Colburn's Sabine Connection

Fish are trying to do their thing.

We finally put together two pretty good days in a row, but you have to remember that "good" is a relative term.....especially right now. We had 12 nice trout one day and fourteen the next day before the gale force winds blew us out.  Trying to trick Mother Nature by fishing the afternoon hours proved to be a poor game plan!

The water was a little milkier the second day, but it didn't seem to bother the fish.  I think we would have done even better swimming a 5-inch tail on a light head, but neither of us were into working that hard.  We didn't figure out that they were in the top column of water until Keith caught two trout in a row reeling his Assassin in for another cast.  I tied a chicken a chain Salty Snack on under a cork and we had a lot of fun for the better part of two hours.

We never caught a trout over four pounds, but most of the fish were in the 18 to 20 inch class. Mother Nature was not as forgiving this morning and we let her have her way.  It was already blowing when I drank my first cup of coffee.  We have done surprisingly well with the weightless Salty Snack because they are so versatile, but that was the first time I have fished one under a cork simply because they are more expensive than a conventional tail.  If I find, however, that they do work better, cost difference will not be a factor!

For the third consecutive trip we also ran through schooling reds in the open lake.  We didn't stop to fish them, but the schooling reds we have fished have all been too long.  I have no idea what they are eating as we have seen no bait on the surface.  It is forecast to rain this evening and looks like it will do that right now, but who knows.  I will definitely take a little rain over too much rain.  Once again, "little" is the more important word. 

Cold north wind isn't helping the cause!

The north wind is not making things any easier, but the water clarity on the East side of the lake is holding up pretty good.  Topwaters and five inch tails rigged on a 1/8th ounce head are still working the best for us, but we are having to cover a lot of water.  Most of the trout have been in 2 to 3 feet of water.

I also got a decent report from the north revetment wall.  The best bite was a brief one that took place late.  Bone Catch 2000's and chartreuse Mirrodine XL"s were fooling both trout and reds.  Most of those fish were within ten feet of the rocks.  It looks like the conditions will continue to improve this week, but that doesn't mean the fish are going to turn it loose.  On the best of days we are still having to work for our fish!

More wind than fish!

I only fish on the windiest days which is almost every day lately.  The best you can hope for is that it blows in a direction that doesn't totally screw you up.  A whole lot of the catching is a matter of being at the right place with the right lure during a major or minor. I have, however, fished my way through several majors without ever getting a strike. A good day for us this week was only 13 trout and two reds. We were driven off the lake after only two hours of fishing one day, but hung in there and ground it out the other two.

I am really surprised that we haven't caught more redfish. Most of our catching has been drifting the open flats and that is not where we were catching our reds and flounder prior to deciding we were going to chase trout.  I think we have probably put the topwaters down a little too early each day, but once they stop taking it and just slapping it around, the next step is no bite at all.  We know they are there so we just go though different lures and never leave!

Most of our trout have been in the 16 to 19 inch class.  One day we find them in two feet of water and the next day they are in 4 to 6 feet of water. The runoff from that mini-deluge hasn't hurt anything yet as we still had a foot of water clarity on most of the east shoreline.  It was pretty chilly yesterday morning, but the surface temperature was 68 degrees when we left.  I haven't had much good to report anyway, but my days have consisted of fishing most of the day, high school baseball in the evenings and a little college basketball before going to bed.  Writing miserable reports hasn't been very high on my priority list.