Colburn's Sabine Connection

Thank goodness for understanding clients!

We had a little of everything last week as far as the weather was concerned but it didn't slow the bite down much.  I was able to fish clients only two days as I was unsure as to how things would work once we got Mom back from the hospital.  Thanks again to the folks that were willing to reschedule for a later date!

Doug Patterson works on another over sized red.

Aside from the two very good client trips early in the week, I was also able to fish a few hours in the afternoon and the bite was good in spite of the wind.  I seldom fish in the evenings unless we are wading and there is no better time of the day in the winter.

For the most part we have been wearing the redfish out, or more accurately, they have been wearing us out.  We are still catching some pretty solid trout as well under the gulls but that may change a little as this runoff makes its way into the lake.  A couple of days of north wind should escalate the clearing up process.

Gene put this beautiful red back on a very cold morning!

I have been fishing five inch tails more than I usually do this time of the year and while we are catching nicer trout, I also can't tell that it hurts the number of bites either.  Chicken on a chain, Texas shrimp and red shad have all worked well.  We could have fished nothing but a Usual Suspect and caught all the fish we wanted to catch, but the tails were a good change of pace.  Salt and pepper chartreuse, Cock of the Walk and SIlver Shiner have been our best colors in the Suspect.

After a quick, "OK...your fish is longer, but mine has more spots...both were released."

Do not believe that the size, 3 inch or 4 inch, and color does not make much difference with the Swim Bait.  Those factors seem to be far more critical than they do when fishing with tails.  If you doubt that and are too stubborn your fishing partner may make you the permanent net man.

A black-chartreuse head Super Spook and a bone Geaux Dog have been the tickets for us in the afternoons.  We haven't caught nearly as many fish in the brief 2 to 3 hour trips, but the size has been very good with most of the trout four pounds and up.  Because of wind direction we haven't fished the same shallow flat two days in a row, but that may be the best news of all!

Thanks again to the folks that changed their plans to help me juggle my schedule.  Hopefully things will get lined out after Thanksgiving and it will be back to normal.  The catching is really good right now and getting better.

Some days merit canceling....some days don't!

The conditions are miserable right now with a stiff north wind and just enough rain to keep you wet as well.  We actually elected to wait up until the last minute before postponing this morning.  I backed the trailer in the launch and decided to wait on Don and Sharleen Smith before unhooking the strap due to a little steadier rain.

They arrived on time and put on all of the clothes they brought with them before deciding that they needed even more.  I pulled the trailer back out, we sat and ate the rest of their kolaches and when Sharleen announced that the thermos was empty we re-scheduled and they departed in the warmth of their Tahoe.  By the time I got back home it had quit drizzling rain, but I think it was even colder!

This bit of nasty weather started doing its thing before we ever left the launch yesterday morning and only got worse, but the catching was just crazy good and I could not have been happier for Russell and Colin.  After getting canceled at the last minute three times in the past ten days (I don't require deposits and up until now seldom if ever missed a party that I didn't cancel due to weather) I fully expected Russell to call the night before in hopes of re-scheduling as well.

Some days getting wet and cold isn't all that bad!

As promised, however, Russell climbed out of the truck right on time with three rods, his foul weather gear and a bag of chicken strips and trail mix and Colin arrived right behind him with far too few clothes. The tide was boiling out aided by the howling north wind and after seeing only two small groups of gulls the day before, we were greeted by every gull residing in this area.  They were pounding away at any shrimp that made it to the surface and the trout were pounding away at every shrimp that didn't.

The weather got colder and wetter, but the gulls were working as hard at noon as they were at daylight.  The crazy thing is that while almost all of the trout were solid keeper fish (even the smallest trout would have earned a measurement).......we never found all of those redfish that we couldn't escape the day before.  We caught a limit mixed in with the trout while fishing tails, but really only checked one spot specifically looking for them.

Once we passed a couple of boats anchored up at the Outfall on the way out we saw only one other boat all morning long.  The water clarity was still great and the bayou was growing more narrow by the hour. The surface temperature was 62 at daylight and only three degrees warmer five hours later.

I haven't even bothered to check out the weatherman's guess for the next few days and I already know that at least three of next week's trips are with groups that prefer to stay in the boat, but I am itching to exploit the wade bite.  We caught some very nice trout on my only two recent wades and Adam Jaynes said that he has been pleased with wading efforts lately as well.

Good and getting even better every day!

