Trout not all over the lake!

Working on trim unit or I would be on the water today.  I need to keep a couple of reds for visitors that have never eaten court boullion, but they have been pretty easy to catch.

We took advantage of two perfect weather days at the end of last week and I now feel no better about the trout population than I did.  After catching two solid trout very quickly wading, we decided to run as many spots as possible that have been good to us this  time of the year. There is no doubt that I don't fish as well as I once did, but my partner for those two days still has both age and lots of hours fishing Sabine on his side.

We started on the north end (La, side) and waded our first three stops on our way to Blue Buck.  Fished about an hour at each stop and caught seven redfish.  We also caught three bass at the mouth of the Gator Hole.  We drifted the Causeway reefs a while just to see and caught one small trout in 12 feet of water.  On the way back we never got out of the boat, but checked every drain on a good outgoing tide and two small shell piles in the middle of the lake that have always been money in the bank. Seven or eight small reds-0 trout.

We finished the day wading where we first started and caught and released three more 16 to 18 inch trout on Softdine XL's.  The following day we stayed in the boat and fished Hickory Cove, Old River Cove, Stewts and Sidney Island.  Missed one solid trout, kept none and released a lot of 18 to 26-inch redfish.  Pink floating Fat Boy and Space Guppy Usual Suspect worked the best for us.  The water in Hickory had very little visibility at all, but it improved in the back of Old River Cove.  Coffee Ground still has the best looking water, but dirty water is not a show stopper here on Sabine..

The bottom line is that we covered a lot of miles, fished some traditionally good areas and still caught only a few trout in the one small area where we have found any numbers over the past two months.  Even more concerning to me is that I am still marking no fish on deep spots in the river that have provided a great Plan B when not wading.  Even scarier is the fact that we recently fished a drop shot over a school of bait in 22 feet of water near the Port and caught two drum and at least a dozen bass.  Apparently not much salt at that depth anymore!

While I am convinced our trout population has greatly decreased, I am wondering if salinity levels can be higher in pockets of water as well as different depths.  There is no other explanation for what has been our most consistent area to consistently hold at least a few trout. I am growing tired of doing way more thinking than catching lately!

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Comments

[Michael D Shackelford]

I hope Sabine makes a rebound in the coming months and years!

[Richard Cockrell]

For the past year I have struggled to catch any trout at all in Sabine. Even at the jetties this past summer the bite seemed not as strong. I am worried too.