Colburn's Sabine Connection

Redfish have found the shad!

If we can get the same weather conditions this weekend that we have enjoyed the past few days there should be a whole lot of catching going on.  With only a light wind most of yesterday, I saw more pods of shad in the open lake than I have seen all summer and both trout and redfish were chasing them.

The redfish were just everywhere and many of them were an inch or two too long, but I am not complaining.  I went through a lot of small trout, but culling a limit of 16 to 18 inch was no problem.  You couldn't throw the wrong thing in front of the reds, but I caught most of my larger trout fishing an opening night Sea Shad or Lil' John under a cork.  I also went through my share of ladyfish, but never caught the first gafftop and that is really unusual.

There was very little fishing pressure in the main lake.  The jetties have been hot of late and it has been no secret.  The only bite that has not improved for me thus far has been the deep bite in the river and ICW.  Too much wind can still temporarily screw things up in the lake, but I think that there are enough trout on the flats now to simply drift and still catch fish.  The water temp is still reaching the low 90's but the clarity is unreal!

 

Bite continues to improve!

After changing their mind twice between 9:30 and 11:00 last night we canceled today's trip due to the weather forecast.  As it turned out, it looks as though it was a good decision for a change.  The trout, mostly 16 to 19 inch fish were doing their thing in the earlier hours of the day yesterday, but the wind just turned the lake upside down in the afternoon hours.

Capt. Lamar called me to go look at some new water in that evening, but by the time we hit the lake at 5:00 it was upside down and the wind was howling.  We spent the afternoon fishing protected stretches of the ICW and found only one really nice flounder and a few undersized trout.  The further south we ran the better the water looked and, while we didn't do well, that bite has been good lately.

There is no doubt that the jetties and ship channel are the most consistent bet, but we are doing a little better in the main lake every day.  Live finger mullet have yielded good catches of both keeper trout and redfish and I have done pretty good with tails under a cork, Usual Suspects and a bone She Dog when we find ladyfish on the surface.  Even with daily mini-storms that temporarily silt the lake up, the clarity is still very good.

We can catch more fish with a shrimp imitation like the DOA or Vudu under the cork, but our better trout are hitting four inch tails like the Sea Shad and Lil' John in chicken, opening night and plum chartreuse.  When the fish have been chasing shad on the shoreline we are using the same tails rigged on a 1/8th ounce head and a 3-inch Usual Suspect in morning glory and Space Guppy.   That shoreline bite has not lasted long for us each morning. The jetty fishermen tell me they are using everything from Traps to tails and catching better average trout than we are in the lake!

The "Cops Helping Kids" tournament was another huge success and generated nearly $100,000 which will be donated to children's charities in the area.  The OCARC will host their annual event to help fund the center on Aug. 6th.  It has been a great family oriented tournament for years.  The prize money isn't bad for such a low entry fee and darn near every kid that fishes with Dad wins a trophy making it a great day to give Mom the day off.  Weigh-in site and festivities all take place at the Orange public boat ramp on Simmons Drive.     

"Cops Helping Kids" tournament raises the bar!

I have wasted the past two days catching up on things i should have been done other than fishing, but we will be back on the water tomorrow.  Not surprisingly, last weekend's "Cops Helping Kids" tournament was a huge success.  More so due to the fact that the Jefferson County Sheriff's Association raised almost $100,000 for Kid's charities in the area, but also the fact that 654 participants took the time to turn out on a sweltering hot day in support of the Association's tireless work.

I visited a while with Jake Jordan at the banquet the night before and he said that he felt like he would be in the hunt this year.  He wasn't blowing smoke as he and his brother, Jeremiah earned the most money in the history of the event.  They won something in darn near every category and walked off with $3,286 in winnings.  Jake, not unlike a number of other local anglers, has participated in all seven of these events!

I will not share where most of the winning fish were caught as the catching has improved. but is still  not that easy right now.  Of the 217 teams entered only 55 weighed in a fish.  The best news, however, is that they caught fish from the end of the jetties all the way to Middle Pass.  The entire lake is clearing up and getting saltier by the day.  We still didn't catch any big trout all last week, but we caught good numbers 2 out of 4 trips fishing only the north end.

The easier bite is along the ship channel and the jetties.  The short rigs also yielded some good catches between storms and the water clarity is very good. We have been catching most of our fish on tails rigged under a TKO cork and Swim Baits, but the folks fishing live mullet are enjoying a much more consistent bite.  With conditions and the bite improving daily it has been a lot more fun again in spite of the heat.    

Wind making it very tough!

If these daily southerly breezes are  truly 9 to 11 mph as forecast we will have to evacuate if they call for something in the 20 to 25 mph range.  Making the run from the north end  to south of the Causeway by boat has not been an option of late.  The salinity level should be improving, but we still struggled fishing the main lake the last two times out.  We caught some nice flounder and a few reds, but no trout.

Don't forget that your La. license has expired.  The "Cops Helping Kids" tournament is also right around the corner and I hope that even if you don't fish it that you will support the kids by purchasing a ticket or just making a donation.  The Captain's meeting alone is worth the cost of the entry fee and is an enjoyable evening spent with some great folks.  The Jefferson County Sheriff's Association goes the extra mile in hosting this first class fund raising event and all monies are donated to charities and organizations that support local kids.   I wouldn't wait around to buy a ticket as they have packed the house for this event every year!

Hopefully the bite will light off overnight should the wind let up a little.  If it doesn't, there will be a lot of folks soaking croakers in the ship channel come tournament time! 

Join us at the S.A.L.T. Club tonight!

The fourth of July is behind us and it is time to get even more serious about figuring out the trout bite in the main lake.  The truth is that they will eventually just start doing their thing and we will take credit for figuring out the bite.  We had perfect conditions last Friday and my grandson and I fished all over the north end of the lake trying to put together a trout bite.  We didn't succeed and wound up eating flounder and redfish again.

I am going to blame the wind for yet another wasted run this morning.  The water doesn't look as good as it did a week ago, but it is certainly clear enough.  I have caved in and made six or seven trips south to the ship channel and did ok to pretty good on 15 to 19-inch trout every trip, but it just bores me to death. We have found some decent trout on the south end of the lake on occasion, but boat traffic hurts the bite when you are targeting isolated pieces of structure.

i am going to visit with the gang at the S.A.L.T Club on Pleasure Island at 7:00 tonight and we are going to discuss what I have been doing to avoid having to join the crowd in Lighthouse Cove everyday as well as a couple of techniques that have worked when nothing else works for us.  We are also going to go over best knots for joining braid to mono again and probably tying a loop knot one more time.  It seems like I never go over there that I don't learn something new and they usually have something good to eat before the meeting. I also filled up a box with tails (tails that work for us) to give away and a portion of them are exclusive to fishing a little different technique. It's hard to beat free!

Max said they will also discuss upcoming kid tournaments as well as the much anticipated annual Cops Helping Kids event.