.

We caught well over a hundred trout the first day and finished three fish short of a 30 fish limit only because I did not expect to catch that many keeper size trout and started catching and releasing early rather than stopping to count fish.  We also added four nice slot reds and a big flounder to the box before calling it a day.

Cary, Danny and Chris with 6 of the 9 keepers they caught in a 20 minute suface feeding free-for-all.  It was as wild as it gets!

Yesterday started off much slower for us as it took a while for the tide to really get rolling.  We were catching a lot of fish early...just not every cast.  Just after noon it came unglued again and we culled twenty keeper trout over the next two hours.  The unexpected highlight of the day was that just before calling it a day the redfish decided to do their thing on top in two pretty decent sized schools.  We went from zero redfish in the box to three limits in the bottom of the boat in twenty minutes.

Cary caught trout fishing a Flats Minnow under a Cork drifting the big 1 to 3 foot flat between Middle and East Pass when we were catching fish on nothing else, but that was the only time over the two days that happened.  I fished a Swim Bait most of the time, but the majority of our fish ate chicken on a chain or Roach Flats Minnows and Sea Shads.  We almost fished our way through two bulk bags of 50 tails and that doesn't happen very often!

I snapped to the fact early the second day that Cary's tails were lasting much longer and that he was losing very few fish that he stuck.  We then switched everyone over to a quarter ounce Yellow Mouth jig head and not only connected on more strikes, but saved a lot of plastic as well.  Unfortunately, It didn't take me too long to run out of them as I only had a few that Keith Daley had left with me.  I am definitely into any head that will save more tails and the swedge keeper on that jig does the trick.  It also has a super strong hook.

I am not sure what the deal is with all of the big gafftop in the ICW, but in the past week we have caught and cautiously released the largest slime warriors I have even seen in years.  Most of them are in the 4 to 5-pound class, but we weighed one at 7.45-pounds and another at 8.6-pounds.  The larger of the two drug us all over the mouth of Cow Bayou thinking it was an over sized red.  It looked more like a ling than a gafftop when it finally surfaced!

Maybe the best part of all of this is that this bite is taking place on stretches of the ICW that I just ride by on most days.  We made one drift down the straight bank between Old and new Cow Bayou waiting to fish another bank and caught keeper trout the entire stretch.  I also talked to several local fishermen that were hunting Rat-L-traps in Wal Mart last night.  They said they had just been killing the reds with a Trap fishing Cow bayou and the ICW side of the islands.

They were holding court and sharing the information with everyone from the clerks to other shoppers so I am not divulging any big secrets.  As a matter of fact, they were asking anyone and everyone where they could find a gold-black back Trap.  It looks like it is going to be another redfish Fall!

 

Lots of trout and way too many love bugs!

Keith Daley joined me for a half day yesterday to see if any of the stuff he sells at Daley's Fish N Hunt really works.  Up until about ten o'clock, in spite of the perfect weather conditions, we had our doubts.  We found one small bunch of birds down at the Causeway, but  never caught the first fish from the Causeway all the way back to Coffee Ground Cove.

At that point, we decided to take advantage of a strong outgoing tide and spent the remainder of the morning in East Pass and the ICW.  I have no idea how many trout we caught over the next two hours, but it was well over the 50 mark.  We weren't going to keep any fish initially, but Keith's brother called while we were on the water so we kept a few nice trout and a big flounder.

Keith proved that flounder like a Gambler Shad rigged on a quarter ounce Yellow Mouth jig head! 

 

When all was said and done it was a dead heat as to what was working best.  Keith stuck with a small Gambler Flappin Shad rigged on a Yellow Mouth jig head while I experimented with some other stuff in preparation for today's trip.  I caught a pile of fish as well on an East Beast Flats Minnow, a chicken on a chain Sea Shad and a Swim Bait.  The trout also wore all the paint off the eyes of a Shiney Hiney.

We had just a phenomenal trip today on both trout and reds and I have the same group again tomorrow so I'll hold off on that report until tomorrow night.  I saw my brother back at the dock and he had a very good limit of flounder and redfish so we weren't the only ones that enjoyed the day.

I am booked the next two days, but I am going to be over at Daley's most of Saturday provided Keith has a television going so I can keep up with the football games.  He's got another 15% off everything in the store sale going and both Sarge Upchurch and Chris WIlliams from Laguna Rods are going to be there with their complete line of rods.

It is my understanding that while you can talk with them and order a custom rod, they are also bringing Daley's their first shipment of Laguna rods as well.  I have used the Latis Stick, and the Wader I and II for over a month now and I could not be more pleased with all three rods.  Two of the rods have already survived abuse at the hands of excited youngsters that would have undoubtedly broken any of my other rods.

I can only hope that tomorrow is as good as today was and I will report on those two trips tomorrow night.  The fog pinned us down early and it took me two hours to scrub the squashed love bugs out of the bottom of my both before I could even wash it down tonight, but that is all we had to complain about.  I have never seen so many love bugs in the open lake in my life!      

