Colburn's Sabine Connection

Merry Christmas!

We continue to ease away from the dock each morning thinking, "Today is the day the bite dies."  I might add that we have been leaving the dock in a thick fog that has hung around most of the day.  The water in the bayous is high, running fast and just looks like hell.  The ICW isn't much better, but so far the trout bite hasn't taken a hit.  The fish we were initially on have moved a little, but they are still biting every day.

We unexpectedly enjoyed one of those days I seldom get to fish Tuesday.  I was just going to fish long enough to see if all of the water leaving Toledo Bend had wiped out the bite so that we could decide on whether or not to fish the following day.  It was foggy and we didn't have a very good tide when we hit the lake, but the wind wasn't blowing and it was warm.  The first time I put the troll motor down we started catching redfish in two feet of water on Usual Suspects and a pink original Corky.

After switching to a Catch V, we caught trout up to five or six pounds everywhere we fished.  We didn't experiment with any other lures as they never quit hitting the V.  We had to be back for a Christmas obligation at five and it was all I could do to just keep fishing and ask for forgiveness later!

We saw only a handful of fishermen all day, but the waders had done far better than those staying in the boat.  A miserable weather forecast that night eventually led to another cancellation by folks that weren't into wading anyway and the weather did get pretty nasty.  The SRA is still discharging at 30,000 cfm 24/7 so it is anybody's guess as to how long these trout will hang around.

If the weatherman is correct, the wind over the next few days is just going to howl, but you never know if that will rally happen or not. Until this bite does slow down, regardless of forecasts I am keeping my waders handy as we have waited all year long for this bite to start up.  I think that if the salinity continues to diminish the trout on the north end will just slip off into the ICW so the bite would recover very quickly.  Cold has not been a factor as the water has been in the 62 to 65 degree range and that helps as well.

I've got a couple of new rods to deliver to two of my youngest fishing buddies before going to church tonight so I have to get going.  Christmas couldn't come fast enough for either of them.  Merry Christmas and best wishes for a wonderful New Year!    

More water on the way!

I think that the fact that the same flat we were wading last week is now a little too deep to wade pretty much says it all as far as expecting a very good trout bite to continue. The worst news, at least short term, is that one generator is running 24/7 with the flood gates open at least two feet as well on Toledo Bend.  They were still releasing water at a rate of 30,000 CFS this morning and the lake level has only dropped less than three tenths of a foot in the past week.. 

Initially, in spite of the rising water, we continued to catch not only good numbers, but a few big trout as well.  We caught them both deep while drifting and wading 2 to 4 feet of water.  The wind didn't slow down the bite at all and the water clarity remained decent.  I didn't fish yesterday, but Brad made a quick run in the afternoon before that big east wind kicked in and still managed to catch a few solid trout and a couple of redfish.

I tried to re-schedule Chris Taylor's group on Thursday after struggling the day before.  Wednesday morning we dealt with everything from fog at daylight to pouring down rain and a north wind that switched around as predicted and had me shivering in 60 degree weather.  It was predicted to blow even harder the following day, but Chris said they had only one chance and they were going to fish. I am glad that he insisted. We had an incredible day on some very nice trout, redfish up to 20 inches and six flounder to boot!  The wind did blow, but it was much warmer than expected following a cold boat ride that morning.

It is raining right now, but we are going to make a wade this afternoon and see if the fish have moved.  It only takes one cast this time of the year to make my day.  If I hang around here I will find myself enjoying one more last minute shopping trip to the mall with my wife.  While on the subject of shopping, I was in Daley's one afternoon last week and they had marked every lure in the store down at least 25 percent.  Some of them were marked down 50 percent.  Corkys, Swim baits, all topwaters and Swimming Images were getting hit the hardest!   

 

 

Hoping runoff doesn't hurt an improving trout bite!

This rain is another story and it may very well slow things down, but we enjoyed a very consistent bite all of last week that included a few pretty big trout.  Over a four day period I had three clients catch personal bests and we released a few more big fish as well.  We caught better trout wading than we did drifting, but we caught better numbers drifting.  We caught a few of our trout on topwaters, but a Corky Devil and Fatboy did most of the damage.  Our best days wading got cut a little short as we yielded to a stiff wind that was blowing right in our face.

