Colburn's Sabine Connection

Glad to still be here!

We miraculously survived the perfect storm today.  It came up so quickly that there was no safe place to run except further south and that didn't appear to be any guarantee.  By the time we made it to the barrel channel we were eating every other wave, the temperature had dropped 15 degrees and it was raining sideways. As bad as that was it was the lightning that posed the real problem.

We were about a hundred yards from the mouth of East Pass when the steering wheel suddenly felt like I had grabbed a live wire.  Before I could turn it loose a bolt of lightning lit up the gas rig in front of us.  It was momentarily burnt orange from the lightning rod all the way to the water and the noise was deafening.  I thought we were done and that maybe dying wasn't going to involve much pain after all!

Three hours later I was washing the boat and it was hot, humid and the wind was flat.  Prior to the mid day monsoon we did well fishing tails under the birds and kept 15 solid trout.  We caught every fish on chicken on a chain and opening night tails. The bite lasted probably only an hour or two before the wind got up and it got too rough to fish the mid-lake.  We pretty much had the north revetment wall to ourselves and now I know why as we never got anything going.

Wednesday was tough for us in spite of perfect conditions.  We only kept six trout and we fished hard. Brad had a good day on the south end, but we never made that run.  I probably wouldn't have caught those fish either as he pulled up on his way home and immediately caught a few trout on a topwater.

Tanner and his Dad, Phillip, caught some very solid trout Tuesday.

Phillip Hunt and his ten year old son, Tanner, fished with me Tuesday and we put together a pretty good day.  On Tanner's first cast on the first day of summer vacation he had a 5 1/2 pound trout bury his Kwik Cork.  He finally wrestled it into the boat and we took a pile of pictures.  He'll have to wait to see the picture of his big fish as I sent it in with my column for this month's edition of TSFM.

We caught those trout drifting the flats with bug juice tails under a Kwik Cork, a Swim bait and a Slammin' Chicken Assassin rigged on a 1/6th ounce head.  The wind made it a little tough most of the day and the fish weren't real aggressive, but Phillip and Tanner fished well.

I'll be over at the Daley's Hunt n Fish Fishing Show all day tomorrow and Saturday.  Several of the major tackle reps will also be there as will Scott Martin, Phil Broussard, Chester Moore and Shimano's Bantam 1.  We are over there strictly to talk fishing so come by and visit.  Keith said they also have some great show prices on a number of items.

 

Wind finally slowed down a great bite!

I had no idea that we were already on the clock for the week with the wind when Allen and Mickey  climbed in the boat Monday morning.  We enjoyed perfect conditions and the fish could not have been more cooperative.  We limited early drifting the flats with Swim baits, chicken on a chain Sea Shads and bug juice flats Killers fished under a Kwik Cork.

You never know what is feeding beneath terns!

Before calling it a day we ran in behind Rabbit Island and found terns working over more solid trout, redfish and even a five pound flounder that Mickey fooled with a red shad Sea Shad.  Had we not had a fish in the boat we would have never found a gift like that on the way back in.

The following morning, Louis Woods fished the same program with me and I thought we had used up a very good bite when we had only two keeper trout in the boat at 10 o'clock.  An already stiff west wind continued to build and we were very limited as to where we could not just fish, but catch as well.  We made a big round in the whitecaps before deciding to return to the scene of the crime the day before and hope that the fish would start biting later.

Folks aren't getting too excited about six pound trout on Sabine right now.

They did just that and we were limited on trout up to six pounds before noon.  The water was much dirtier than the day before and fishing tails under a cork produced the most consistent bite.  We never caught a fish in water deeper than four feet and fished an incoming tide all morning.

The wind swung around a little more to the south Tuesday night and by Wednesday morning it was making a statement.  Johnny worked a big group with me and we squeezed out a total of 25 trout and three reds between the two boats.  We rode out the waves on the flats, but Johnny challenged the revetment wall long enough to box 6 or 7 solid trout before finshing up on the same flats.

When all was said and done, he did much better than we did by sticking with the Swim bait all morning.  Jason caught a nice slot red swimming a Diedapper, but the rest of our fish bit tails under a cork.  As tough as it was, we still pulled off a lot of fish that we never felt until the fish got to the end of the line.  You couldn't tell if the cork was up or down between the waves!

When Johnny told me after cleaning fish that the wind was going to blow even harder Thursday and Friday, I rescheduled both days.  He tried to fish Thursday and said it was all but impossible as they finished with four fish.  Even the bayous had to be rocking and rolling.  I think the wind is going to ease up a little across the weekend, but the water clarity in the lake has to be shot by now.

I am going to give it a rest across the weekend and hit it again Tuesday morning.  The good news is that the bite is on all over the lake all the way to the jetties when you can fish it.  Be especially courteous and patient this weekend as there will be lots of folks on the water that don't get out very often.

