sabinelake.blogs.comColburn's Sabine Connection

Fishing reports and updates from recent trips on Sabine Lake and Calcasieu Lake. Sabine Connection Home Home Page About Book a Trip Trip Includes: 8 hour trip on Sabine Lake or Calcasieu Lake with USCG licensed professional guide Contact Info Contact Info Dickie Colburn 409-883-0723 Weather Weather Underground Fishing Action Recent -- View photos of recent trips -- Archives March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 More... Subscribe to this blog's feed March 05, 2019 Fishing in the fog. We squeezed in a couple of trips following the TPWD meeting in Pt.Arthur last week and caught all the redfish we wanted to catch. The weather was foggy and wet, but we ran south anyway to check out a trout report. We did catch more trout than I have caught in a while drifting the south revetment wall, but very few of them would have been keeper fish. We also saw the bank fishermen catch a couple of fish in the three pound class fishing shrimp under a cork. The water clarity wasn't any better down there than it is on the north end. We caught all of our redfish on the Louisiana side of the lake on spinnerbaits and square bill crankbaits. It was a mixed bag size wise with only two oversize fish. We had no problem limiting on 20 to 24 inch fish. The turnout at the meeting was thin and the majority of those in attendance did not approve of the proposal to cut the trout limit from ten to 5 fish. I personally feel like something has to be done, but the two most voiced opinions had merit. They felt, based on past experiences, that anything the TPWD took away they never gave back in spite of how well the plan worked. Secondly, they felt that any concessions they made would be erased by the fact that Louisiana would not make the same changes. I do not believe that any regulation changes will ever work until both states play by the same rules. Not much chance of that happening in the near future. March 05, 2019 | Permalink | Comments (1) February 25, 2019 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! also February 25, 2019 | Permalink | Comments (2) February 17, 2019 Cooler weather could slow down a semi-decent trout bite. I haven't seen the weather report yet, but it got chilly quickly today. We were down to t-shirts and waders yesterday so cooler weather and a north wind should have been expected. In spite of the great conditions the bite was just about the same for us as it has been over the past several weeks. We had about an hour and a half of decent catching and couldn't draw a strike the rest of the time. We didn't catch a trout over three pounds nor did the two other boats sharing the same stretch of shoreline. We weren't keeping fish, but I would guess that we released 8 to 10 trout and two reds. Most of them would have been small keepers. One of the groups said they had nine keepers and their friends had seven. We caught most of our fish on Catch V's and a pink Maniac Mullet. They were catching their fish on jointed Corkies and Down South tails rigged on 1/16th ounce heads. I know one of those fishermen and he said that he hadn't caught an honest six pound trout in the last two years on Sabine. That is saying something as I know of no one else that has caught more trout over seven pounds on Sabine since the early 2000's than he and his brother-in-law. They only wade and spend all of their time between here and Trinity Bay. Trinity isn't doing anyone any favors either. The water was a little dirtier than it has been in the area we homesteaded, but it didn't change the bite. Even when we are catching a few fish we are seeing very little bait on the surface. That could well be due to the low salinity level that just keeps getting lower. I talked with Steve over at Outcast Tackle last week and he said that Roger had caught a new record bass for Sabine Lake. That is a good thing for Roger, but not for the trout fishermen. He caught it on the north revetment wall! Most every time the water has been clear enough in Black's to provide a color change on the tide line we have been able to catch a few slot reds. They weren't there yesterday, but we didn't hunt too hard. February 17, 2019 | Permalink | Comments (5) February 09, 2019 Bite O.K. all things considered Prior to the wind witching around to the north, we were catching some decent trout fishing only the major feed at night. The bite seemed to be the best at the very end of the major. We didn't do nearly as well fishing the major during the day, but we didn't stay with it long. We knew we could catch a few redfish and gave up on the trout early. It is hard to tell how dirty the water is at the time when wading in the dark, but we had about ten inches of visibility in the area we were fishing. We fished much clearer water in Coffee Ground and Game Warden Cove, but could only catch reds. We didn't wade Coffee Ground at night, but I feel like the same bite is going on there. We have been fishing a Catch V almost exclusively in water between 3 and 5 feet deep. We have been catching our reds on that same Catch V and a quarter ounce spinnerbait. The spinnerbait has easily worked the best, but i feel like I am totally giving up on the trout when I tie one on and that has been the case thus far. Of interest for those of you that choose to fish the spinnerbait.....we have do...