Fog forced us to fish breaks along the shoreline, but some nice trout were there as well!

Wednesday and Thursday we left the dock before daylight in thick fog that forced us to creep along about ten miles per hour which makes for a painfully long trip from the Boat Club to the lake.  Every time I got impatient and jumped it up to a breath taking 20 we either narrowly missed a floater, ran up on a parked tug with a load waiting out the fog or crossed an unseen crabber's wake.  It is difficult trying to watch the GPS and look for other boats and floaters at the same time.  The bottom line, however, is that it was worth the white knuckle ride each morning as our best bite didn't last long.

Major got it done in the fog Thursday morning.

Two days in a row we found trout right up against the cane pounding away at small shad and finger mullet from East Pass to Three Bayous.  The best bite ended pretty quickly, but it was good while it lasted as most of the fish were three pounds or better.  A Usual Suspect and a Soft-dine XL were all we threw at them. We also caught some nice flounder on the same baits as well.

I passed on fishing in the rain after church today so it could be a matter of hunting the fish all over again tomorrow.  This runoff will hurt the water clarity some, but the fish that we caught wading continued biting well after the wind silted things up.  Even if we take a little hit from Mother Nature....it was good just catching a few big trout again.  The surface temperature is back up in the sixties by mid-morning and we are seeing a lot of bait both on the shoreline and the shallow flats off the ICW.   

 

 

 

Redfish on the half shell in Austin?

I was finally able to get the Poynots on the water and we enjoyed near perfect weather and a pretty darned good bite as well.  It wasn't a slam dunk by any means, but Andrew, Scott and Matt all caught trout redfish and flounder on Swim baits and Assassins and at the end of the day I cleaned a very respectable mess of fish.  We finished one flounder short of a limit, but we missed several opportunities to box that last fish.  We released a number of smaller flatties and the average size of the keeper fish was really good,

Andrew caught the largest red.........but

Our largest trout was only four pounds, but all of our specks were easily in the 2 to 3 pound class.  We also went through our share of slot reds so the Poynots will enjoy redfish on the half shell sometime this week.  That is not a new dish for Scott and son, Matt, as they live in Lafayette, but Andrew now resides in Austin and redfish cooked  in any fashion could be a first for his wife and kids.  And, a side note for the folks that have lived in Orange as long as I have......Andrew is the son in-law of Sam and Resa Weaver Dunn who now live in Austin as well.

they made "catching" red fish a family thing!

  

We were going to fish the gulls a little while right off the bat, but they weren't as many working as the previous two days and we did not want to waste a good outgoing tide.I still think that climbing out of the boat and wading is the way to go right now as there are enough five pound plus trout showing up on shallow flats to warrant the slower bite. It looks like it is going to continue warming up and we are going to have to deal with a stiffer south wind later in the week, but that will be nothing new for local fishermen that have already weathered what has been a really crazy 2015!

        

Cold boat rides but the catching is warming up.

The first boat ride of the day has been on the nippy side, but other than that there hasn't been a lot to complain about.  We had a very good week fishing several different programs.  We have waded, drifted the flats and even fished the birds a little and caught both trout and reds on at least one of those programs every day.  The redfish have been all but a guarantee, but we had to work a little harder to limit on specks.

Some of the reds have been just a little too big!

 

One day there seems to be quality trout under every other flock of gulls and the next day its all small fish.  We caught fewer, but much better trout wading and drifting the flats as well.  By the end of the week we were forced to fish some new water as there were more boats in Coffee Ground each day and a world of folks chasing birds as well. We have had a very decent outgoing tide early and as long as it is running the bite is pretty good.  We have caught our fish on She Dogs, Lil' Johns, Usual Suspects and Fat Boys.  Day glow and strawberry/black back have been good colors for us in the Fat Boy.

Lamar sends another nice slot fish on her way on a very cold morning.

We have probably caught more reds on five inch tails and Swim baits than anything else, but I think it is simply a matter of getting something in front of them right now.  I haven't had an opportunity to fish an afternoon yet, but I have gotten some good reports from folks that have.  The water clarity and salinity is good and the surface temperature has been running from 55 early to 67 by mid-afternoon.