Colburn's Sabine Connection

Storm changed our mind.

We caught a few redfish yesterday and had plans of doing the same this morning, but we weren't mad enough at the fish to fight the rain.  It was more than a little rain for a while.  The water clarity was still very good yesterday and I don't think this will hurt it much.  We never found any reds schooling.  All of our fish, and they were mixed, came off the flats in 3 to 4 feet of water.

I talked with two other groups that fished the marsh, one in Bessie Heights and one off of Blacks and they both did well.  They said they saw a lot of bait as well as fish.  We didn't see that much bait in the lake.  We checked one group of terns and they were working over small trout and ladyfish.  I don't know that we could have kept a single trout had we wanted to. They were just crushing a bone Chug Bug and a Spook,Jr.  The only waders we saw didn't stay long so they did real good in a hurry or that bite has slowed as well.  My money is on a slower bite.

Big Lou said they still have a few tickets left for the Orange County CCA banquet on the 9th.  We can at least eat well and talk about catching fish!

Thank God for redfish!

I apparently still haven't figured out what is going on with the trout.  I couldn't have ordered three better weather days than we enjoyed through yesterday and all I could find were redfish and ladyfish.  I continue to start my day at the last place I found some decent trout and that has been a mistake.  Lots of ladyfish and mullet, but no trout.  It could be that they are doing their thing in the middle of the day and I am already done with the heat and gone, but I haven't gotten any decent reports from the evening fishermen.

I was even having trouble catching redfish Thursday morning before tying on a quarter ounce spoon and drifting in less than three feet of water on the north end of the lake.  It has been a long time since zi tied on a spoon and hoped for the best, but in truth I was trying to catch a few lady fish to cut up and bottom fish. Now, if that isn't desperate!

I talked with Jay Bruce last night and he said that he and two other friends have fished everyday of their eight day break and basically struggled every day.  They are wading and have been on the water at 4:00 am, but the early start hasn't helped due to a very weak tide. They kept nine trout Friday morning and didn't have a three pound fish.  I am starting to see more small shrimp in the lake and that is encouraging.

If I still haven't called you to reschedule a trip it is not because I have forgotten about you.  I have no reason right now to recommend fishing with me!

Don't forget about the upcoming Orange County CCA Chapter Banquet set for the 9th at the Convention Center on Hwy. 14442.  They still had a few tickets as of yesterday.

 

Just too much wind bowing the wrong direction!

Too much southwest wind has blown out a very good bite for me four of the past five days.  We were keying on bait and lady fish to find our trout, but they are hard to see between the whitecaps.  The Louisiana shoreline has just been completely blown out and the wind is already howling at first light.

I saw the most boats and waders that I have seen on a single day this morning and they were all wadded up on the north end of Pleasure Island.  There have been some small trout on those flats and it was the only semi-protected water.  With all of this wind the clarity is still not terrible so we should be back in business as soon as the winds slows down a little.  We have been catching our fish on five inch tails rigged on 16th ounce heads and topwaters.

Improving bite for us all week long!

I have no idea what is wrong with this computer, but I'll give it one more try before the wife gets home and politely points out what I have screwed up.  For the first time in a long time we had four better than average days in a single week.  The water on the northwest side was a little dirty, but everything on the east side was in great shape.  We had to deal with sharks two days and a fearless gator one day, but other than that there was little to complain about.

We caught a lot of trout in the 15 to 19 inch class and could have  easily limited on reds had we wanted to.  My goal was to see how many different areas I could find trout in and we did just that.  We basically stayed in the northern half of the lake as the salinity is excellent and the bait is finally everywhere.  The lady fish made it a little tough to fish a topwater, but that was still our best producer.  The second best bait was a bone diamond or opening night 5-inch Assassin rigged on a 1/8th ounce head.

We drove by schooling reds several times looking for more trout.  Some of them were under terns and some of them were just doing their thing on balls of shad and mullet.  It gets really hot quickly, but small thunderstorms ran us in most days.  We had some really good tide changes and they made a big difference as soon as they started in either direction.  I had forgotten what it was like to expect a strike at the end of a cast.  At least for now, it is fun again! 

Thanks for the help!

I should have known when I caught a keeper trout in the first half hour of casting that another downpour was right around the corner.  The fact that the sky was already black was a pretty good indicator that may happen.  What I did not expect was catching eight more keepers in the next twenty minutes!  The rain and lightning then got far too close and I ran.

The bite only lasted about an hour the next day as well, but I will take it.  The one thing that did not change was that the fish were holding in very small areas  I fished a number of spots with the same structure and depth when they quit and never caught another trout.  i found those fish in 2 to 3 feet of badly off-colored water fishing a bone Top Dog,Jr.  The majority of the lake was much clearer, but I never caught another trout. The wind was blowing pretty good and I was fishing an incoming tide.

I did see some redfish blowing up on shad in the mid-lake area, but got there a little too late and couldn't find them again.  They were really nice fish that were herding huge mullet.

I received three heads-ups from readers last week that I have never met and all three proved to be very helpful.  They eliminated running to two spots that later proved to be a waste of time and the third put me in the right depth of water which I haven't been fishing.  He had been catching redfish, but the trout were there as well.  Thanks again for all good and bad information!