Colburn's Sabine Connection

A waypoint to remember!

I have a fishing report that I never thought I would get to write, but before getting to that you need to write these numbers down and avoid this spot.  Gary McElduff recently lost his entire lower unit when he hit a barely submerged block of concrete while fishing a tournament and did us all a huge favor by passing along the waypoint numbers.  He wasn't running very fast at the time of his unexpected collision, but this block of concrete is a widow maker!

Kelly Broussard later emailed me a picture of an individual standing on that block that would have you idling all over the lake just knowing it was there.  The numbers are N 29°57.308'  W 093°50.921'.  Thanks again to Gary for sharing the waypoint and Kelly for reminding me to post it.

There are two more immovable objects in the same general area that can also deal you some grief on a very low tide or following a strong norther.  We have marked them several times over the past two years only to have someone remove the wire and the bleach bottle and now just slowed down when in the area.  The mine field stretches from about a half mile south of Stewt's to the north tip of Pleasure Island.

This solid red smacked a chrome-blue back She Dog.

After suffering through a tough week that yielded far more redfish than trout for us, I had an unforgettable trip yesterday.  I guess it is a once in a lifetime deal as it hasn't happened for me in the past 42 years.  Bill Prewett and I managed to only fill a redfish limit on a very user-friendly day earlier this week and the Legers and I had only five trout and two limits of reds fishing in a howling wind for less than half a day.

My Wednesday group canceled due to the weather report and canceled again the folowing morning to fish Big Lake rather than Sabine.  Marie met me at the launch at daylight, handed me a check for half a  fee, apologized for any inconvenience and drove back to Big lake.  That isn't the first time that I was canceled at the last minute, but I would never have driven over here just to give me a check!

At that point it was go home and take care of honey-do's or go fish a little while and the weather didn't  look overly threatening at the time.  I decided to check out a few deep breaks on the ICW for a couple of hours while straightening out tackle boxes.  Only because I noticed several schools of bait on the surface while idling out did I cast net a few in hopes of catching one or two flounder.

The "happening" began after boxing four trout for supper when two fish hit at the same time.  I had a live bait rig stuck in a rod holder and I was bouncing a split tail mullet off the bottom when they hit.  I caught, measured and released the 26 inch trout before even checking the other rod which I was reasonably sure was attached to a redfish.  Sadly enough, it was a 4 to 5 pound trout that had swallowed the hook and was bleeding badly.

I added it to the smaller trout that I had decided to keep for supper, caught and released two more trout in the six pound range and moved to a similar spot that I hadn't fished this year to see if the big trout were holding there as well.  Over the next thirty or so minutes I would not catch another trout that small!

The first fish hit like a flounder, but eventually turned out to be a 27 inch trout that put on a show on the surface.  Because the next trout was even longer, I took the time to weigh her before putting her back.  She weighed just under 8 1/2 pounds.  I was still fighting my next trout when two fishermen eased up behind me on their troll motor.

"We saw you catch those first two fish from a distance and we thought they were reds, but this is just unreal," one of them said.  They had their little "Capt. Lamar Belcher" cameras on their hats and they hung around long enough to record five more fish before we departed in opposite directions hoping to out run the rain and lightning.  The first and third fish they recorded were both over 29 inches!

The other trout were all 27 or slightly better and they were as fat as little pigs.  I thought they may just be gorging on shad, but three of the smaller female trout I cleaned were full of eggs.  I have been blessed to experience only a handful of epic catching days over the years, but never have I caught two trout over 29 inches on the same day. This is Sabine....not Baffin Bay.

If the approaching storm had not run us off I truly believe I would have caught a ten pound plus fish had they continued biting.  Every fish on both spots was holding in 22 to 24 feet of water on a weak incoming tide.  I have talked with a few fishermen over the past couple of years that have found those kind of numbers of big trout holding together in the ship channel, but this was a first for me.

I have three other old spots that I am just dying to now check out, but I will put them on hold for the holiday weekend. The only down side was that if I have to guide 42 more years for this to happen again I am in a heap of trouble!

Be especially careful this weekend as there will be lots of folks on the water that don't get on the water very often.  Sunscreen, lots of water and don't forget that your Texas fishing license expires in two days.             

 

 

 

 

Its all about the wind right now!

