Colburn's Sabine Connection

Watching the river!

The rain and water now headed down the river from Toledo Bend hasn't completely screwed up a very good bite yet, but it will.  It seems to happen every March without fail.  We were fighting some really big south winds with good success, but the added glut of fresh water may put that bite to rest.  We finished up last week fishing in the rain and while the trout bite slowed some, the reds were still doing their thing.

Their was a very decent bite on topwaters and Corkies early in the week, but it slowed a little by Friday.  Most of those fish were in 3 to 4 feet of water and, for a change, the early bite was better than the afternoon bite.  Could well be all about the tides.  The redfish bite was still better for us in the open lake than the bayous.  Every thing on the north side of the ICW was muddy.

We'll just have to see how this all plays out.  Some of the folks in the Deweyville area are already are already dealing with minor flooding. Minor flooding is kind of like being slightly pregnant. It either is or it isn't! 

It was windy!!!

The wind was really blowing too hard to even expect to catch fish when we left the landing yesterday, but it wasn't blowing 30 mph. at that point.  It was two hours later!

My brother and I fished where we could rather than where we wanted to, but still limited on reds and caught trout up to five pounds.  Most of the fish ate tails rigged on 1/4 ounce heads in 3 to 4 feet of water.  Deeper if you include surfing on the top of the waves.  We only fished those miserable conditions because we had done so well the day before and it looked like we have a lot of rain on the way.

We waded the same depth of water and caught some really nice trout up to five pounds the day before.  We pulled off a couple of trout even larger and I haven't been in those kind of trout in quite a while. Every fish ate either a Fat Boy or Skitterwalk. The lake continued to silt up the entire time we fished yesterday, but we still had a foot of water clarity when we quit.  The surface temperature was 67 degrees.

I look forward to making a short talk at the annual Golden Triangle CCA Chapter's Anglers Night Out.  I think it kicks off around 5:30 at the Beaumont Events Center.  The food is always good and there are lots of area fishermen on hand that know a lot about fishing Sabine Lake.  Jim West will be there as well to share information on the Galveston fishing.

 

Not bad all things considered.

Wednesday may have been the foggiest day ever on Sabine and it didn't lift even a little on the north end until mid-afternoon.  The surface temperature was in the high 50's and the trout were doing their thing for a little while.  Most of the fish were in the 2 to 3 pound class, but that works for me after all the rain we have gotten over the past two weeks.  The best depth was in 3 to 4 feet of water and the most productive lures were Fat Boys and Catch V's.  As usual, the redfish were there as well.

Yesterday the fog burned off by noon, but we never found the trout. We didn't run as far south due to a pretty stiff south wind that silted the water up worse than the day before.. The redfish were still there and we caught them all afternoon on basically everything we tried.  We took the Corkies off rather than have the reds just demolish them.  We caught several oversize fish, but very few short ones.

The Sabine River is really dirty as are Cow bayou and Adams.  Black's is a little clearer on an outgoing tide, but it is that funky black color.  I feel certain that the Neches is the same way following Tuesday's downpour. For the most part, the lake is still clearer than usual as we found 10 to 18 inches of visibility everywhere we fished.  I feel a lot more comfortable fishing that kind of water than wrestling with the gin clear stuff the last two months. We are okay as long as it is wind silting things up rather than fresh water run off.

Starting over again

This is getting to be a little frustrating.  We squeezed a few hours in yesterday in warmer, butless than perfect conditions only to wake up to a steady rain and 20 mph north wind.  It is getting colder, the wind continues to howl and other than warming up a little, the forecast for the remainder of the week doesn't look good.  The water had cleared some, but we had to work for our bites.  We gave up on  the trout pretty quickly and managed to keep five slot reds.  We caught every keeper on a perch colored shallow diving crankbait. 

Virtually every red I have cleaned over the past few weeks had at least one perch in its stomach.  We caught only undersized redfish bouncing tails off the bottom in the deeper water.  With more rain scheduled through the weekend we will probably have to change tactics again.  I don't know how this will affect the trout, but we are not finding them on the same shallow shell we were fishing a week ago. The water clarity in Coffee Ground was the best we found, but the bite was better for us in the more off-colored water.

I talked with two very good Sabine fishermen that spent the entire day fishing the Causeway reef and the ship channel yesterday.  They kept seven trout and three flounder.  None of there keeper trout came off the Causeway reef. They said the water clarity wasn't that bad, but that is a pretty generic assessment.

We're back.....I think

Both the weather and my computer bit the dirt at the same time and with us still fighting the flooring issue following Hurricane Harvey, buying a new computer didn't rank all that high on the priority list.  The bite has changed about as frequently as the weather, primarily due to the last two fronts and the big rain a week ago.  Just about the time we had figured out how to deal with the insanely clear water, we were back to fishing the more familiar clarity of 8 to 10 inches  on the north end.

I think the bulk of the redfish population has finally been forced out of the marshes due to the cold fronts and extremely low tides and that has only helped folks with that bite.  They are much easier to hustle in the bayous and open lake.  As a matter of fact, twice last week we found them chasing schools of minnows on the surface well out into the lake.  The more dependable bite has been fishing deeper water with Traps, Swim Baits and Tails.

At least as late as today, I don't know what the next move will be for the trout.  We had a good afternoon bite going on in 4 to 6 feet of water, but we couldn't find those fish after the water clarity took a hit.  Surface temps have also made it back into the fifties and that will make wading a little more bearable. If I can get these figured out and my wife is on hand to make this new computer work, I will try to pass on what we find!