Fall Gathering

This week has been pretty typical of summertime fishing in SE Texas...tough. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of fish out there. Too many at times. Ladyfish, gafftops and croaker are swarming, prepared to eat your live bait before more desirable fish can see them and those pretty little Gulp curly tails don't stand a chance. Big sheepshead are plentiful anywhere you find shell, rock or barnacles, keeping you busy if you are trying to tempt trout with live shrimp. Mackerel, jaand sharks lurk just off the jetty rocks, looking to steal your hooks and some, if not all, your line. We won't even discuss hardheads. On the bright side, action is practically non-stop. Trout are good early, late and those rare times the tide is right and too many boats aren't beating an area up. Redfish are in the usual redfish places... marsh drains, rocks and patrolling marsh edges. Those BIG reds are starting their annual late summer schooling activity in Sabine. That is always fun! We weren't able to get outside the jetties much due to wind and storms, but we did see some nice tripletail floating in 14' of water on the Texas side. Bottom line...use big baits or artificials if you want big fish and bring plenty of live shrimp if you insist on using them for bait. Best of luck and see ya'll on the water.

We had a very pleasant trip yesterday with a great young young couple from Kirbyville. Our intentions were to target be trout and and redfish, so we arrived at my secret spot , Lighthouse Cove, at daylight. Of couse, Lighthouse Cove is the the best known "secret spot" in SE Texas, so we had the company of 20 other boats. After the usual (embarrassing) screaming matchs that frequent such places on a Saturday morning, as impatient anglers jockey for position, we settled down to fishing. True to form during the full moon, there was a long, slow incoming tide. Live shrimp and plastics produced a lot of "dink" action initially, as is also expected this tme of year. Slowly, but predictably, the boats began to scream away in search of the magic spot (I hope they found it!) We moved to the bank and headed north, in search of redfish. We didn't find them. But we found flounder. Nice flounder. We've probably had 200 flatfish come aboard this year with less than 10 (Texas) keepers. Ryan Davis, an expert bass fisherman, had no problem figuring out that THUMP that a nice flounder gives a shrimp-tipped plastic. He and his pretty wife, Bethany, had several fish in the 18" class and another that the helpful young biologist at the check station described as "the largest flouder he has measured.". A run uplake in search of redfish got them a couple of short fish and the constant rat-tat-tat of croakers and some acrobatic ladyfish. We returned to the windy channel about 1pm as the tide began to rip out. You could tell the dynamics had changed and all the shrimp were dead, so the guys tossed out a couple of huge mud minnows that I had caught before, under popping corks. Bethany hooked up first. There is no mistaking the wallowing, head-shaking thrash of a trophy trout. The 20# flourocarbon leader parrted. Almost immediately, Ryan hooked an even bigger fish. His bait must been swimming near the surface, because the trout exploded it like tarpon when it hit...a fish with a head the size of a coffee can. Half way to the boat, same thing...the leader broke. I seems that hours of ladyfish sawing on those leaders had weakened them to the point that they couldn't hold up to that fish (2) of a lifetime. Overall, a great day, with many lessons to be learned.

We got out for a little while yesterday, between the bands of Hurricane Barry, to fish the protected waters of Kieth Lake. I was anxious to see if any new salt was coming in with the meager surge. It was! Our first half dozen casts amount the skipping shrimp produced as many 14" trout. The bite gradually subsided without us boxing a single keeper...all 12-14" fish. A move to deeper water, looking for flounder, revealed redfish stacked up. We caught ten or so reds and numerous black drum on chartreuse Gulps before the incoming water got so strong we couldn't fish anymore. If we put on enough weight to reach bottom, it was swept immediately into the mouths of hungry oysters. Overall, it was a very nice trip. The high wind and cloud cover gave us a break from the Texas heat, we caught some nice fish and most of all, confirmed that salty water was invading the channels and marshes. Things should be really looking up for the Sabine ecosystem for a while. Only time will tell, but after seeing all that sandy Gulf water coming in....I'm pumped!