Between three kidney stones and a football scrimmage Thursday night, my nights have been too short to find time to file any reports.  Four o'clock came much too quickly every monring.  I still managed to get in all but one trip this week and we struggled three of the five days due to the wind.  We found some very nice trout that had the finger mullet piled up in two feet of water Tuesday morning, but the wind put that bite to rest in less than an hour's time and we kept only seven of the ten fish we caught.  The three we released were five pounds or better.

We are catching lots of solid redfish on tails and Swim Baits.

 

We even tried live bait fishing in the river one morning. but just couldn't find a consistent bite.  Friday morning the wind finally took a break and it was back to catching.  Limiting on redfish early is a good way to start any day and that bite has been very good the past two days.  We caught our redfish on Usual Suspects and Lil' Johns under a popping cork.

We also picked up one huge flounder that ate a firetiger Usual Suspect and I would love to post the picture, but I am saving it for my TSFM column this month.  On second thought, I might just post one of the pictures of the fish I won't be using.  When the wind allows we have been catching much better trout and lots of redfish under only a very few gulls.  We have just caught the heck out of them on the same baits along with Tidal Surge split tail mullets.

If this doesn't make you want to start chasing flounder.....!

We have also had some huge ladyfish catch us.  They are rediculously fast and acrobatic, but every single time they have to end the magnificent fight by crapping and bleeding all over the boat.  I didn't see as many pods of shad in the lake this week, but we saw a whole lot more shrimp.  It will probably snow Sunday night and we will be back to square one!

Two good days in a row!

We finally put in two good days back to back on the north end.  The redfish set it all up by doing their thing early.  It is much easier to look around at a more leisurely pace when you limit quickly on reds.  Both days we were culling redfish early.

The biggest difference was that we finally found two different schools of 15 to 22 inch trout that did their thing in the same area both days.  We caught a zillion small trout with only a couple of keepers in the bunch under every other group of gulls, but for some unknown reason these better fish are showing up in one small area.  It is out in the middle of the open lake and you can see other groups of birds nearby, but the trout under them have been small. 

"Ooooh....I think this is a good one Dr. Norman!"

Dr. Jim Norman called Wednesday night for a trip the following day and my party for that day was  willing to back up a day to give them an opening.  He was trying to squeeze in a last minute trip with a young friend of his, 12 year old Cole Stephens, before school starts next week.

......and indeed it was a good one!

I'll tell you one thing...for a 12 year old he can flat out fish and talk the talk as well.  Neither he or Dr. Norman cut each other any slack and every fish and backlash is contested!

Cole likes to catch trout, but he loves to catch redfish.  It took us all morning to find one of those two schools of good trout, but we were in them for about twenty minutes and we hammered them pretty good.  We did much better on dark colored tails than we did on glow or anything translucent both mornings.  I was very happy those same fish showed up for us again after the Kincaids were willing to back up a day.

We have had a strong outgoing tide that started noonish each day and for us the best bite on good trout has occurred after it started.  We have also stuck some humongous lady fish and they are a blast to fight when they get that big.  I also saw the first triple tail on the north end that I have seen in a very long time.  It was hanging around a tide line and it would not hit anything my overly excited clients threw in front of its face.

It was a little better for us today.

The last two days have been tough for me.  The wind was more of a factor today than yesterday, but it wasn't a difference maker either day.  Yesterday we just couldn't find the trout on the shallow flats and ran gulls most of the morning. We found a few decent redfish, but keeper trout were hard to come by.

Slot reds have been easier to find than keeper trout for us the past two days.

We decided to pass on chasing birds today and hustled redfish in the bayous and ICW.  We caught and released a lot of rat reds and small bass on crankbaits, swim baits and spinner baits, but still managed to keep six slot fish, two flounder and a dozen trout.  Everyone of the trout ate a glow chartreuse 3-inch Usual Suspect.  Both flounder hit a Swimming Image.

Even with a good outgoing tide we did not see as much bait as we have been seeing.  When we did find bait on the shoreline the fish were there with them.  Most of the redfish were tight to the bank, but the trout we found were holding in 8 to 10 feet of water.  I got two very good reports from folks fishing south of the Causeway, but I am still determined to figure out what the better trout on the north end are doing.

I also talked with some folks that caught fish in the river fishing with finger mullet and shad.  They didn't have many trout, but they did well on both the reds and the flounder.  The water clarity was very decent everywhere we fished. 

Usual Suspects arrived today!

