Sabine Lake fly and conventional tackle fishing reports & photos
Sunday, April 29, 2007
4/29/2007
We got an earlier start today at 7:15am and fished an area we had never been in before. The GatorTail motor I use will get you into areas and out of them I never before thought possiable with a prop driven boat. We saw fish today but almost all of them had lock jaw. We had one hookup on a top water but it came unstuck and this nice Red pictured ate a Horny Toad after 3 offerings. The Red was 27 3/4" long and weighed 9LB. To bad we weren't fishing a tournament!
I did get to cast the fly rod today . I swam a gold spoon fly in front of a large Red 4 times but it never even acted like it saw the fly? You know what they say, if a Red won't eat a spoon fly you may as well call it a day cause the fish just aren't going to bite. So we called it a day at 1:00pm
Beautiful day and conditions, it's good to be alive!
Tight lines, Mike
¶ 12:56 PM 0 comments
Saturday, April 28, 2007
4/28/2007
Boy what a day!
The wind was almost non existent today and we had a good tide. We headed out to Bessie Heights marsh in hopes the Red fish have finally started the move onto the flats.
To our great pleasure we had a nice Red in the boat during the 1st 15 minuets of our outing! There were a pair of them working along a grass line and with a well placed cast the fight was on. We were also pleased to see the moss had grown back in this area also. Last year it was just a mud bottom and the fish never really showed up in the area.
Looks like we may have turned the cornier in this part of the marsh. We saw at least a dozen slot sized Red fish today! They weren't really feeding hard but we did manage to put three keepers in the boat and lost 3 more. The water was very clear in the areas with moss but was turbid when we got out over a mud bottom. The Sheep's heads were hanging out over the mud bottoms and tailing. If we had took the time to get out the Sheep head fly rod there is no doubt we could have hooked up.
I had to cut the day short so we left at 12:30pm. in hopes of returning tomorrow.
Today was more of a scouting trip and I didn't get to cast the fly rod. The fish we caught ate either a gold spoon, a Horny toad or a big bladed spinner bait with a Pumpkin/Chrt. DOA shad tail body.
The rig I used to cast the very light soft plastic Horny Toad was a CastAway Titanium light action spinning rod spooled with PowerPro braided line tipped with a 24inch Fluorocarbon leader.
This set up allows for a soft presentation and no back lashes! The rod has plenty of back bone to set the hook but a soft tip for casting the light bait a long way.
If your interested in fishing the flats this season give me a shout, it looks like the action has finally began.
Tight lines, Mike
¶ 6:55 PM 0 comments
Friday, April 20, 2007
4/20/2007
Been working graveyards this week from 7:00pm to 7:30am during our plant outage.
Worked in the yard on the bulkhead and almost have it finished. The weather was right when I got home this morning so I ran out to the North end of Sabine Lake for a few hours before I had to get some sleep. I was greeted by a few Speckled trout and one flounder from 9:00am to 11:00am. I caught 6 Specks with the biggest going 21" down to 16" along with one U/S Speck.
I also picked up the flounder drifting soft plastic along the bottom.
Every Speck I caught came from under a D.O.A popping cork with a D.O.A Key lime shad tail/jig combination. The jig was 24" under the cork. The water was 5 foot deep and 68 F with an incoming tide. The water was in a lot better shape than I expected.
I tried shallower but never got bit.
Looks like the conditions are becoming favorable to a good bite this season.
Tight lines, Mike
Saturday, April 07, 2007
4/7/07
The wind and weather conditions have been horrible as of late. If it's not raining the wind is blowing 15 to 20 mph. I have been using this time to continue my efforts at finishing up my bulkhead project. I've got the walkway finished and have started the stairs from the boat ramp up to ground level, as a note I fish much better than I do carpenter work so progress is slow but it looks good. The word on the water is the Flounder are in their spring migration so if the wind and rain will let you get on the water now's the time to fish. The bull spring tides push a lot of water up into the marsh cane and salt grass where bait hides. When the tide starts to fall the flounder are waiting at the edge of the root systems ready to ambush the bait as the water level recedes. The mouths of bayous and cuts draining the marsh are also excellent places to target Flounder on a falling tide. Small soft plastic swim baits fished on 1/8 to 1/4 oz lead heads always work. For added attraction I aways tip the hook with fish bites or Berkly gulp sent strips. Some anglers use small pieces of shrimp but I like the way the strips stay on the hook much longer and are easier to use. Plastic colors that worked for me in the past are Glow/chart. , pumpkin seed /chrt. ,strawberry/white and limetruse. The tackle I find best suited for pitching near the grass line and making short cast is a spinning set up. When fly fishing for flounder I prefer an 8 wt. set up with floating line and a 8 foot leader for water up to 3 foot deep. For fishing water down to 6 foot I would use an intermedate sinking line with the same leader.
The bait I would use is a Chartruse/white clouser minnow tied on a #1/0- 34007 Mustad hook using bead chain eyes for the shallows and medium eyes for the deeper water.
Hopefully this will be the last cold blast of the year and the weather will stabilize into a solid spring pattern.
Tight lines, Mike ¶ 7:50 PM 0 comments
The wind and weather conditions have been horrible as of late. If it's not raining the wind is blowing 15 to 20 mph. I have been using this time to continue my efforts at finishing up my bulkhead project. I've got the walkway finished and have started the stairs from the boat ramp up to ground level, as a note I fish much better than I do carpenter work so progress is slow but it looks good. The word on the water is the Flounder are in their spring migration so if the wind and rain will let you get on the water now's the time to fish. The bull spring tides push a lot of water up into the marsh cane and salt grass where bait hides. When the tide starts to fall the flounder are waiting at the edge of the root systems ready to ambush the bait as the water level recedes. The mouths of bayous and cuts draining the marsh are also excellent places to target Flounder on a falling tide. Small soft plastic swim baits fished on 1/8 to 1/4 oz lead heads always work. For added attraction I aways tip the hook with fish bites or Berkly gulp sent strips. Some anglers use small pieces of shrimp but I like the way the strips stay on the hook much longer and are easier to use. Plastic colors that worked for me in the past are Glow/chart. , pumpkin seed /chrt. ,strawberry/white and limetruse. The tackle I find best suited for pitching near the grass line and making short cast is a spinning set up. When fly fishing for flounder I prefer an 8 wt. set up with floating line and a 8 foot leader for water up to 3 foot deep. For fishing water down to 6 foot I would use an intermedate sinking line with the same leader.
The bait I would use is a Chartruse/white clouser minnow tied on a #1/0- 34007 Mustad hook using bead chain eyes for the shallows and medium eyes for the deeper water.
Hopefully this will be the last cold blast of the year and the weather will stabilize into a solid spring pattern.
Tight lines, Mike ¶ 7:50 PM 0 comments