We had a very good day today and I apologize for not posting at the end of last week.  We had only one tough day and that was probably as much on me as the fish.  After three good days I got home Thursday afternoon only to go by my Mom's house and find that she had fallen.  We eventually wound up in Beaumont  sometime after midnight and she was operated on for a broken hip.  No sleep hindered my A game the following morning!

In a nutshell we limited on trout Tuesday but got canceled the following day out of fear of an approaching front that did not materialize.  You guessed it.....the conditions could not have been better the next day and while Johnny and I lost a day's pay I salvaged it with a great three hour wade.  Russell Courville stopped me in the middle of the road as I was leaving Peggy's on the Bayou after lunch with Steve Osborne and persuaded me to climb in his boat.

How many guys do you know that carry four pairs of waders in their boat?  He is a duck hunter.  Anyway he had all of our bases covered and we just blew the trout away from the moment we climbed out of the boat.  We had a couple of fish over seven and all of the fish were three pounds are better.  I ran by the Boat Club on the way home and the cleaning table was crowded again as well.

The next day the conditions were even more perfect and we just hammered trout up to four pounds all day long.  We did nothing but chase gulls and you didn't have to chase long as they were everywhere.  The following day the gulls were all over smaller trout, but some better fish showed up after lunch.  I went home, cleaned up, raced to a football game, came home and crashed until seven the following morning.  Mom's surgery went well and she is now dealing with rehab at the young age of 87!

John graciously let Matt share the moment before Matt started catching his own big reds!

Back to today which was a most enjoyable day.  The weather was good ahead of the front and the Yarbrough brothers did their best to deplete the redfish population.  We caught a solid flounder and eight or nine nice trout right off the bat.  Then John caught our fist red of the day...an over sized ten pounder. Matt immediately started pressing, but Kenny just took it all in stride.  I don't think either of them bettered John's fish, but they both released over sized fish of their own!

.....he got started on his next cast!

Many many redfish later, (all but nine were released) we checked out a few other spots and called it a day just as the wind swung around to the north and the rain started.  We fished an outgoing tide virtually all day long and the water was still in great shape both in the lake and the river as well.  We made one half hearted long jaunt around the lake just because the conditions were so good and saw no more than two small flocks of gulls.

......and it didn't take long for Kenny to get in on the act as well!

Tomorrow could be a challenge with 20 mph north winds in the forecast.  We are going fishing anyway as you never know about those forecasts!

Pretty darned good week!

For the the first couple of days last week there were at least three other boats headed for a flock of gulls by the time you could say, "There's some over there!"  By the time the front arrived on Friday, however, we fished the gulls alone while watching several other unattended flocks working in the white caps.  We didn't stay with it long, however, as the size of the trout was not worth the rocking and rolling.

Andrea caught her first red ever fishing a sea shad under a cork.

The week started with a trip with two lady fishermen that got comfortable quickly with spinning combos and just caught a pile of fish.  Andrea missed her first big red, but caught the second one and we finshed the day with a nice box of trout, a four pound flounder and her red.  I think they caught every fish on candy corn colored Sea Shads under a cork.

Pete broke off his first three reds, but stuck with it and got it done with time running out.

The following afternoon we took a chance on a wade and caught the heck out of trout up to seven pounds on Corkies and Catch 2000's in two to three feet of water.  We only fished from four until dark and I haven't had a chance to hit it again.  The next day the wind started picking up early and we abandoned the birds and small trout to fish the deep breaks on the river.  We finshed up with a good  box of trout up to four pounds that also included Pete's first red.  He got broken off the first three times, but proved to be persistent and got it done any way!

Bob caught our best trout of the morning.

 

It didn't take long for Bob and Guy Oliphint to absorb enough cold spray off the white caps for us to abandon the lake Friday.  The gulls were working well enough, but it was just crazy rough trying to fish through the troughs.  Once again, we salvaged a great day by returning to fish the deeper water.  Bob and Guy just hammered trout in 18 to 24 inch class and we lost at least 20 minutes of catching time watching Guy win the tug of war with a huge drum that thought it was a trout.

And it pulled and pulled and pulled before Guy finally won.

It looks like the wind is going to switch back around to the southeast this week and the weather is going to warm up with some rain, but any forecast more than four hours in advance is a guess.   We didn't lose much water with two days of north wind, but the surface temperature cooled down a little more.  As long as it is safe we are going to keep grinding!