The S.A.L.T. club is also hosting their annual Memorial tournament out of Pleasure Island this weekend and it still isn't too late to sign up.  Daley's Hunt N Fish is also gearing up for their two day in-house show next weekend.  Scott Martin, who has been red hot on the pro bass tournament circuit this year, will be on hand Friday with the River 2 Sea folks.  Keith said they will also receive their first two shipments of the new ZEKO ultra light and ultra bright outdoor shoes that went so fast at the recent Bassmaster Classic in Shreveport.

I have lived in mine since getting my first pair last week.  If you buy a pair Friday at the show (they won't be the last ones you buy) Martin will autograph them as they are one of his sponsors as well.  Keith told me yesterday that they will have special deals on everything from rod-reel combos to buy three packs of Assasins and get one free!    

Big trout and lots of them!

This has just been one heck of a good week for catching...especially big trout.  the water in the lake has just gotten prettier and prettier and we found nice trout on flats that we haven't caught a fish on in the past six weeks.

Didn't keep a single 5-pound fish, but the average fish was still very good!

When your first three trout of the day weigh just a tad over 19 pounds, you know that its going to be a good day.  For that matter...the day is pretty much made.  Dr. Fred and son, David, also only kept ten trout and one nice flounder the morning we fished, but we were forced to keep several 4-pound plus trout or forget about a fish fry.  Doc never keeps many fish and prefers to keep flounder!

David caught a couple of big trout bouncing a Gulp shrimp off the bottom, but most of the trout hit a Cranky M65, Catch 2000 or a Swimming Image.  The largest fish of the day crushed a River 2 Sea bait that I think is called a Ripper, but I wouldn't swear to that.  Just as a reference , it is a a 5-inch pearl colored floating minnow type lure that dives about two feet on 12-pound mono.  I have done well enough with the bait lately to warrant picking up a couple more, but there isn't a simple name on the back of the package.

Steve fooled this one on a Swim bait before turning her loose!

I try not to fish weekends, especially with two tournaments going on, but I did just that yesterday as a  client that fishes with me several times a year, Steve Osborne, could only fish his guest that day.  As it turned out, they should have entered the tournament rather than fish with me.  Our three largest trout, the two largest were released, weighed almost 17-pounds.

We finished with 15 trout and 2 reds and once again the average trout was nice.  We caught our fish yesterday in a totally different area than the day before which was very encouraging.  We caught the largest fish on plastic under a cork, but the rest of the fish, including the reds, ate 4-inch Sea Shads, Flats Minnows and Swim baits.

Not surprisingly, every fish we cleaned in the 3 to 4- pound class was full of eggs.  We don't usually even keep trout over 22 to 23 inches this time of the year, but it is about all you can catch right now!  The S.T.A.R. tournament kicks off in two weeks and a Sabine angler just might grab the early lead.  Over the past week alone, I saw one of the trout, at least 3 trout over 29-inches were caught by bank fishermen on the revetment wall and one of those fish weighed 10.2 pounds.  Unfortunately, they all rode home in the ice chest!

Plan B still producing solid trout!

We were forced to fish a tougher north wind than predicted, but we still did well even after having to resort to Plan B very early and the wind had nothing to do with the switch.  I had hoped to fish the north revetment wall at first light, but there was a truck every ten yards and at least two fishermen armed with live shrimp and a popping cork for every truck.  It was UNREAL!

The water looked better there than it did on the south end, but that is where we caught all but one of our fish.  We limited on specks and Joey Cormier even managed to put together a slam with a nice slot red and quality flounder.  We caught all of our trout on bug juice and opening night tails.  The larger trout were chasing both shrimp and small ribbon fish.

The water looked as good as I have seen it in the past two weeks in Coffee Ground so hopefully that area will start producing as well.  We fished an outgoing tide all morning long.  Gotta go....4 o'clock seems to get here faster every morning!

Upset stomach short circuits good bite!

The fish were doing their thing, but we never should have been there to find out.  While one of my clients for the day struggled to keep it together with the same stomach cramps that kept her up all night long, her pals cranked in redfish while promising, "Just one more and we'll go!"

It was a trip that got started late and ended too early for all but one, but it was nice to find a few reds up on the shallow flats again.  They were chasing shrimp and it looked like they were running in small schools of 5 or 6 fish.  The ate anything you threw in front of them so choice of lure wasn't too important.

The unexpected early quit left me some time to clean up the boat and do a little trailer work.  After that I seized upon the opportunity to take my grandson, Andrew, and his little sister, Whitley, to eat some crawfish at Ancelet's.  Tomorrow is Andrew's birthday and he much prefers crawfish to cake.  Besides, an afternoon with company like that is special for Pop as well !

