Colburn's Sabine Connection

A shockingly good day!

Harley Wilkes, his son, grand son and I waited a little later to leave yesterday in order to avoid that chilly boat ride at daylight.  The bite the day before was a little later anyway so it seemed like a good decision.  Wouldn't you know.......first cast a three pound trout on a Fat Boy, two more casts and another solid trout on the Fat Boy and Harley boats a five pound trout on a tail before I can put mine in the box.  I was surprised and pleased to be catching trout while wondering what I had missed by sleeping in.

The water was even a little dirtier than the day before, but two degrees warmer.  The surprisingly good start never slowed down much all day long.  We continued to catch trout throughout the day and I have no idea how many reds we released after they boxed their limits.  We never caught another trout in the five pound class, but every trout was in the 18 to 22 inch class.  The day was especially fun in that neither Harley, Curt or Mike, had ever caught a red or a trout.  Curt backed off and netted fish most of the morning, but got in more than his share of catching later in the day.  Three generations of Wilkes lucked out and picked the perfect day to fish.

For the first time in a week I noticed on the way in that Black's had finally cleared back up.  The river and the bayous, however, were even dirtier if that is possible.  The water on the flats we fished had about six inches of visibility until a strong southwest wind that sent us packing blew that out as well.  in truth, there isn't much difference in zero visibility and six inches.  This was also the lowest I had seen the lake level in quite a while.

I have two other commitments today, but I am really excited about that trout bite.  Even if it gets tough again, and it will, it's nice to know that the poor salinity hasn't scattered them that badly as of yet.  I am headed to the Saltwater Boys gathering at Daley's at 11:00 and the Tailchaser trout tournament weigh-in after that.  There will be some very good fishermen sharing ideas on everything from tactics to Kayaks at Daley's!  

A big Saturday for area fishermen!

It only took a ten minute boat ride yesterday morning for us to decide that we would try another day, but aside from a cold start, today was much better.  It was casting practice until the wind switched around to the southwest about 1:00.  It didn't just get crazy, but the redfish started doing their thing and I managed to catch and release seven pretty solid trout as well.  The largest two were in the five pound class and that has been a big trout for me of late.

We have given up a little more water clarity with the river and the bayous still pumping in some really dirty water.  They have cut back the discharge rate at T- Bend, but the water is still high.  At least for me, the reds and the trout were sharing the same water today.  I drifted a lot of 4 to 5 feet of water, but every fish I caught was in that top couple of feet.  I never got the first strike on a Corky or a  Catch V.  It is really a weird deal having to swim a tail that quickly in water that dirty.  The clearest water I found was just north of Green's and the southeast corner of Coffee Ground (maybe 8 to 10 inches) but today, "clearer" made a difference.

It looks like the Tailchaser's are going to get pretty decent weather for the first of their Open Trout tournaments this Saturday.  You can sign up Friday evening at Daley's or before starting time at  Ancelet's Marina Saturday morning.  I plan on catching the weigh-in, but I am going to the first part of my day at the Saltwater Boys membership drive over at Daley's.  I think it actually kicks off about 11:00 and there will be food, drinks and speakeers talking about everything from kayaks to changing tactics due to the fresh water.  If you even think you might ever  want to sneak up on fish in a Kayak...... you need to make this get together! 

Just when I couldn't catch a trout!

We canceled today only one day after vowing that I would never cancel again based on any forecast short of a hurricane or blizzard.  The wind may yet howl as predicted and my clients were not capable of enduring a rough boat ride.  The past three days we ignored the weather forecast and had three very good trips.  The redfish just covered us up all three days, but the unexpected bonus was that we found the trout again as well.

David's redfish was just the right size.

We never caught a trout over six pounds, but we did very well on fish in the 2 to 4 pound class.  The past two days most of the redfish were just a little too long, but no one was complaining about catching and releasing.  Pat and David fished with me Tuesday and we were able to keep five that were right at the upper mark. Pat tagged one over sized fish.

Pat's was a little too large!

They have cut back a little on the discharge rate at T-Bend and while the river and bayous are still muddy the clarity has gotten a little better in the lake.  Doug and I did well on a quick trip Monday and it just got better each day.  We haven't caught the first fish (red or speck) on a Corky or Catch V.  Everything has been on tails.  That may well explain why we haven't caught any really big trout, but I wasn't catching any trout at all and I am more than happy to just catch good numbers of solid keeper fish again.

