Colburn's Sabine Connection

Redfish bite above average...trout bite improving

You cannot order better weather conditions than we were blessed with this past week.  It was unseasonably cool each morning and as the day warmed up, the wind blew just hard enough to make things pleasant.  We only ran into schooling redfish a couple of times, but we had no problem finding all we wanted to catch by bird dogging schools of shad and ladyfish in the open lake.

Dr. Norman worked on the reds with an opening night rat tail Assassin.

We are still struggling to catch solid trout on a consistent basis on the north end of the lake, but even that bite is getting better.  The live bait fishermen are doing much better than we are so there is no doubt that the better trout are there, but just a little slow to sell out on artificials.   We are catching redfish on anything we can get in front of them, but the larger trout that we have caught fell for topwaters or a five inch tail rigged on an 1/8th ounce head.  Opening night, chicken on a chain and plum-chartreuse have been the most reliable colors for us.

Coffee ground Cove has been getting an incredible amount of pressure, but I can assure you that is far from the only game in town.  The water clarity is great and the salinity levels are good all over the lake and we have found shad, shrimp and birds from the tip of Pleasure Island all the way to the Gator Hole almost every day.  We are looking at a shot at more rain this week, but the bite is too good not to be there as long as there is no lightning.  Time for new Texas fishing licenses!

Redfish between storms!

For the past week we have been playing hide and seek with thunderstorms that roll across the lake on 2 to 4 hour intervals.  Today it was all hide and no seek as it has not quit thundering and lightning since well before first light.  In between storms the wind usually lies down and we have just hammered the redfish during those brief windows almost every day.

Following a long tug of war, Steve's gafftop turned out to be a very solid redfish.

We enjoyed a crazy good topwater bite before the sun even came up two days in a row, but I haven't fished that bite the past two days as it has already been raining at that time.  The first morning we thought that we had finally found the big trout, but  it turned out to be redfish wrecking schools of mullet in two to three feet of water.  The water clarity was still good as late as yesterday even after all of the rain and wind, but if we get much more rain it could take a little hit.

One more nice red between storms!

We are catching a few solid trout mixed in with the reds and ladyfish on the north end, but for the most part it has been redfish and more redfish.  For that reason, most of the guides that work with me are fishing south of the Causeway and doing pretty darned good on 16 to 20 inch trout.  If that interests you  more than a steady diet of redfish, just let me know and we will get you lined up. 

I think that we will start seeing more trout up north as soon as more shrimp show up in the lake.  I was talking to Willie over at Daley's yesterday evening and he said that he is finding a lot of small shrimp in the grass while kayaking the marsh.  We are getting close if these thunderstorms will just move elsewhere.

Orange County Chapter CCA Banquet is tonight at the Convention and Expo Center on Hwy. 1442.  The steaks are great and you should be able to pick up some hot tips on the local fishing as well.......especially around closing time!

 

REDFISH and more REDFISH!

Fortunately, the bite has improved all over the lake for a change and I have been doing more catching than writing at night. The trout bite has still been slow for us, but the redfish have just gone nuts and because most folks like catching redfish, I have been able to get in a lot of rescheduled trips.  The water clarity is excellent also and the salinity levels are much higher than this time last month.

One more red before school starts.

The most consistent trout bite is still taking place from the Causeway south and a couple of the guides that I work with are catching very decent numbers of 16 to 19 inch fish.  We had two okay days on trout on the north end, but it was slow the rest of the time.  The redfish have more than made up for that problem. We had only one outing in the past two weeks that was slow and I have no idea why as the conditions were perfect!

The redfish showed up for the Flynn family outing!

Coffee ground Cove can get really muddy depending on wind direction due to the new rig working in the northeast corner, but everything else looks pretty good.  We have just caught the heck out of reds almost every trip on basically anything the client wants to throw.  For the most part we have thrown a lot of Lil Johns, Usual Suspects and topwaters.  It hasn't really mattered whether we swim plastics or fish them under a cork.

Travis got his licks in early with this solid red, but.......

I have only seen a little surface schooling action a couple of times, but the reds are definitely hunting in packs and riding herd on the shad in pretty decent numbers.  The best part is that in the past two weeks the only undersized red we caught came off the shoreline.  And, while we have caught only 2 or 3 over sized fish, the average slot fish has been on the upper end....especially in the weight department.

...Dad finished strong as well!

We try to cull down and keep smaller slot fish as they are tastier, but we are not seeing many fish under 25-inches and I have weighed a crazy number of Texas legal fish over eight pounds.  We have seen very few shrimp getting chased to the surface, but Capt. Chuck said that he is seeing a lot of shrimp as well as larger shad when poling the flats in the Reserve.

The birds are helping a little, more terns than gulls, but it is too easy for them to find schools of shad without the fish having to drive them to the surface.  The ladyfish get their attention as well!

Riley with his first red ever before heading off to A & M next week.

The afternoons have been better than the mornings and that has been strictly due to the tide schedule.  That will change next week and I am hopeful that we will not get as much rain as predicted.  I am truly sorry about your dead grass, but I have already lost enough days to rain this year.

Don't sleep on the Orange County CCA Chapter Banquet Thursday night.  Great food, great items up for bid and a great organization that saltwater fishermen cannot afford to not support!  For more information call Louis Moore at 988-4845.     

Catching part of fishing improving!

At last!  The water clarity continues to improve and I finally showed a little salt residue on the engine after running around on the north end of the lake.  The bite that has improved the most for us has been the redfish bite.  We've caught them shallow, deep in the river and in the lake the past few days.  

Even the trout bite has improved.  Live croaker are still accounting for most of the really big trout, but we are staying with artificials and catching decent numbers of 16 to 20 inch fish and that is exciting coming on the heels of three months of doom and gloom on the north end of the lake. Either tide has been good, but I think the outgoing tide has worked best for us the past few days.

Mr. Pepper was hot, but pleased with his first slot red.

Chris  Pepper and his sons fished with me late last week just when the redfish decided to do their thing and they had a ball.  The fish started biting about the time the kids had decided that they were done with the heat, but they quickly forgot about any discomfort.

Ryan was pleased with this over sized red caught in the ICW.

The following day we found the redfish piled up on the south revetment wall and anything you threw in their direction got crushed.  That was the first day that we caught any numbers of decent trout that far north as well.  I think we caught every trout on a morning glory 4-inch Usual Suspect Swim Bait.  There were no undersized reds, but we did release several that were much too large!

Jordan wasn't keeping count at this point.

The following day Troy King and his son, Ryan, fished with me and we found our redfish in about sixteen feet of water in the ICW.  We caught those fish on 4-inch Swim Baits and morning glory Tidal Surge Mullets.  There were some decent trout mixed in with them as well. The next afternoon, Jordan and Andrew found time to fish with me and we caught reds and trout from the time we got into the lake until dark.  Once again, we pretty much got it done with Swim Baits and 4-inch Sea Shads.

One more red before hanging up his rod and reporting for football!

I believe we have finally turned the corner as I am seeing a lot of lady fish in the river right now.  The crowd that has been grinding away south of the Causeway everyday can finally spread out across the lake and cast without their lure landing in another boat!