Colburn's Sabine Connection

It took a 24 hour deluge, but it turned the bite around!

This has absolutely been a different kind of week on Sabine.  It all started with the deluge that washed out most of the local football games on Friday night.  The runoff, outgoing tide and a little north wind combined to push the shrimp and redfish out of the marsh and it was just crazy Saturday and most of Sunday.

Monday morning things briefly changed for the worst.  We started the day in Black's and about the time the mosquitoes thinned out we started noticing an alarming number of dead fish, especially flounder.  The banks were lined with pelicans, gulls and even buzzards picking on the fish wedged in the cane.  The same thing took place in Bridge and Willow Bayou, but we didn't  see as many flounder.

In less than a day, however, most of the carcasses and the stench were gone and the bite was back on.  Apparently, a large number of redfish decided it was time to move into the main lake and we have really done well on them the past few days.  They are schooling up again and you can catch them running the shoreline as well.

I caught a tournament fisherman's dream redfish Thursday mroning.  The big fish tried to eat my cork in less than two feet of water before inhaling the four inch tail.  Once we landed the fish we were not surprised that it was eating everything that moved.  It measured only 27 inches in length and weighed 10.7 pounds.  Two of those would have you back at the weigh-in early!

Another nice red that couldn't leave a She She Dog alone!

Over the previous two weeks we had pretty much been relegated to catching our trout in the river, but that changed as well.  We had virtually no wind Wednesday and Thursday and had no problem finding trout up to four pounds.  There were some larger fish there, but it took me a while to figure that program out.

We are seeing very few shrimp as most of the fish, both trout and reds, are riding herd on schools of shad and unfortunately, the gafftop are right there with them.  I tried to fish a Vudu shrimp and Sea Shad under a cork while my clients beat up on the fish with TTF Flats Minnows and the gafftop finally made me put the cork away!

They are a little harder to cast, but there is no doubt that we are catching far more fish with a lighter 1/8th ounce jig head.  In some cases we were even swimming the paddle tail like Usual Suspect  Swim Bait and catching better fish as well.  We caught our fair share of trout and redfish on She Dogs and Spook, Jr,s, but the numbers bite is on tails.

The live bait bite in the river and the bayous leading into the Reserve has been better than good as well and some very nice flounder have been a bonus while limiting on redfish has not been a problem.  The best bite in the river has been on the deep points, but the drains are the number one draw in the bayous.

You have to catch and release a lot of trout, which isn't all that bad in order to limit, but we have just been hammering the fish on both a four inch and a three inch Usual Suspect.  Our best two colors this week have easily been Cock of the Walk and Space Guppy. 

Change in blades made a difference

Had it been a Little League baseball game, Joe, Mike and I would have gotten ten run ruled by the redfish and I still don't know what was going on.  We boxed the first redfish that we stuck and from that point on it was all about big blow ups, drag pulling runs and the fish eventually just coming undone somewhere in the middle of the fight.

The first one was the easiest one!

We returned to the same area the following day and never missed a fish.  Once the wind got up we switched from topwaters to quarter ounce spinnerbaits with a glow-chartreuse Wedgetail body and not only extended the bite, but missed only one or two strikes at the most.  I don't fish willow leaf blades very often for redfish, but I couldn't talk my clients into stickingwith the Colorade blade after catching three fish in a row.  We were waking it just under the surface and I think it must have looked more like one of the shad they were chasing.

The water has been exceptionally high every morning, but there is a very good out going tide most of the day.  We had a couple of decent days on the trout fishing topwaters, but that bite has really slowed for me.  The better bite has come on a 4-inch usual Suspect or a TTF flats minnow in East Beast.  I have been bouncing both baits off the bottom in water from 6 to 12 feet deep.

It looks as though we may get some rain and a different wind direction for the weekend and it certainly can't hurt.  I am ready for something a little different as we have had to really work for our fish.  The surest game in town is to anchor up on a deep point and feed shad and finger mullet to a mixture of sand trout, specks and reds.  It is a little on the boring side, but so is catching nothing chunking lures!

Al and Chad squeezed in pre-game trip!!

The wind finally gave us about an hour at daylight and we were able to make it pay off.  We hadn't made three casts apiece when a nice trout blew up on my Pro Dog and before I could ge it in, Al was racing to the front of the boat locked in battle with a redfish that would have been much too large to keep anyway.

Chad and Al, both Bryan, Tx. law enforcement officers, squeezed in a much needed break prior to returning to work the massive influx of fans for Saturday's Aggie-Tide game.    

It finally pulled off and before he could make another cast both Chad and I were attached to a pair of slot reds headed in opposite directions with our topwaters.  Al immediately hooked up as well, but once again he wasn't selective enough and eventually had to free another fish well over the 28-inch mark.  I haven't found the trout mixed in with the redfish like that in a while and it was fun until the wind shut us down.

We ran back to the river for a little while, but there was way too much traffic so we returned to ICW and bounced Usual Suspects and Sea Shads off the bottom for the remainder of the trip.  It wasn't exactly lights out good, but we finished with a very decent box of trout, redfish and flounder.  We never had any long dry spells and we caught enough throwbacks between keepers to keep us busy.

