Colburn's Sabine Connection

S-L-O-W for me!

Even when it was the coldest and the wind was giving us fits every day we still managed to catch a few fish, but we have fished hard for very little since the Saturday deluge during the Bassmaster Elite event.  The trout are going to get this figured out or starve to death as they still have a generator running 24/7 and five gates open on Toledo Bend!

We either waded or drifted four days last week and pretty much caught only redfish.  We had six trout one morning and we were excited.  I canceled four of the last five trips and have been scouting with some very good fishermen trying to put something together.  We can catch fish in the Game Reserve canals, but we can't guide that water.  That is still a positive for the recreation fishermen.

I will be hunting them again tomorrow morning and will probably spend a little more time drifting the Causeway reefs on an incoming tide.  Coffee Ground has been very tough and we wasted two days on the revetment wall, but that is a bite that can change overnight and we did see more bait over there than anywhere else.

This is especially frustrating because we were catching some big trout and a lot of flounder prior to the rain and Toledo Bend having to dump so much water.  It might just be time to retire and mow grass when the fishing is this tough.   

Day1 of Bassmaster Elite tourney underway after 2 1/2 hour fog delay

Between the Bassmaster Elite event and fishing nearly every day, I found no time for filing a report over the past week.  It is an exciting, but hectic time for Orange as the city has really gone the extra mile in accommodating not only the fishermen, but their families as well.  I haven't even had time to clean the boat before the next trip.

Huge crowd arrived early for Day 1 send off!

 

The tournament kicked off this morning and there was one heck of a crowd gathered up in the dark to watch the initial blast off.  The only hitch was that once there was enough light to run, the fog was so thick that they had to delay the start over and over.  The bulk of the crowd arrived at 6:00, but the first boat wasn't released until 9:15!

....but they couldn't safely turn them loose in this stuff!

Aside from the fog problem there were lots of floaters to dodge (some much larger than others) washing into the Intracoastal via the rivers and both Cow and Adam's Bayou.  Because some of the pros were already in a panic strut having lost three hours, I will be very surprised if some lower units don't pay the price.  The water is extremely high and muddy and a lot of deadwood is floating out of the flooded low lying areas.

As bad as the guys planning on making a long run hate losing that time, the ones fishing close will now be faced with even more pressure from pros that abort that plan on Day 1.  It was going to be tough anyway, but this will make it even tougher.

Even with all of this fresh water flowing into Sabine Lake there were still some very big trout caught over the past week.  Two more 9's that I confirmed and another reported 10 pound fish that I haven't gotten the final word on.  We haven't caught a trout over six pounds all week long, but the numbers have been better.  The red fish are still doing their thing and I have been shocked by the number of very solid flounder we have caught on everything from Corkies to Swim Baits.

We quit running and looking for clear water and are just fishing the same stuff that is usually productive.  We have had to fish a little slower, but the fish have not moved as of yet due to all of the fresh water. It looks like we have more rain on the way this weekend so we will just keep fishing and hope for the best.  If you aren't confident when fishing dirty water........stay home!

Runoff slowing down trout bite.....Bassmaster Elite pros rolling into Orange

"O.K.....we have had enough rain!" It is still raining this morning and the SRA is running one generator 24 hours a day on Toledo Bend, but the lake level is still hovering around the 171 mark.  The only folks that additional water racing down the Sabine hurts more than the trout fishermen on Sabine Lake are the pros fishing the Bassmaster Elite tournament in Orange next week!

A year's worth of scouting gets washed out pretty quickly when you have muddy runoff pouring out of every drain, creek and bayou between here and Toledo Bend.  They may well burn much more gas than anticipated running both east and west in search of more favorable water conditions.

Sabine Lake, on the other hand, is what it is and both the fishermen and trout will have to adapt and grind it out.  The water was still in pretty good shape prior to Wednesday and while we weren't catching many big trout, we were still catching decent numbers.  By Wednesday morning the water clarity was poor all over the lake and the water on the flats off the Neches and Sabine was fresh.  Even Coffee Ground Cove, the last area to ever muddy up, was down to less than a foot of visibility.

