Colburn's Sabine Connection

Going south still best option.

I haven't forgotten about this blog, but I basically take the time to peck out these reports only to help folks that can't fish everyday have some idea of what to expect at the time.  This entire month has basically been a wash for me, or at the very least, too inconsistent to book trips and still sleep at night.

I have never had to scout more and while the daily storms and water coming down the Sabine have done us no favors, there have still been a few days when I thought the bite might be turning around.  The following day usually lays that assumption to rest, however, and its back to square one in the rain.

While I have guided far too little, at least some of it can be attributed to my disdain for fishing south of the Causeway.  I hate dealing with the work traffic, no place to clean fish and even launching by yourself is a nightmare.  Having said that, the 3 or 4 best trips I made this month were all south of the Causeway.  I made that run by boat on all but one occasion,however, and fished only with another frustrated guide or friends which eliminated those non-fishing issues.

On five different occasions in the past two weeks, I never even left the launch while waiting on the rain to stop with persistent clients.  I still have no program on the north end that I would bet on and that includes getting blown out this morning.  If you have no problem fishing south, however, I would not postpone a trip due to anything you read here.  The redfish and the flounder bite has been very decent most days and the trout bite is not bad when you are in the right place at the beginning or end of a tide change.

"Well...it just quit raining so I am going to load up and look around again this evening.  Man.....I'd like to file a report that includes catching fish on the north end of the lake!" 

Fishing, baseball and softball taking a serious hit!

This never ending rain is wearing thin.  We fished the south end of the lake twice this week and caught a few trout, but just about the time I think, "Okay....we can live with this bite" it rains even harder the next day and the wind howls for good measure.  The water on the south end has no better clarity than the north end  and tastes just as fresh, but I guess it is still salty enough on the bottom to hold the trout.

We haven't caught a trout shallower than 5 to 6 feet, but we did run into a small school of slot reds chasing tiny shad on the same stretch of shoreline two days in a row.  Aside from even catching a trout, the most surprising thing has been the number of 12 to 14 inch trout we are catching.  We have been averaging no better than a keeper for probably every five or six fish caught.

We have fished a lot of different colors in every size tail and not one of them has really been all that better than another for us this week.  We were doing better on dark colors, but we caught a few fish on everything from limetreuse to opening night on the last trip.  It looks like we may catch a break with a couple of sunny days early next week, but at the same time, they have both the generators on Toledo Bend running 24/7 again.

Canceling trips everyday is one thing, but having to reschedule already rescheduled trips is leading to some very busy months ahead if it ever quits raining.  The silver lining has to be that our fish are not getting much pressure right now! 

We are talking tackle,techniques and patterns at Daley's today.

A south wind that was blowing hard enough to lift a waterlogged cardboard box out of the water turned out to be a good thing for a change.  Earlier in the week we were on a few decent trout holding on two small shell pads, but that area was unfishable by the time we arrived.

With little left to do other than run further south looking for some protection from the wind, we opted to drift the Causeway reef and as you would expect, we had it all to ourselves.  We drifted everything from 22 ft. to 5 feet and were overjoyed to make the rough ride home with a red, two flounder and 16 trout.  The following day we caught better numbers, but fewer keepers and the next day we finished with 19 keepers up to four pounds.

The fish were so pale that they looked like they had been living underground.  Says a lot for the water clarity!

We fished a wide variety of lengths and colors in the tails, but eventually did the best on morning glory, red shad and purple/blue flake in a four inch Sea Shad.  We also caught the largest percentage of keeper fish later in the morning regardless of the direction of the tide.  We may have been a bit too conservative yesterday as we canceled rather than make another long rough boat ride in the rain.  I don't think the rain was as bad as forecasted, but I wasn't there to find out!

So.......I just finished cleaning reels and re-stocking Sea Shads and I am heading over to Daley's for at least part of the day to at least talk fishing.  Some very good fishermen that keep up with this blog emailed last night and we are going to swap information and talk tackle and techniques around noon and probably later if we aren't overcome with hunger pains.

I always learn something new (usually a pattern or productive area) at these little unplanned sessions.  Load up the kids and give the wife the day off.  Keith usually winds up giving something away every time we do this!

If it rains everyday next week as the weatherman is guessing, I think we are going to do a full blown seminar that will hopefully help you catch more fish once the conditions improve.  We would probably do it mid-week or so....I will let you know. 

Less fresh water equals better bite!

They have at least temporarily closed the gates on T-Bend and the strong incoming tides have already improved the trout bite on the south end a little.  The north end is still a challenge, but things could get better pretty quickly if we can avoid more rain.

We have caught a few nice trout on tails the past couple of days, but they were not very aggressive.  They were all solid 19 to 22-inch fish that hit very lightly.  The water clarity still sucks so we are currently sticking with the darker colored tails.  Both red shad and morning glory worked the best for us.  I saw several nice flounder caught by anglers fishing the shoreline day before yesterday, but we are finding our trout well off the bank.

 

If the wind allows and you just want to get your arm pulled off.....tie on a crank bait or four inch Usual Suspect and fish the gulf side of the jetties.  We have fished it twice over the past week and it wasn't like the oversize reds and jacks were holding in one little spot.  One day we basically had it to ourselves and the next trip there were probably fifteen boats strung out from the boat cut to the end and everyone was catching at least a few fish.

Jacks like this one are an "all morning" tug of war on a med. light Laguna rod and bait caster.

Two or three fish will make you reluctant to make another cast as we are talking huge redfish and jacks that you can't even turn in some instances.  Of the forty to fifty reds that we  caught in total on those two brief trips...not a single fish was in the slot.  I would guess after measuring only a few out of curiosity...weighing them is not an option as they bottom out the Boga grip....that the average red is 30 to 36 inches with a few much larger.  I just netted and took pictures on the second trip as I wanted no part of them and neither did my clients after a couple of hours!

Reds this size will also test the forearms.

The wind will be a factor, but I look for bite on the north revetment wall and the flats south of the islands to improve next.  The trout holding in the ICW still have to eat and it is a short swim to the buffet for them. The afternoon hours have been much better thus far this week.