Colburn's Sabine Connection

The weatherman guessed wrong again!

Sometimes you just make a bad call based on an errant guesstimation by the weatherman and that is what happened today.  I cannot recall the last time they missed the wind on the low side and all of the rain got here much later than predicted as well, but we had already canceled the night before.

When I could stand it no longer, Ron and I made a quick run anyway partly because of the almost perfect conditions and partly because he wanted to check out two new props.  We were able to check out only the first one because we used up all of his allotted time catching trout!

Patience was the difference maker on a windy morning!

Both Tuesday and Wednesday we caught a break early with the wind and caught some very solid trout swimming Usual Suspects and five inch tails on a 1/8th ounce head.  It took me a while to put a consistent pattern together, but things improved when we started drifting the color change on the flats on the north end of the lake.  The wind didn't set up for that drift too well, but we managed to hold the line with the troll motor.  Rick, Hannah and Buddy's patience were appreciated as the best bite didn't start until around 10:30.

The following morning Russell and John joined me and we started fishing that same pattern at first light.  I have no idea how many nice trout we pulled off or jumped off in the first two hours, but we still finished with a good box of fish.  We also spent the better part of an hour just before noon fishing a flock of gulls that never moved or quit working and we were able to keep only two out of 50 to 60 fish.

It really didn't matter at that point, but regardless of what we threw in the middle of all of that surface activity we still caught sand trout and small specks for the most part.  While they were catching a fish every cast on tails, I tried a Hoginar, Corky, Catch 2000 and She Dog and continued to catch the same size fish.  We returned to the flats, caught two more keeper trout on one drift and almost beat the rain back to the dock.

The trout this morning just went nuts and they were all good fish.  We released several fish that we neither weighed or measured, but they were big ol fish.  We weren't keeping fish anyway, but we could have easily kept two limits of 2 to 3 pound fish.  The only difference today was that the off-colored water extended further out into the lake so we basically tried to drift the same depth as the day before which was 3 1/2 to 4 feet.

I hope the weatherman misses tomorrow's doom and gloom forecast as well! 

 

 

Light wind made it a little easier Friday.

We enjoyed a much better than anticipated day of catching yesterday.  Wade Smith once again talked the wind into taking a break for Russell and Travis and while we didn't catch a lot of keeper trout we did catch and release a pile of undersized fish.  The extreme north end of the lake as well as the ICW and river was pretty dirty and we could put nothing together while fishing those areas early on a slow out going tide.

The water on the revetment wall was much clearer as was the middle of the lake and that's where we spent the remainder of the day excluding an hour or so looking for reds on the east shoreline.  Until the water gets a litle clearer (salinity has not been a problem) catching may require joining the crowd chasing gulls or fish south of the Causeway for us to consistently catch fish and the wind is still a major factor in deciding which option to exercise.

Fishing the gulls frustrates me like no other program, but we did eventually figure out that the better trout wanted a longer tail on a lighter head yesterday.  The same color in a four inch tail wasn't nearly as effective as a Big Minnow XL or a Tidal Surge Split Tail eel.  We also did a little better just sticking around pods of shad on the surface than running all over the lake chasing a few birds,  The fish would eventually start popping on the surface, but while they wouldn't stay up long they weren't moving far.

I am not fishing today, but this could be one of the better Saturdays, at least wind-wise, in quite a while.  Sign the kids up for the STAR tournament and take them fishing.  The right fish this summer could pay for $50,000 of college!        

Way more fishing than catching!

Unfortunately, this report won't require much reading.  I would love to give you a good report, but to do so I would have to lie or have you talk with another guide as I have struggled this past week.  We have caught a few reds in a marsh that I haven't fished in ten years and caught six nice trout on a morning wade before the wind blew us out.  The third day was even worse as an incoming tide was not what we needed to catch fish on the flat we were working.

There is a bite under the gulls at times, but that has always been the worst part of my game and I fish them only after all else fails.  It seems like just about the time I see them so does every one else and when I finally find another a group of my own, the other four boats I avoided fishing their flock hurry over to help me try to catch my fish.  Add to that.... fishing in white caps, a lot of small fish, trout that won't hold and very dirty water on the flats that I would like to be fishing and it all adds up to a bad report!

The lake is not that dirty in the middle portion, but East Pass all the way to the tip of Pleasure Island is ugly.  We are going to try it one more time tomorrow, but I'll cancel trips and mow grass all weekend if it doesn't improve.  If you have a good bite going right now....keep it quiet!

Short boat ride from the penthouse to the outhouse!

What a difference one day can make.  Russell Fregia and nephew, Mike, backed up their scheduled Tuesday trip just one day and for a change were able to say, "You should have been here today rather than yesterday."  We did squeeze in a decent Tuesday afternoon following a downpour that morning, but Wednesday proved to be the day to be there.

Russell deserved a rest following a tug of war with this red!

It started off a little slow early, but the lake was dead calm and we knew the major feed and the tide change  would kick off about the same time.  We were catching a few trout, including one that nearly made the 8 pound mark, when things got very user friendly.  We drove up on 3 or 4 birds in the open lake and caught solid trout and redfish until we finally decided the shade at the launch was a cooler option.

Not quite as big as his Uncle's, but worth of a photograph and quick release.

The redfish were mixed in with the trout for the most part, but we did see a couple of small schools of nothing, but reds.  At 82 years young, Russell was right there with us cast for cast from start to finish.  A long battle with an oversized red forced to him sit down a minute and drink a bottle of water, but that was the only break he took.  I can only hope that 82 will be as kind to me!

The following morning the lake looked more like the North Sea right out of the box and the wind never let up.  Don Price and his son, Brady, took a beating for very few keeper fish.  The birds still tried to work a little, but they scattered quickly and, unlike the day before, a lot of the trout were small fish.  It was a grind and especially disappointing after Wednesday's trip.

The water on the north tip of Pleasure Island was ugly Thursday morning, but we managed a couple of solid trout.  The best looking water, not that it really has much effect on the bite, was on the revetment wall and in the mid-lake area.  Most of the extreme north end had very poor water clarity.

Not all of the fish we found under birds were chasing only pods of small shad as we saw a lot of shrimp on the calmer day.  We also caught our larger fish with four inch tails than the longer stuff.  You can catch fish right now by simply hanging around the pods of shad, but they are are to see in 2 to 3 foot rollers. 

Big trout stealing the show!

The early part of the week was tough for us last week, but it has turned around in a big way the past few days. Better numbers of very nice trout have decided to do their thing and while we didn't catch them, three trout that broked the 30 inch mark were caught and two of them were released.  Not one of those trout were caught by anyone signed up for the STAR tournament.

The only one that was weighed tipped the scale at just over the 10 pound mark, but the trout Richard Netherly caught and released fishing with Sammy Hall appeared to be even heavier.  The third fish weighed just under ten pounds, but was still heavier than the STAR leading fish!

Water clarity seems to be the key as the more consistent bite is taking place when the tide pushes back against the dirtier water in the river and ICW.  While it hasn't been consistent enough to be predictable, we are also starting to find the gulls working a little more often.  Tails and Swim baits accounted for the three big fish as well as a number of 4 to 7 pound fish.  Clint Edwards also caught and released a 28 inch trout fishing with me last week that demolished a Spook,Jr. in four feet of water.

The east shoreline and the flats behind the islands on the north end of the lake have been the hotter areas, but I also saw two very good mixed catches of reds and specks that were taken in the middle of the lake in a pretty stiff wind.  Those fish werre beating up on pods of small menhaden.

That is just a crazy number of 30 inch fish in a very short period of time for this lake, but I would still sign up for the STAR tournament before I launched on Sabine!