Colburn's Sabine Connection

Give Riley Carter a helping hand this Saturday!

We had another good day with the redfish, but never caught the first keeper trout.  The conditions couldn't  have been better so I know there were some reds to be caught schooling as well, but we just worked the shoreline with a Swim bait and a quarter ounce spinner bait.  We also had two pretty decent flounder and that was encouraging.

I talked with folks again tonight that have been catching trout in the ship channel south of the Causeway, on the east side of the jetties and at the short rigs and that is encouraging as well.  Maybe they will start making their way back into the lake as there is a ton of bait to be had. We also hooked another shark on a swim bait on the flat behind Stewt's Island.  Sure as I hook my first keeper trout a shark will bite it in half.

Don't cook tomorrow.  Just plan on picking up lunch, supper or both at the VFW on hwy 87 in Orange. Friends and family are putting on a big benefit to help the Carters with their son, Riley's, medical expenses.  The seventeen year old youngster suffered a stroke while fishing with his Dad two months ago and has been in the hospital ever since.  They will be serving barbeque and jambalaya, holding a live and silent auction (you will not believe some of the auction items) and have live music from ten in the morning until ten that night.

You can always take a plate or two home to eat while watching football on the tube.  Riley can use your help!  

Our reds did it early....

We had absolutely perfect conditions this morning, but the catching did not match the weather.  We enjoyed a decent early morning bite on the redfish, but it was slow the remainder of the day for us.  The highlight was a four foot blacktip that went ballistic after attacking a Lil John fished under a cork.

Our redfish were solid slot fish and we caught them on the same Lil' John and a 3/4 ounce silver spoon.  We never ran across the large balls of shad that have been like fish magnets the past week or so.  The outgoing tide was just picking up when we called in the dogs around noon.  Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day.

Good day!

It was H-O-T yesterday, but the wind was light and we were able to fish the entire lake.  Fortunately, we didn't have to run all over the place.  For the first time in months we caught flounder, reds and specks on the same trip.  We saw several tower boats running balls of shad in the open lake in hopes of finding schooling redfish, but I would hate to hang my hat on that pattern for the tournament. 

We basically fished tails and a bone spook to catch several upper slot reds that would be hard to beat in any tournament.  We had only a couple of oversized fish and left areas that were holding nothing but smaller fish.  The flounder were a bonus as were the trout.  The keeper trout were only sixteen inch fish and were running with the reds, but they were an unexpected bonus.  Water clarity is still great all over the lake. 

After yesterday's trip i am now convinced that I may have been calling in the dogs a little too early each day due to the  heat.  We enjoyed a steady bite all morning, but caught most of our better fish in the middle of the day.  I also talked with two fly fishermen last night that just had a crazy good day in the marsh.  They caught and released eleven reds between 26 and 29 inches.  They were done by 8:30!

Almost figured something out!

I thought we had the trout figured out, but they apparently moved again.  We had a very decent day drifting two different areas with jerk baits and swimming five inch tails, but those fish disappeared the following day.  By the time we were convinced that those fish were no longer around, it was too late to try something else.

The water is still in very good shape and the bait is everywhere, but I have found nothing to hang my hat on thus far.  The two lures that worked so well the day before were a fire tiger Long A and a chicken on a chain Down South tail rigged on a 1/16th ounce head.  I had a feeling that our bite might not be too dependable as we found those fish two long casts off the shoreline in 3 to 5 feet of water.  At least we weren't catching Gafftop as well.

Redfish bite good....trout bite????

Congratulations to Big Lou, Scott and all of the folks that volunteer a great deal of their time to make the Orange County CCA Chapter successful.  They hosted another great banquet last night that once again, was well attended by fishermen from all over the Golden Triangle.  Auction items were first class as were the steaks!

We dodged thunderstorms and fished both yesterday and today.  We are still having no trouble finding the redfish, actually they found us both days, but I am still struggling with the trout.  I did, however, talk with a local angler at the banquet that had a very decent day on trout Thursday.  He said he never caught a fish that would have made the three pound mark, but did catch good numbers.  That alone, was good news.

It didn't matter if we worked the shoreline or the middle of the lake, everywhere we fished we could not get away from the lady fish and the gafftop.  Even the gafftop were hitting everything from plastics to Super Spooks.  We caught all of our reds fishing a five inch Bass Assassin on a 1/8th ounce head.  The shad are rafted up all over the lake right now and the water is in excellent shape.  We also saw a few shrimp on the surface trying to escape the ladyfish.

There is no doubt that I haven't figured out the trout, but it was nice to hear that someone had even if they weren't big fish.  We'll start all over again Monday.