Colburn's Sabine Connection

I've seen it better!

I am still not confident enough to start re-booking some cancelations, but we have had a couple of decent scouting trips this week.  Not surprisingly, we found some 17 to 22 inch trout suspended in the ICW and were able to catch them on the tail end of an outgoing tide.  We vertical jigged 4-inch Usual Suspects in space guppy and cock of the walk to catch most of the fish.

The following day we enjoyed a very brief bite, 6 trout up to 5 pounds, drifting the flats with a Catch 2000 and an east beast Trout Killer.  The wind got up early and we found one flock of gulls working over slot reds and small keeper trout on the southeast bank of Coffee Ground.  We caught those fish on a Vudu shrimp under a cork and roach Assassins rigged on a Shiney Hiney head.  We also hooked a jack or possibly a shark that ran off with all of Rick's line. It never stopped running from the second it hit his lure.

I think the late afternoons are better if the wind gives you a break, but that late bite doesn't help me a lot.  I did see a nice catch of flounder that came out of the Game Reserve, but that doesn't help me either.  That might be the best option for getting out of the wind and still catching fish right now.

I don't do anything south of the Causeway unless all else fails so good things may be happening down there.  I did hear that the water was looking really good on the tide changes and that would help.  I don't know what has happened to the reef bite thus far, but I have hit it a time or two and not done well.  It could be timing thing and I just missed it.

 

I was way over due for a bad one!

I don't know if I just finally wore out an incredibly good bite, which is inevitable, but I struggled yesterday.  The trout we caught were all very good fish, but I could not put together another pattern when the bite that has been so good ended early.  I talked with some folks fishing the big "Do It In Orange" tournament this weekend and they all said that they pretty much experienced the same thing.

When all else failed we made a big loop around the entire lake and saw very few gulls even flying in spite of perfect conditions.  I am hoping that it was just one of those days, but I will be fishing alone until I find out.  I know there were some fish caught on the ship channel below the Causeway, but that is not my bag so they are no use to me.

This is the first time I have had to post a sorry report in a while, but it is what it is.  I will pass on fishing the weekend due to the big tournament, but I will be back hunting Monday morning.  I am thinking that this would be a good weekend to save some gas money if you still haven't decided on whether to fish over here or not.

Good bite in spite of wind and heat!

Nelson Gaspard drove in from Eunice and met up with Billy Chapman and Troy Dugas in Lake Charles before driving over to fish with me Monday morning.  The opening boat ride was a bumpy one, but we started catching trout on the second or third cast and while we didn't have a really big fish for the first time in a while, we did catch a box full of 4 to 6 pound fish.

Troy makes even large trout look pretty average!

The wind and heat eventually shut us down, but not before we got our licks in with Trout Killers, Assassins and Usual Suspects.  Those three lures are all we have had to throw for almost a month now which is very unusual.  On the days that we are fortunate enough to catch a break with the wind we have added a She Dog or VuDu Shrimp to the mix.

A nice trout that ate a glow chartreuse Assassin.

We did find one small group of birds in the whitecaps on the way in and the trout under them were solid fish as well.  We got a little later start yesterday, but got in right in the middle of the bite and still caught a very good mess of 3 to 4 pound trout that included a couple of big ones before it ended.  There wasn't a heck of a lot of time to experiment so we tied on tails and stuck with them until the bite ended for us.

I was reduced to permanent "net boy" while they made up for lost time on fish like this.

The wind was even tougher than the day before and the water clarity was bad, but the fish were still aggressive when you found them.  We fished a very poor tide change as well which shortened the bite a little.  The bait is all over the lake, both shad and shrimp, so it is just a matter of calmer waters before a consistent bite under the birds kicks off.  Even with no help from the birds, a number of folks that I talked with said that they were still able to find the fish chasing shrimp on top when the wind laid this past weekend.

Even the wind didn't slow the bite down too badly!

After fishing 16 of the past 19 days I slept in until 6:00 this morning and panicked when I opened my eyes and saw the sun shining through the window.  I have a month's worth of unattended business to get done today, but we'll be back on the water tomorrow!

 

Bite is as hot as the weather!

I don't know if the boat traffic or fishing pressure was just too much or if a really great bite is finally playing out, but it took us a little longer to catch our trout Friday morning and we didn't catch nearly as many trout in the 5 to 7 pound class.

Anthony Broussard was in town for Father's Day and he and his Dad, Kelly, met me early Friday morning.  We absolutely stopped on top of the fish to start with and got off to a great start, but  we had to work a little for the remainder of their limits.  The fish were still in 4 to 6 feet of water and we got it done with Usual Suspects and TTF Trout killers.  The small shad were schooled up all over the flats and the fish were not far behind them.

We finally got a little bonus as we found a couple of gulls later in the morning and hung with a school of trout long enough to boat five or six 16 to 19 inch keepers.  We then made a short run to check out the flounder and caught 3 very nice fish in about a half an hour.  We caught the flounder on a Gulp shrimp.

Uncle Mike took advantage of Kelly's over due invitation.  Another nice trout caught and released.

The day before we had another one of those crazy good trips.  We released two 7 pound trout and just beat up on the 3 to 5 pound trout for a solid hour.  We fished the exact same pattern with the same lures, but there were fewer boats in the area Thursday morning.  Kelly Ford left his Dad to hold down the business this time and brought a guest from the U.K. and his Uncle Mike.  Phil, a resident of Liverpool, England and Mike caught the two largest trout!

Not bad for your first speckled trout!

