Colburn's Sabine Connection

An unexpected pleasant surprise?

After making a brief cold run Thursday to assess the effects of the first significant runoff of the year, I decided to reschedule my Friday trip. The river was as muddy as I have seen it this year and the forecasted winds would make fishing the lake a chore.

It was even worse Friday and I was glad that I was alone for the first hour.  Over the next two hours, however, I caught four slot reds and at least sixteen flounder ranging from 16 to 20-inches.  I caught several more that I caught and released before I decided to keep a couple for supper and started keeping count.

Ironically enough, I turned those fish loose at the dock when Vick handed me some catfish fillets that he had just caught.  I caught everyone of those fish on one long drift from the mouth of East pass back to the river without ever picking up the troll motor.  Absolutely shocked to be catching flounder that fast on an East beast Flats Minnow, I switched to a quarter ounce spinnerbait with a Trigger X trailer to bettter exploit the bite.  From that point on it only got crazier!

I fished a hard outgoing tide, the water was very dirty and the surface temp was 57 degrees.  I have no idea why the flounder are still here in those kinds of numbers.  I saw Adam at the dock and he said they limited on reds in the lake and they also had three nice flounder.  As good as it was, the clients I postponed would not have been pleased anyway as they were after trout only.

 

A decent bite on a tough weather day!

Right in the middle of a week of muggy windy weather we somehow drew one cold windy day yesterday.  Brad, Scott and Kirk all fished well and when all was said and done we put together a surprising  good trip.  It warmed up and the wind laid later in the day, but the morning was a grind as we worked hard for our fish until just before noon.  As as soon as the tide turned around and started coming back in.... the bite picked up.

Scott, Brad and Kirk made what should have been a tough day on the water an enjoyable one!

The river was as dirty as I have seen it this year and we lost 8 degrees of surface temperature overnight.  it was back up in the high fifties by the time we quit. We finished with a good box of trout up to four pounds and some very solid slot reds, but we worked for every fish.  Kirk caught a couple of the better reds on Gulp, but all of the other fish were caught on Swim Baits, Maniac Mullets and Flats Minnows.

When I left Daley's late this evening they were unpacking their first delivery of the new slow sinker in the Maniac Mullet.  They had a pile of pink glitter and pearl chartreuse, but no red shad.  I am not sure why they bother to even hang them up as Eric already had a list of phone numbers to call as soon as they arrived! 

Tough day in the wind!

We tried to get it done in a howling south wind yesterday, but we struggled before calling it quits around noon.  We did catch two very nice trout on Corkies just north of Bridge Bayou before yielding to the wind and smoke blowing off a marsh fire.  I had two drift socks out and we were still surfing!

We fished our way back through East Pass and picked up another trout and 3 slot reds before running up the river.  The water looked as bad as it has all year as far north as I-10.  We caught a couple of flounder, one more trout and two more reds before calling in the dogs.  The tide was pouring in and the water temperature in both the river and the lake was 58 degrees.

Johnny stopped by pulling his boat in the rain this morning, but I passed on the invite as I have a ton of stuff to get done before tomorrow's trip.  It doesn't look like the wind is as bad as it was yesterday, but it is still raining.  I think we need to get back in the lake to really do well, but he just might find something good in the ICW today.

Down and Dirty!

The week started out with the hardest and steadiest rain that we have seen in a long time only to end with a blistering north wind that jerked the water out of the bayous and marsh drains right down to the mud.  In between all of that, I did the Boat Show thing and managed to get in only one day on the water.

Surprisingly enough, the bite in the ICW and river for both trout and redfish was still pretty darned good.  There was no way we were going to get into the lake and the water in Black's was ugly.  The river has given up some clarity as well, but we caught a lot of reds and some very solid trout on a variety of baits.

Swim baits, a Killer Flats Minnow in East Beast and a Sea Shad in Stinky Pink produced most of our fish mainly because we fished them most of the day.  I also caught 2 nice reds on a Hoginar and Steve caught our three largest trout fishing a red shad Maniac Mullet on a Carolina rig.  They weren't giant trout, but they were in the 4 to 5 pound class.

Weather permitting, next week wil be a busy one for me.  It looks like Monday will be a slittle soggy, but the remainder of the week doesn't look bad.  Hopefully the runoff will have more trout looking to sneak up on the flats to feed in the afternoons.

I have been guarding my last two black-white rib Spooks like they were the last two on earth for over a year, but as of yesterday evening that is no longer necessary.  MirrOlure added that pattern to their She Dog line-up especially for Daley's and they now have them in stock.  I don't know if they are going to get a bunch or only a few, but I made sure that I wouldn't run out again!

 

Addison Daley Has Arrived!

Brad Deslatte and I decided an afternoon scouting trip on Sabine would be far more entertaining than the Giants-Falcons game and we were right. The water temperature was up in the mid-sixties, we had a pretty stiff southeast wind, the tide was out and still going out and most of the water on the northeast La.shoreline was pretty silted up.

We had planned on wading, but the water was so low that we just stayed in the boat and drifted further out on the flats. I had trouble finding trout in the lake last week, but that wasn't the case yesterday as we caught and released 19 trout and a slot red. I caught a few fish on everything from a Maniac Mullet to a 4-inch Storm Swim bait while Brad easily caught more fish with a TTF Trout Killer rigged on a quarter ounce Yellowmouth jig head. He caught one our nicer trout in the four pound class as well, but most of the larger trout and the one slot red ate the Swim bait.

Brad will catch enough trout and redfish on an East Beast Flats Minnow most days to make you quit throwing what ever you are using, but he broke out a new favorite color yesterday. He was fishing a color called Geaux Gleaux and the trout ate it in both clear and off-colored water. He said that he had been using it the last couple of times out and it was hotter than anything else he had fished.

We are looking at more rain and some colder weather later in the week, but those conditions are to be expected for the next month or two. Congratulations to Keith and Megan Daley on the birth of their first child, Addison, this weekend. Keith just thought his days and nights at the store were running together!

Perfect conditions and I can't find my trout!

Yesterday and today could not have been more perfect...at least weather-wise. There is not a doubt in my mind that someone has just been hammering the trout, but it wasn't me. We saw only a couple other boats in the areas we fished and never saw them boat a fish either. Most of the traffic was still in the river. Very little tide movement much of the day and a dead calm lake combined to give me fits.

When the incoming picked up in the afternoon the redfish started doing their thing, but I could not find the big trout that were all over three different flats last week. I did hook one nice trout (it was the only one) just before we quit that broke my leader just above my bait. That's what happens when you jack around catching a kazillion redfish and are too lazy to re-tie!

The water is still in great shape and the surface temperature was up to 61 today. I ran over to Daley's Tuesday to buy another cranking battery and found no more Maniac Mullets on their racks. They weren't just out of the colors I needed...they were down to only two or three in a couple of colors. Damon Silva didn't help things either as he was showing pictures of big trout that they had caught recently on the Mullet in the Neches and the Sabine.

Keith sold the hundred he ordered last week in 3 days so I hope he ordered a lot more this time. They are getting as hard to find as Corkies were a few years back. Aaron was taking orders on the phone from folks getting him to sack their's up as soon as they come in so Dana and Shawn better be building a bunch!

I had been doing well on the pink glitter and the pearl chartreuse, but I put them on the bench when the redfish crashed the party. We caught them on Swim Baits and Day Glow Fat Boys. I wasn't just sacrificing Corkies either as those Fat Boys had been glued back together more than once.

It looks like we may get some rain, but this is unreal weather for January. I am going to have to do some serious scouting, but I enjoy that as much as guiding...it just doesn't pay nearly as well.