Colburn's Sabine Connection

Some folks catching big trout!

We managed to squeeze in a decent half day wade in spite of two clients with leaking waders and a wind that howled in the wrong direction all morning long .  Once again we didn't have a single trout over four pounds, but they were still all solid fish.  We moved twice just to get away from the redfish.

We have had a better topwater bite than I expected, but the better numbers still hit a red shad, chicken on a chain or plum-chartreuse 5-inch tail.  At least as far as big trout are concerned, I have apparently been fishing in the wrong places at the wrong time as I have seen some very impressive pictures this week.  Three of the trout were over nine pounds and there were several more fish over seven pounds!

One of the 9's I saw was taken on a Fat Boy and the other two were caught on live croaker.  Even with all of this wind the last few days the water is still in pretty good shape.  I have some rain or shine hard core fishermen next week and I am hopeful that they can catch trout that warrant enduring the cold and rain!

If you have been inside too long and just have to get out...the redfish are still doing their thing from East Pass to Green's.  They are probably doing it elsewhere as well, but that's the only area I have been able to fish. I made the Houston Fishing Show Thursday and this year's edition is a really good one. In visiting with other guide friends it is apparent that they are pleased with the bite in their area.  Lots of new stuff...especially in rods and reels.  The only downside is finding a place to park as they are building new office buildings, etc. right up to the front door of the George R. Brown Center.

Too cold and windy for me today!

After two days of grinding away in the wind and badly silted water earlier last week, I tried to convince Ward Maloy that rescheduling last Friday would not be a bad idea.  He would have none of it and we got an early start in hopes of cheating the arrival of more rain and higher winds due in around noon.

Tough weather didn't slow down Ward or the reds!

We beat an already stiff southeast wind to the east shoreline and were able to hang in there until the wind swung almost due south and blew everything out.  Ward, his wife, Lauren and dad, Tom, wore their arms out casting dead into the wind, but the water had cleared a little over night and we caught both trout and redfish all morning long.

Once again, the trout bite started a little later for me, but the reds were doing their thing right out of the box and we were content to beat up on them.  We caught them in water from 2 to 5 feet deep, but the better trout bite was in 4 to 6 feet of water.  As long as we kept our lure in that top column of water we got bit enough to warrant surfing across some serious whitecaps!

Ward stuck with a Usual Suspect and caught both reds and specks, but we caught fish on everything from a Crazy Croaker to tails under a cork.  The trout bite may have started even earlier as we found that bite only after leaving the more protected water .  We surfed two flats on the way back and caught trout up to three pounds well off the shoreline in 4 to 6 feet of water.  We never repeated a drift as the wind had swung around to the south and it was difficult to even stand up by that time.

In spite of a howling wind that I wouldn't normally challenge, I elected to give those same flats another shot the following morning to see if I had really found a wind proof pattern, but it was just impossible and I gave it up early.  We saw only two other boats on the water Friday and while the less than favorable conditions kept most sane folks at home.....there were also no crabbers out.  They had pulled all of their traps ahead of the CCA crab trap round up and it really looked different in front of Three Bayous and Willow with no mine fields of traps.  You realize just how much prime water you can't fish year round!

I don't know when we will try to get back out this week, but it won't be today or tomorrow as I haven't been catching the kind of trout that I am willing to endure these conditions for.  Wednesday night I have been invited to speak at the annual Golden Triangle CCA membership drive meeting in Beaumont at 7:00.  I always look forward to talking about fishing with those folks and the food alone makes the evening worth the short drive!   

     

Great weather.....improved trout bite!

We have gotten a little more wind than we needed the past couple of days, but other than that the conditions could not have been more user-friendly the entire week.  The redfish bite has just been out the roof through the colder morning hours and the trout have gotten more cooperative as the water warms up.  The trout bite has actually been decent earlier in the day as well, but my clients have been in no hurry to leave the reds until they are limited and tired of catch and releasing!

She wore us out all day long!

The days run together when the fishing is good, but I think it was Wednesday that the Sharps fished with me and the weather was as enjoyable as the catching.  Cheryl just wore the redfish out with a five inch jerk bait while Ben and I threw a variety of lures looking for trout in the same areas.  We caught our share of reds as well, but when the trout cranked it up we did much better with a Tidal Surge Mullet, Diedapper, Crazy Croaker and SoftDine XL.

Ben's fish apparently didn't know it was about to be released!

The water clarity has gotten better every day and I have found a lot of bait on the surface in the afternoons on both the La. shoreline and the tip of Pleasure Island.  Chicken on a chain and red shad have been our best colors in tails while pearl/pink or pearl/chartreuse have been hard to beat in any of the mullet imitations.

It looks like we have more cold weather headed our way, but we should be okay if we can dodge anymore rain.  The only thing missing in our program right now are the really big trout, but at least we are consistently catching trout again!

Trout bite continues to improve!

Once they stopped generating on Toledo Bend, all it took was a few days without another local major down pour for the water clarity to greatly improve in Sabine Lake.  We made a quick and cold run last Wednesday just to check the water conditions (that's what you call it when you don't catch fish) and from that day on....... the bite has steadily improved.

The La. shoreline clears the quickest, but the water was decent enough by yesterday evening even on the Neches flats.  The redfish bite lit off again immediately, but the trout bite has just gotten a little better each day.  There is no doubt that they are far more active in the afternoon hours as we have failed to catch a single trout before noon only to limit twice in the last hour or so of daylight.

We have not found any big trout thus far, but I will never complain about 17 to 24 inch fish.  Luke Dell's 6 1/2 pound fish was the best fish we have caught recently.  The redfish will eat most anything you throw in front of them, but we have caught most of our trout on bone or pink topwaters, red shad and chicken on a chain tails and day glow Fat Boys.

He might reside in Texas now, but Hughes Andry's nice redfish found it's way into a court boullion!

I fished with Sportco Marketing rep., Hughes Andry, and Jim Franklin on Friday and while we caught only redfish all morning long, I enjoyed a continuous sneak preview on everything from rods to fishing clothing.  I also spent some time catching fish with  one of Hughe's new Shimano Metanium casting reel's and while my Chronarch and Curado 50 E's feel and perform really well...this reel did feel noticeably different .  The fact that it was brand new flawed the comparison a little as far as drag and smoothness was concerned, but it stands alone when it comes to added casting distance minus the usual backlash that accompanies a mighty heave into the wind!

I was fishing the 7.4 retrieve ratio model which was plenty fast enough for me, but they make an 8.5 as well. The only hitch, at least for me, is that the cost of the reel is about twice that of the Curado or Chronarch.  Having said that, if I wasn't sharing my tackle with folks from 7 years old to 70 two hundred days a year, I would buy two tomorrow.