I took my first day off in quite a while today, but I got some very good reports this afternoon and every one of them involved trout chasing shrimp on the surface even if there were no birds around.  The trout weren't as large as the fish on the shallow flats, but they were good solid keeper fish.  Not surprisingly, the cork and VuDu shrimp accounted for a lot of those fish.  I didn't use it much this past week, but there is no doubt that it will shine under the gulls! 

The average trout has just been incredible the past few days!

I have had easier bites, but my clients haven't complained about the wind nor the size of the trout we have caught the past two days.  We released two trout over six pounds just while taping the KOGT fishing show Wednesday morning!

Another nice trout that George turned loose.

Yesterday I fished with K.W. and George after postponing their trip at least one other time due to a howling wind.  We hit a home run with that decision to say the very least.  We caught and released a pile of trout from 4 to 6 pounds and still kept 13 fish that averaged 3 to 4 pounds before KW said that was all they wanted to keep.

George caught this oversized red on his new $14 shrimp lure. I don't even know who makes it, but it obviously worked at least once!

George stole the show with the largest trout and the largest redfish, but I think he was more excited about the crab and shrimp gumbo at Peggy's On The Bayou.  He bought a gallon to take home after eating a bowl at lunch!

Mike put this one back after a quick picture.  He just may be another converted bass fisherman after today!

The fish started a little later for us this morning, but started none the less.  We kept a heck of a box of fish and released darn near as many as we kept.  I got reduced to "net boy" for the most part as Gary or Mike or Ken always had a fish on and more often than not at least two of them were fighting fish at the same time!

....and Gary put another one back as well...

After pulling several big trout off on the VuDu Shrimp earlier in the week, we have been staying with the Swim Bait and Assassins the past two days.  We also caught several nice trout on the TTF Trout Killer.  The wind never stopped today and got pretty unmanageable around noon.  We are not seeing the 7's and 8's that we were catching a month ago, but we are catching very few trout right now under four pounds.

The wind didn't hurt the bite too much!

We have been fishing a big incoming tide each day and the water clarity is just okay as we have had about a foot of visibility.  The birds haven't been much help this week. 

The bite is hanging in there!

I just got off the water and I am in between washing the boat for tomorrow's trip, restringing three reels and posting this report.  Here's the last three trips in a nutshell!

Phillip couldn't net Coach's big red fast enough!

 

I think it was Thursday that I fished with Lamar head football coach, Ray Woodard, Dr. Bob Nicks and Phillip Fuller.  We just killed the fish and did it in a hurry.  For the most part it was trout up to five pounds, but Coach caught and released an 11 pound red as well.  We caught our fish on Swim baits, Lit'l Tappers and Split Tail Mullets.

10 year old Jason Guidry got his summer off to a good start with a very nice trout!

The following day Drew Guidry and his son, Jason, joined me and we limited on trout up to seven pounds, but we had to work a little harder.  I passed on the fish that I had been catching for a week to check out another promising bite and it didn't happen.  We drifted a lot of 5 to 6 foot water fishing with a VuDu shrimp under a cork, a Lit'l Tapper and a 5-inch Assassin Texas Shad to finish out our limits.

Jason let Dad share in the fun as well!

Today Bill and Jim drove in from Tyler and we limited on 16 to 24-inch trout in less than an hour's time.  We found the fish in 3 feet of water pounding away on small shad and it didn't take long.  We caught fish under a cork and swimming a 5-inch tail or space guppy Usual Suspect.  The bite got much tougher during the middle part of the day, but you don't fish as hard when you are hot and the fish box is full!

I've got five more trips in a row coming up, but I'll try to squeeze in another report in a couple of days.  One more thing......The redfish are just now starting to hound those schools of small shad in the mid-lake area and that is a bite that has been slow to come around.

 

 

It is "game on" right now!

We have been on a run since Sunday morning's rain and a big north wind that flattened things out on the pond.  The birds are working at least a little all over the lake and while the acres of small shad keep the birds guessing we are starting to see larger shrimp running for their lives as well.

Jerry caught this nice trout on a Tidal Surge split tail.

We were done before we ever worked up a sweat yesterday and we did sweat before we were done.  You could have thrown anything you wanted to throw, but we caught trout up to 7 pounds on Tidal Surge tails and four inch Usual Suspects.  I think everyone else we saw fishing was throwing the VuDu shrimp under a cork!

A four inch Usual Suspect accounted for this solid trout

Jerry Viator caught our largest trout (David pushed him with a good fish as well) and everyone in the boat including Jeff lost at least one really good fish at the net.  The  bonus was that we caught very few gafftop and we started catching slot reds in the open lake again.

The Viators with a pair of slot reds caught well after the birds had quit working!

The day before, the bite was a little slower, but we caught two limits of trout, a slot red and a flounder before noon.  We had to move around a little more and the birds that we did find didn't hold as well as they did on Tuesday.  The fish under the birds will not let you crowd them so it is a good idea to steer clear of the boat lucky enough to get there first.  There will be more birds in the very near future, but people aren't eager to share right now and they get a tad pissed off when you screw up their bite!

When the lake gets the flattest in the middle of the day we have been able to find shrimp popping the surface with no birds in sight.  That bite will last a long time and you will not get pressured.  When the fish aren't up a topwater or the tail under a cork will usually get them started again.  Running all over the place just scatters the bait so stay put a little longer and let the fish find you.

As you would expect the water clarity has gotten better everyday which helps the confidence even if the fish could care less.  We have had some really good tides and things are just getting better from Middle Pass all the way to the Causeway.  I am not sure why but Blacks has been a little dirty and the bite there hasn't been consistent, but the flounder are still doing their thing around the Roseau cane on the La. shoreline.