Colburn's Sabine Connection

Lot of wind...lot of reds

We were hoping to take advantage of a strong north wind yesterday evening that was pushing a lot of water out of the marshes, but we failed once again to catch anything other than redfish.  They were leaving in droves and there was a mix of fish from 16 to 31 inches.  We fished Cow bayou, Black's and Burton's ditch and the bite was the same in all three areas.

We didn't fish long as it was a last minute decision to give it a shot, but the modest cool front should improve the catching this week.  The water still looked good and we saw more bait than we had seen all week long.  far from what you would expect this time of the year, but at least it was a bite!

Wading yielding more trout!

A little shot of fall late last week really helped with the catching, but it quickly got tough again.  We continue to to pretty well with the redfish even on the toughest days and the flounder bite is slowly improving as well, but consistently catching trout is a challenge.  The high tides last week scattered the bait and our fish, but a big outgoing tide two days in a row helped.

There is no doubt that the trout catching has been tough, but that does not mean it is a waste of time.  It is the easy trout that we can't find or catch and that is due, in part, to the fact that we have not been wading.  At the same time we were drifting and doing poorly I watched waders catching fish on several occasions.  I do what clients can and want to do!

Corkies and a black/chartreuse head She Dog produced decent catches of trout up to three pounds early last week for waders fishing the Louisiana shoreline.  The farther south you ran the worse the water looked, but it didn't bother the fish.  We aren't just catching the fool out of them yet, but we have caught several flounder in the 3 to 4 pound class on 3-inch Swim baits and four inch Seas Shads soaked with a liquid scent.

Better weather has attracted more fishermen and that always produces more reports of catching.  No matter how poorly I am doing someone is always catching fish!

More rain than bites!

After missing a good weather day yesterday, I got bluffed out of fishing this morning.  I sat in the truck drinking coffee for thirty minutes waiting for it to quit raining and finally gave up.  It isn't raining right now, but i think its a trap on Mother Nature's part.  The catching has been hard enough for me over the past ten days, so I don't feel like i am missing a great deal.

After two tourgh scouting days, Johnny took a chance and pulled a trip Friday.  He spent more time casting than catching most of the morning, but finally found the reds schooled up in one tight area and finished with three limits of slot fish.  He said they buried the Power Pole and fished one small area the whole time.  The reds would quit biting, move a few yards and start again.  I would have undoubtedly left the area when they moved the first time!

On my better days, which were rare last week, the reds found me more times than I found them.  With one eye on the weather I was reduced to fishing stretches of shoreline hoping to find small groups of slot fish pushing shad.  Any time you saw them blow up or push a wake, all you had to do was reach them with most any lure.  We fished topwaters, a Lil' John under a cork and a four inch Swim Bait.

I ran into two guides last week that had a dozen or so trout in the box, but not one trout was Texas legal.  They are launching on the Louisiana side in order to keep the Louisiana legal trout and salvage a few trips. The water on the east side of the lake still looks better than it does on the Texas side.  There is a lot of muddy runoff and dead vegetation in both rivers.

I haven't caught enough flounder to return to fishing them exclusively like I once did, but I have caught some very nice flounder while chasing those reds on the shoreline.  The only problem is that we are about to enter the two-fish limit phase and i wouldn't want to pay a guide fee for two flat fish.  That reduction has worked well thus far in helping the flounder rebound, but it doesn't help book many trips.

My inability to locate keeper trout does not mean that if you find yourself in the right place at the right time on the right tide that you can't catch a few keeper trout.  Just don't count on them being there tomorrow!

 

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.

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.