Whitley declared Tyler Ancelet to be the best crawfish cooker ever, but Andrew and I already knew that.  Ancelet's has gotten just about as fisherman friendly as a Marina can get in a very short span of time.  Not only do they have two rescue tow boats on call should you have engine problems on the water, but they now have all the bases covered when it comes to bait.  They have not only live shrimp, mud minnows, and finger mullet, but tails and hard baits to boot.  They have Bass Assassins, Catch V's, She Dogs, Skitterwalks, Swimming Images, Super Spooks and Mirrodines in colors that catch fish and Gulp and jig heads as well!

The launch and parking area is first class and they also sell cold drinks, snacks and ice.  If you show up with just the boat and a rod or two they can take care of the rest.  Tyler added that they are in the process of adding a covered fish cleaning station.  Order when you get in and by the time you finish cleaning your catch your crawfish or boiled crabs will be ready!

For obvious reasons we didn't make the run to the south end of the lake today, but the birds were working over some pretty good trout according to the folks that were there in the morning hours.  The water is looking a little better all over the lake with the lighter winds allowing the silt to settle back down.

I will start one of those marathon stretches tomorrow, but I will try to post at least every other night for a while.  We still have a lot of May left to fish, but it looks like June is just going to be out the top barring any more unexpected floods or oil spills.  I still have a few days open and it is much easier to book now even if you have to cancel later than hope to book a trip at the last minute. 

 

Plan B wasn't a plan at all!

We made a late afternoon run Monday, but it turned out good in spite of a stiff wind that was not supposed to blow that hard.  My  initial game plan got aborted by the wind, but Plan B (fish where you can) turned out to be better than Plan A may have been anyway.

We pulled up on a short stretch of protected shoreline on the Neches hoping to pick up a few flounder and redfish, but were surprised to find the trout were there as well.  They were just hammering away at schools of small shad and we wore them out fishing Sea Shads and Flats Minnows under a Kwik Cork.  We were already limited when Jason tied on a Spook,Jr. to see if he could catch something over 20-inches.

While we we caught a few flounder and reds with a small crankbait, he caught and released two trout in the 5 to 6 pound class.  They were the only two trout that hit the topwater over the next two hours!

The flounder and reds were right up against the bulkheads and rocks, but the trout were chasing the shad well off the shoreline in about 5 feet of water. We were going to check out those same fish again yesterday, but the weather got exceptionally nasty very quickly.

Make-up baseball game today...back on the wate tomorrow. 

Lighter winds made for an enjoyable week of catching!

The wind was much more forgiving this past week and the water clarity improved each day as well.  I don't know that the bite in the bayous slowed down that much or if it was just a matter of spending more time in the open lake, but it was nice to have both options until around noon each day.

We took advantage of the lighter winds in the morning every day but Wednesday and beat up pretty good on some very solid trout under the birds.  It didn't seem to matter in the mid-lake area if the tide was coming in or going out other than the fact that the water was clearer on the incoming tide.  We never found any big groups of gulls, but it only took a few to put you on a good bite.

Bug juice and chicken on a chain were our best colors in tails, but we caught our largest trout on She Dogs and a MirrOdine XL.  The shad are getting larger and the XL is the perfect size when the fish are chasing them as well as big shrimp and ribbon fish. The bite under the birds has improved and moved a little further north every day.

The flounder are still doing their thing in the bayous even with the high tides!

On two of the trips we found 16 to 18-inch trout pushing schools of shad to the surface in Middle Pass.  It didn't matter what you threw at them as long as you kept it moving near the surface.  We left the lake once the wind got up around noon each day and managed to add a few nice flounder and some solid slot reds to the catch.

This nice red hit a Swim Bait in East Pass.

We basically stuck with Swim Baits and a Gulp mullet rigged on a quarter ounce head.  Oddly enough we didn't do as well fishing cuts as we did on the straight banks.  That thin slimy grass is starting to grow out a couple of feet from the bank and that is where the fish are holding while waiting to ambush the endless parade of schools of tiny shad.

I can't help you with a first hand report, but I did get some good reports from folks fishing the ship channel and jetties this week.  They also did well on the trout and caught far more reds than we have been catching.  With the high tides, a lot of my reds on the north end have no reason to leave the flooded marshes.

Don't forget about the two day "Do It In Orange" tournament scheduled for May 19th and 20th.  You can fish for bass, redfish or trout and win $2000 in each category.  Yes.. one entry fee enables you to fish all three divisions.  You can find brochures with entry forms and rules all over Orange county as well as Daley's Fish N Hunt.

The number one question I have received in emails has concerned having to keep only the bass alive to avoid a penalty.  That is the rule as there is no bonus or penalty for weighing in dead or live trout or redfish.   They are also going to have entertainment for the whole family with the Spring Music Fest taking place from 9 until 9 at the park.  For more information call 409.883-3536.