The bite just continues to improve

One more unexpected day of rain was welcomed and it will only help the fishing.  Folks just caught the heck out of redfish this weekend all the way from the I-10 Bridge on the Sabine to East Pass.  Without a doubt the best bite was on live bait, but some really good reds were also caught on crankbaits and Whacky Worms!

When the wind gives us a break and the tides are even moderately favorable, the birds are working over both trout and redfish on the south end of the lake.  We caught them on tails under a cork, small topwaters and Hoginars.  I haven't fished in the evening down there, but have gotten some great reports from those that have!

  What's not to like about flounder this size!

 

I scouted some water that I haven't fished in a while with Doug Patterson Friday and we found fish everywhere we went.  It was surprisingly cool and overcast until around noon and we had just enough tide to catch fish in both the river and the bayous.  Doug stuck with a chicken on a chain Sea Shad most of the morning and the flounder were liking that color.

We also caught a few keeper trout and reds on Swim Baits and TTF's Shiney Hiney under a cork.  It is just unreal how many small trout are in the river right now.  I am going to make a quick round this afternoon with clients due in the rest of the week and a stuffed flounder for supper doesn't sound too bad either!  

Bite under the birds getting a little more consistent

It's been all about the wind for me this week.  It's pretty much been a southwest wind every day and we have managed to run south and beat it, but that was not the case yesterday.  Steve Pullin and his grandson, Alex, drove in from Arkansas to chase redfish, but the wind kept us pinned down all day. 

We did manage to keep four slot reds and a few keeper trout, but the gulls hardly worked at all and we just couldn't get anything solid going.  As a matter of fact, we caught three of our reds swimming East Beast Flats Minnows and Texas Roach Sea Shads over the shallow shell down by the Causeway.

Alex was obvioulsy pleased with this solid flounder.

We ran back to the river in the afternoon and just caught the heck out of 14-inch trout on the same colored tails.  We did manage to keep a nice flounder, one more red, and a couple of trout.  We caught a lot of fish, but we worked hard for them and didn't have a hell of a lot to show for it at the end of the day!

Monday was totally different as the wind gave us  just enough of a break and every thing went just as planned.  Lamar Belcher and Lenzi Childress decided to take a fishing break prior to their getting married in a couple of weeks and they couldn't have picked a better day.  Both of them are good fishermen and the birds worked for us all day long.

We caught our fair share of small trout, but we finished with a good box of trout and redfish as well.  We also caught some of the largest sand trout I have seen this year.  The fish were chasing big white shrimp and ribbon fish to the surface and they would hold long enough for you to catch a number of fish before having to move again.

Lenzi and her redfish put this Laguna Latis Stick to the test!

Lenzi caught her largest red ever on one of my Laguna rods and after that extended fight I can promise you there is no need to worry about the rod or the reel not being up to the challenge of larger fish.  She was using a Latis Stick with a Curado 50E and she simply hung on and reeled,  Several times her red wrapped most of the rod completely under the boat and I figured we were going to get to check out the warranty, but the rod won each time and she eventually won the tug of war.

I have heard talk of the 50E not being the best of choices for larger reds and magnum specks due to line capacity etc., but I have fished with them for a little over a year and I just love them.  I have caught a lot of over sized reds and several big stripers and I have never been spooled nor have I ever felt like I was fighting a bear with a switch.  I am fishing with 30-lb. braid and aside from being incredibly light, it will launch a 1/8th ounce jig head and tail a long long way!

After having a tough day yesterday due to the wind, I just got a call with a report that the birds worked hard once again this morning and they had a good day on the reds on the south end.  I hate making that run and I hate trailering even more, but that bite is still the best game in town right now!   

 

Daley's still had some when I left!

I never made it to the lake yesterday due to time constraints (that's fancy for I hadn't been taking care of the small stuff lately), but we did get in a couple of hours much further up the Sabine than I have been fishing.  The tide didn't start going out until just before I had to quit, but I really didn't even expect to make the first cast.  As a matter of fact, Darrell brought me back to the launch early and went back out.

He was looking for bass, but wanted to show me a couple of places where he had been catching reds on crankbaits and pitching jigs.  He called later in the day to say that he caught a couple of bass in the two pound class and several more reds, but we caught only reds while I was there.  Probably half of them were under the slot, but the slot reds were upper end fish.

I climbed out of the boat, paid bills, dropped off a prop, bought another battery and water filter and ran over to Daley's knowing that I needed to be back early for a Jr. High football game.  I had some things I needed, but was very surprised to find Eric Ronning finally restocking three of the more popular colors in the Strike Pro Hunchback.

Eric still had a handful when I was there yesterday.  He said they should not be as hard to get in the future, but a bird in the hand.....!

 

Their initial order was gone almost as quickly as it arrived and they had difficulty getting any more in 2 or 3 very good colors.  Eric was so convinced that these would not last very long, that he wasn't bothering to put away the ones that would not fit on the pegs. I hate fishing the lure, but I picked up a couple after the only two customers in the building were already zeroing in on the rack.