We haven't even attempted to fish the shorelines that were yielding easy limits of redfish due to the poor water clarity or a stiff wind.  With the exception of Wednesday, however, we have been able to put together decent catches of trout up to four pounds fishing Usual Suspects, Fat Boys and the smaller Crazy Croaker.  Pearl or glow chartreuse combinations have worked the best for us.

As long as the salinity levels are manageable, the trout  are not going to move, but you have to slow down and put your bait right in front of them.  For that one reason, the wader usually does much better in these conditions....."the key is just beating a small area to death."

I don't care if you are a dyed-in-the-wool saltwater fishermen, the daily presence of the best bass fishermen in the world here in Orange for a week is exciting.  They draw a crowd every where they go and they are far more approachable than you would ever expect.  The city of Orange does a phenomenal job of taking care of them and their families for their entire stay and they are quick to show their appreciation.

For an all but guaranteed "up close and personal" meeting there will be several opportunities to do just that across the weekend through Tuesday of next week.  Simon's Outfitters located on MacArthur Drive will kick it off by hosting major fishing industry reps, Elite pros, a Kid's fishing tank, free barbeque and drinks, and drawings for prizes from 11 until 4 on Saturday.

Sunday afternoon, from 12:00 until 3:00, Todd Faircloth, Keith Combs, John Murray, Ish Monroe, Fletcher Shryock and John Crews will be visiting with area fans at Daley's Hunt N Fish on Nederland Avenue in Nederland. Cliff Crochet will be there Tuesday evening from 6:00 to 8:00 giving tips on fishing the new Rat-L-Trap square bill crankbait.  Kevin Van Dam, Shaw Grigsby and Mark Menendez are also scheduled to make appearances, but the date and time was not available as of this morning.  You can get that information by calling 409-722-1196.

Sunday afternoon all of the pros check in with their boats in tow at the hospital located on Strickland Drive in Orange.  If, for some reason, you are not familiar with what a wrapped boat and tow vehicle looks like, this is your chance to ogle them up close!

Both Paul Elias and Shaw Grigsby will speak Monday night at the Orange Chapter CCA membership drive meeting at Robert's Steak House on Park Avenue. They both do a great job of speaking, any meal at Robert's is a win-win, and a CCA membership is an inexpensive investment in the future of fishing for you and your children.

I don't know that all of that information does much for you, but I had a lot of trout fishing clients that had no idea that they even held a Bassmaster Elite event here two years ago.  Either way, this is a very exciting weekend for Orange County and anyone that just likes to fish!            

 

What's new.....more rain and a howling north wind!

I would have never believed it an hour ago, but I just saw a little patch of blue sky before running in the house in the rain.  It was a C-O-L-D patch of sky at best, however, and the north wind was blowing even harder than the south wind did yesterday!

The water in the bayou was lapping at the top of the dock yesterday evening, but muddy and dropping like a rock this morning.  I haven't yet looked to see if we have more rain forecast for the weekend.  This is textbook early spring for us.  We get a week of decent weather and very good "catching" only to get another round of cold, wind and rain.

I don't know if it was Lamar's new  Laguna Madre fishing shirt of the Gambler Flappin' Shad, but he caught most of the fish!.

Oddly enough, we did worse on the best weather day this week, but it still wasn't bad.  Two out of three days we just hammered the trout and the redfish, but they either moved or just decided not to eat for us Monday.  We didn't have long to fish and  the bite had been so good in that one area that I decided to just wait it out and that proved to be a mistake.

We still caught some solid trout and a nice red, but we had been just wearing them out.  A Fat Boy and Catch 2000 had been the ticket, but they wanted a tail Monday.  The water was in great shape and the mullet were very active late in the day before this rain and cold arrived.  We were still doing better in 4 to 6 feet of water and the best bite was in the top of the water column.

There is no doubt that the surface temp will take a hit as it is still 39 degrees outside right now and I don't the temperature doesn't usually rise much overnight.  Regardless of how hard core you are, there will be few places to fish in a 20 to 25 mph north wind tomorrow provided you can even find deep enough water to launch the boat. 

I do know one thing......it will be a whole lot warmer eating crawfish indoors at the Sabine-Neches CCA Banquet tonight. Hopefully we will catch another break in the weather next week and the trout will not have moved too far!