Our best bite has taken place late in the day on an incoming tide.  We have caught a few fish at the end of the outgoing tide each morning, but that bite has ended quickly for us.  We are seeing more bait on the surface both near the shoreline and well out into the lake.  While I am not into drawing any maps I will say that we have been finding our best trout bite in 5 to six feet of water which is very different for me.

I don't know what this front will do to the bite only because of the wind forecast, but I am going to fish my way through it, cllients or no clients.  If the surface temperature will stay in the mid to high 50's we should be okay.  The redfish tournament fishermen have to be licking their chops right now as there is a ton of upper slot reds in the main lake!   

Redfish bite-good.........trout bite-tough as of today.

The Boat Show and the football games were a heck of a lot more entertaining than the only fishing trip I made this weekend.  The water clarity is the pits in most of the lake and not improving.  I don't know if the salinity level is finally moving the trout, but they have been harder to find for me the past few trips.  We can still find a few redfish on a regular basis, but not the trout.

The lake level on T-Bend is still over the 172 mark and they have nine gates open with one generator running 24/7 which doesn't help.  Until we can put something together more solid than this, I won't be booking any trout trips.  I will continue hunting them and making do with redfish, but that is not what we would like to be doing right now!

 

Redfish bite still happening......trout bite ok when you can find them.

Thursday the weather was just too perfect not to fish.  I had good intentions, but Rusty answered his phone and I interpreted that to be a sign that I could do more responsible things another time.  Besides that, he has reminded me on many occasions that he is always available to go fishing and obviously he wasn't kidding. Yes....this is the same Rusty that runs Daley's Hunt N Fish for Keith.

Rusty brought home supper as promised!

We only fished about four hours and much of that time was spent checking out different areas.  The water was incredibly high and dirty in the river ( we had to wade to launch the boat again) and there were lots of dangerous floaters all over the ICW.  The water in Black's and East Pass was as dirty as I have seen it this year.  In spite of all of that, Rusty managed to bring a flounder and limit of solid reds home for supper as promised.  That may well have been the only reason his wife cut him loose on such short notice. 

We found reds both shallow and deep and caught them on Gulp and Usual Suspects.  We didn't have a lot of time to fish so we stayed in the boat, but the conditions could not have been more perfect for wading and that is what we did today.  Thanks to a friend that also fished another area yesterday, we enjoyed a very good hour and a half bite today.  I could not buy a trout over three pounds, but Rick turned loose two in the 26 to 27 inch class and I cleaned 17 trout and two reds.  We fished out of his customized 22 foot aluminum boat and it rides a little rough, but sure makes getting in and out easier.

We had about a foot of water clarity and the highest surface temperature we saw was 57 degrees.  Rick caught all of his fish on a pink Corky Devil and one of Unfair's suspending lures that looks kind of like a streamlined Trap to me.  I caught my fish on a chicken on a chain Diedapper rigged on a 1/8th ounce Assassin Swim Hook.  I think most of the fish we caught were in less than four feet of water.

They have finally been able to reduce the flow out of T-Bend, but I don't think that we will see the river start falling out for at least a week.  Until then I just hope the salinity holds up well enough to keep the trout from retreating to the Ship Channel and ICW. 

Redfish bite still hot, but the trout bite has been slow for us the past two days.

We haven't done as well the past couple on trout as we were, but the redfish bite can't get much better.  Water clarity has taken a little bit of a hit even in Coffee Ground, but 8 to 10 inches will do.  We also gave up about ten degrees of surface temperature, but it was still above the 50 degree mark early and in the mid to high 50's by mid-afternoon.

We found a mix of gulls and terns working over very small shad in three different locations yesterday and both trout and reds were feeding on them.  As soon as they went down the bite was over.  We saw a few trout that were easily over five pounds go airborne, but the trout we caught were only in the 3 to 4 pound class. We caught them on everything from Corkys to tails under a cork.

We are catching redfish deep, shallow and everywhere in between.  Usual Suspects, Corkys and tails have all worked well for us, but we watched two kids fishing the flat outside Sidney just wear them out with red Rat-L-Traps.  The water was really dirty in that area, but the fish were still there.  The trout we caught while drifting were scattered and everything we caught was in less than four feet of water.

Part of the off-colored water is due to all the water pouring down the Sabine as the SRA is still trying to pull T-Bend, but two days of stiff winds didn't help the east shoreline either.  That water could clear up pretty quickly.  I just talked with Eric Roning and he said they had a tough day with the trout today also.  So..... I think we will just be content to continue catching and releasing reds for a while.