For what it is worth, here is my experience thus far with the Hunchback.  I hate everything about it other than the fact that the fish just love it. It looks good, but I think it was a mistake and that it possibly doesn't even do what it appears to have been designed to do.  It is, for all purposes, a shallow running crankbait will not dive and simply wobbles across the surface when retrieved very slowly.  There is no doubt, however, that the magic is in that wobble.

Do not try to do anything more with it than reel it back very slowly as it will start rolling over and be slightly less effective than a fouled popping cork.  If you are already working it back and want to reel it in very quickly to make another cast you can forget it.  The faster you reel the more it plows a few feet and occasionally spins completely out of the water.

Sounds like a lure you can't wait to get...huh?  I truly hate it, but the trout and redfish will just crush it and more often than not the fish will push a wake tracking it prior to the strike.  Too many times, I have seen it catch fish for clients when they wouldn't hit other topwaters.  Like them or not, they work and that is all that really matters,  One more thing....change the hooks before you fish them.  The stock treble hooks are sharp, but they snap off much to easily.

Thus far, Keith Daley has been unwilling to sell his one Laguna Devil Stick rod until he can get another, but I would have sold it long ago based on some of the offers Eric said he has gotten.  They are expecting an order of both the Wader I and Wader II in the very near future.  Keith said they have also had several customers already order custom rods designed specifically to fit their hand, etc.

I talked with Johnny this morning and they were back in the ICW after making a non-productive run in the lake.  He said they did see a lot of bait on the surface and were going to return later in the day.   

Good day in deeper water!

I had every intention of spending the day in the lake, but we never got out of the river and the ICW most of a perfect weather day.  We made one short pass in Coffee Ground Cove and stopped long enough on the northeast shoreline to box a solid slot red and two keeper flounder on  TTF Flats Minnows, but that was it.  The wind was blowing pretty good and the water was a little dirtier than I expected.

 Frank Beauchamp caught this solid red bouncing a TTF Flats Minnow off the bottom.

 

 

 

The better news was that we caught fish all day long in the river and ICW on Swim Baits and Flats Minnows in chicken on a chain and Texas Roach.  We caught a ton of small trout, but we also had some solid flounder and let a trout well over five pounds shake loose at the boat.  I haven't seen many big trout in the river lately so that was a good sign!

The water in the ICW was much clearer than the water in the lake.  We had a great outgoing tide and a lot of the bait that got purged out of the marshes over the weekend apparently stayed in the deeper water even though the water level was back up.  The birds were working over shrimp at the mouth of East Pass early, but most of the trout under them were small fish.

I've got to make a quick run to Daley's tomorrow to pick up some more Swim Baits for the weekend, but I hope to put in at least a few hours looking at more of the lake if the wind permits.  That deep water bite is addicting and before we knew it the day was gone.  The best of news is that it will only get better following each new cold front!

Football and barbeque could be the best option this weekend!

Yesterday the wind was definitely a problem, but I still don't know why we struggled so badly Wednesday. We had a good outgoing tide and the wind was not a problem most of the morning. The bite on the revetment wall never materialized and the redfish decided not to school, but the conditions were still too favorable to not have figured something out.

The one program that did work and eventually provided every fish we kept was jigging deep water on the ICW. As a matter of fact, I never should have left it the first time, but I thought I had all of the patterns that have been working well timed out. I didn't!

We kept two or three keeper trout the first time we stopped on the ICW and kept five more and a slot red the second time. Slow and steady is always better than run and gun, but I left thinking the reds were going to school during the mid day and they didn't. We finished up in the river due to the wind and caught a pile of undersized trout on Swim Baits. We lost a couple of keepers at the boat as well as one nice flounder, but nothing that would have saved the day.

Yesterday the wind was already blowing by the time we got out so we stayed in the ICW and the river. We finished with four reds, three flounder and five trout, but that was decent considering the fact that we did not fish very long. We caught those fish with Swim Baits and bouncing a Hoginar off the bottom. Once again we caught a lot of small fish on a roach colored Flats Minnow, but no keepers.

For the first time in a while, we never found the shad on the surface on the north end Wednesday. I feel certain that had a lot to do with the redfish not showing up. We can only hope that we get some rain along with all of the predicted wind this weekend.

I took today off to take inventory and restock tackle. It is certainly nice to be able to call Keith or Eric over at Daley's Fish N Hunt and get them to sack some stuff up before I drive all the way over there only to learn they are out of whatever I need. There willingness to do that for their customers is just unheard of and it beats burning gas for nothing. I did enough of that Wednesday!

I've still got a few weekdays left open this month (I wonder why with a report like this one), but it is going to bust wide open any day now and a little rain could be all it takes. We can always cancel a trip, but it can be tough getting in at the last minute when the fishing gets good overnight.

Have a great weekend, I hope your football teams win and be safe!