Cock of the walk Usual Suspects and stinky pink Sea Shads were getting difficult to find, but both Simon's Outfitter and Daley's have at least a few more packs back in stock.  Eric also said that they still have a few of the better colors left in the new Pro Dog over at Daley's.  Both stores continue to grow and apparently move as well.  Simon's is already in their new building on MacArthur Drive and it looks like Daley's will be in their new 10,000 square foot building in downtown Nederland by the end of November.

It has been a long time since area fishermen could find what they needed right here at home without having to order it.  I'll believe it when I see it, but the weatherman says there will be only a light north wind tomorrow.  If that happens expect more gull activity than we have seen in the past couple of weeks and lots of boats chasing them!

We are supposed to get a break with the wind this weekend!

We managed to beat the wind everywhere we tried with the exception of Black's.  The birds were working over a ton of small trout, but the best trout we caught under them may have gone 17 inches.  I did see one or two better trout caught by other fishermen, but the keepers were scarce for everyone.

We tried the lake for a little while, but it just wasn't worth fighting the wind.  We finally went back to the ICW and river and managed to put together a decent catch that didn't include the first founder.  It is just unreal how much bait is in the ICW.  The Swim Bait and a Spook Jr. produced most of our fish.  We released two oversized reds, but the biggest trout we kept was only 20 inches long.  I don't know why so many of the trout are so doggone skinny with all of that bait swimming around.

We are supposed to get some kind of little front this weekend so the wind should not be a factor on the main lake.  Don't be surprised if you discover the gulls working as hard as they have all year long!

Lots of choices right now!

It was more of the same and while we are not getting as many swings at big trout as we were, the bite is still good.  When you don't know which fish to target first that is an especially good thing.  More wind than we needed pushed us back in the ICW pretty early, but Swim Baits, Topwaters and even a few live finger mullet all worked well.

The finger mullet were supposed to produce a few more flounder, but the trout and redfish got to them first.  We did catch a few good flounder on a pumpkin-chartresue Sea Shad tipped with a small piece of Gulp.  I am not complaining, but I really believe the afternoon bite may be better tyhan the morning bite due to the tides.

A Chartreuse-red head Top Dog Jr.was our best topwater and the trout couldn't leave a Texas Shrimp tail alone.   We caught trout and redfish on several different colors in the 4-inch Usual Suspect. The wind is supposed to be a little bit of a problem the rest of the week, but I wouldn't let that keep me at home with so many different patterns working.

Gotta go, but that's the latest and I didn't wait three days to post.

Plan B as good as Plan A!

We have really caught a break with the weather the last few days.  It looks like we are going to get rained all over at some point every day, but thus far it continues to miss us which isn't all good.  We need some rain.

We are still catching our better trout on topwaters, but the redfish will hit anything you throw in front of them.  It never fails that just about the time we can fish anywhere we want in the lake, I am back taking advantage of the bite in the ICW and river.  The only reason I am not in the lake is that  my best trout are coming right off the edge of the channel and we have been dedicating our first stop each morning to a very good redfish bite.

It is easier to slow down and fish better when you already have a few fish in the box.  We didn't catch any 6 pound plus trout yesterday, but we did turn loose several fish in the 4 to 5 pound class.  Rick and Carol stuck with the Diedapper rigged on a Shiney Hiney jig head and a 4-inch Usual Suspect Swim Bait the entire morning.  I caught several reds on a shallow running crankbait just fooling around and every trout I caught ate a pink-silver Pro Dog.

With the bite in the ICW as strong as it is now we are not losing days to the wind and it is nice having a Plan B that is as good as Plan A.  I am still not seeing many shrimp in the lake so it might just be a mass exodus following the first stiff cold front.  I hope I am there when it happens!

I decided earlier in the year to back off a little this fall, watch football somewhere every evening and rest up for another big trout push starting in late December, but this has been too much fun.  I might just fish every doggone day and take a chance on falling asleep during the game at night.  Give me a call if you can fish a weekday as I will now have a few more open.

Finally...more catching than fishing!

I am going to go out on a bit of a limb and say that I think we have finally truned the corner.  We are starting to catch at least one big trout or two every trip again and the redfish bite is getting better everyday.  I went to a celebration of life today for a good friend that passed away this week, but I talked with Capt. Lamar and he did well inspite of a stiff west wind and a world of boat traffic.

They turned loose one 6 pound trout and still kept 12 very nice trout and two limits of redfish.  The day before, we started strong and ended strong and turned loose another nice trrout as well.  We also turned loose at least one other really good trout before we ever got it in the boat.  How good was it.......the client that missed it immediately called in and signed up for the STAR tournament with only one day left and he has caught his fair share of big trout!

We jacked around with gulls working over ladyfish for a couple of hours between the two good bites as I felt like there should be redfish running with them but there weren't.  We caught trout in the lake, the ICW and the river all week.  With the exception of two trout in the 25-inch class that we caught on 4-inch Sea Shads and space guppy Usual Suspects, every big trout we caught last week ate topwaters.  We didn't do nearly as well on the larger spook as we did the She Dog and Skitterwalk.  Even the smaller keeper trout ate the topwater better.

I am going to take Monday off rather than fight the crowd, but I am looking forward to the rest of the week.  The next three months are filling up fast so give me a call if I haven't called you already.  At this point it looks like this is going to be one heck of a fall!