We got wet today, but the weather has been very user-friendly the past three days and we have gotten in some pretty good trips.  Tuesday I fished with Drew, Sean and Jason and we caught fish all morning long, but didn't find a lot of keepers.  We did miss a couple of very nice trout early on topwaters drifting the flats and chased gulls for the fish we kept the rest of the morning.

Yesterday I fished with John and and his son, Jesse Champagne, and we really had a good time.  Jesse lives in Michigan and this was his first shot at reds, trout, etc.  We spent the first thirty minutes getting him comfortable with a spinning combination and after that it was "Game on" all morning.  It was a "catch and release " deal all the way and John didn't even fish.  He did, however, take great delight in critiquing his son.  Jesse left little to critique by the time we called it quits.

Jesse's first ever red was a good one that put up a great fight.  He put her back to fight again!

His first trout ever was a nice three pound fish and he followed that with a fat eight pound redfish that inhaled a She Dog.  We chased a lot of birds, but most of our better trout were caught working the shallow flats.  The bait was on the surface and anytime you could keep your lure away from the lady fish you had a good shot at a decent trout.  The water clarity on the north end of the lake was as good as I have seen it all year long!

Today we switched gears and fished for reds early and flounder the rest of the morning.  The rain ran us in a little earlier than we would have liked, but we still finished with 6 reds and 11 flounder.  We fished the ship channel the entire morning. I talked with two groups this evening that ran the gulls all day and they caught their reds, but struggled to find keeper trout in the lake.

I have gotten a jillion emails lately asking where to find Usual Suspects and Swimming Images around here.  Every time they hit the shelves a handful of anglers immediately buy them all.  As of today, this is what I know about those two lures.  Keith Daley at Daley's Hunt n Fish doesn't currently have anymore of the three or four colors everyone is looking for in the Usual Suspect, but Pradco is sending him a huge shipment of back ordered Swimming Images very shortly.

Jonathan Simon over at Simon Outfitters called me this evening and said that he got in a pretty substantial order of Usual Suspects today as well as several colors in She Dogs that have been hard to find.  He said that he now has space guppy, fire tiger and morning glory in both the three and four inch.  He already had plenty of Cock of the walk and all of the other colors so, at least for the moment, there are some to be had!

Daley's is in Nederland and Simon's is here in Orange.  Both stores will fill a phone order for you and hold them until you get by to pick them up.  That's all I know about the availability of those two lures as of today.  Should be a good weekend if we can dodge most of the rain.  

A good day on the water and back to football!

While we managed to do far more catching this week than just fishing, we also did a lot of running and fished several different patterns.  We finished with a flounder and 18 trout Tuesday, but I was still disappointed only because the redfish did not school for us.  Two very good friends, Peggy and Pat, took a day off from their jobs at the golf course and drove over from Houston in hopes of catching an even larger fish than Peggy caught back in May.

The redfish would have easily filled the bill, but we were relegated to catching trout while enduring a monsoon that eventually forced us to run south just to dry out.  Not surprisingly, the redfish showed up on schedule the next day as did the jacks and a few decent trout.  We finished the morning wading and caught only a few nice trout on topwaters.

After promising my Grandson, Andrew, and his friend, Blake, that I would get them on the water one more time before football starts, we found ourselves down to one last opportunity Friday morning.  At 4:00 that morning it was storming so I drank coffee and watched the weather channel.  At 5:30 it was still pouring down raining so I woke up Andrew and had him text Blake that we would watch and wait on the weather to break.

Andrew boxes one of a number of solid trout that ate a Mirrodine XL.

Three hours later we were launching in Sabine Pass and it was no longer raining, but it still looked bad for the home team.  We ran to the nearest protected shoreline on the ship channel and Andrew immediately boated a five pound plus trout on a bone She Pup.  Blake missed a trout much larger that just hammered a Skitterwalk and we put six trout in the box in the first fifty yards.

Blake and Andrew make the final call on a pair of nice trout!

From that point on it was steady catching no matter where we tried.  We had a hard outgoing tide and the water was just beautiful.  A Mirrodine XL eventually proved to be the hottest bait for us.  Once again we never found the schooling redfish, but the boys got their line pulled enough to make for a very enjoyable trip.  On a side note, while we never found the schooling redfish, at least a few folks did find them farther out in the main lake.

One more fish fry tomorrow and its back on the field Monday morning for Andrew and Blake.  I can't wait for it to start, but then I don't have to run a single sprint in the morning  heat!