Fantastic Fishing on Sabine Lake Expert Tips on Fishing Sabine Lake in All Seasons by Capt. Skip James
	What an incredible summer we had ! The summer of big specks made for lots of happy anglers on Sabine. Thinking back over the years, we are hard pressed to recall a summer this consistent for trout ! Barring any hard freezes or red tides, our fall fishing should be world class. Fishing for reds and specks under the birds should just get better as they begin to gourge in preparation for a long, hard winter. Boxes of thirty to fifty trout and four to ten bonus reds are not uncommon on Sabine Lake in October, November and December. Our fall flounder run is in full swing. Fishing for Sabine flatfish continues to be outstanding. " I flew in from Chicago.....my daughter Lisa, flew in from Atlanta. Our favorite fish is the flounder. We have fished all over the coast trying to catch a trophy flounder weighing over four pounds. Even though the weather did not cooperate, Capt. Skip was still able to put me on the fish of my dreams. We recommend Sabine Lake wholeheartedly," reports Earl Parr, Ph.D of Illinois. Due to the incredible speckle trout run,,fishing for saddleblankets is still overlooked. We truly have huge population dynamic in terms of flatfish ! For a recommendation on flounder fishing on the forgotton bay, contact Lisa Parr at 404-727-3653. In fall, all primary factors....water temperature and oxygen, forage location, forage reduction, thinning weeds, seasonal migrations and concentrations, reduced boating and fishing pressure, stable environmental conditions, and aggressive big fish...all come together in one great explosion of opportunity. Not just one factor, but manysimultaneously meld into peak conditions for the biggest fish in the lake. Consistent patterns, however, aren't necessarily the same in Sabine Lake, Sabine River, Neches River and the surrounding marshes. As always, interpreting environmental options for bait fish and game fish location are prime directives for intercepting fish. Once you determine likely fish location, you have many ways to catch them. But first you have got to find them. Folks, we have six veteran Sabine Lake guides with more than 180 years of combined experience. We spend our lives on the water. Obviously, when the fish move and become active, we know the location ! "My father and I recently fished with Capt. Skip for the first time. We have over thirty Parker Lumber stores so our time spent on the water is both rare and valuable to us. Myself, my dad, and our Business manager had our limits by 11 am. We drove right to a small reef and caught our limits quickly. While other boats were driving and looking for fish, we were catching . In the future we plan to fish Sabine on a regular basis, " reports Scott Parker. For a recommendation, contact Scott Parker at 409-983-2745. Bait fishermen working the shell pads and isolated clam beds are consistently reporting limits of trout and reds. We have three small mussel beds located on the north end of the bay. These underwater structures are currently holding fish and will continue to hold fish up until around Christmas. Specks and reds are instinctively drawn to the north end of Sabine in fall because of the cool, flowing water of both the Neches and Sabine Rivers. Also our rivers are deep enough to hold both specks and reds in the deeper pools. Scientist Doug Mac Carter of Houton, recently fished with us for a couple days. The weather was beautiful and the fish were biting. "We have fished with Skip and his team for several years now. This was our best trip this season....limits of specks...it doesn't get any better. We were using shad, fished on Carolina Rigs, on an underwater clam bed the size of a pick-up truck," says Doug . For a recommendation on Sabine specks, you can call Doug at 281-476-4716. Incidentally, the days that Doug and his guest were here happened to be in the same time frame that shrimpers on the south end reported their largest catches of shrimp. The many surrounding marshes are purging both brown and white shrimp into the bay! Flounder are congregating in mass for their annual fall migration. In fact, over the last several days our guides have switched from mussel bed trout to black water bayou flounder. As the photo period of the day begins to shorten, large, fall saddleblankets will begin to "body up" and put on the feed bag in preparation for a rigorous spawning migration. Soft plastic,Twister lures are great for flounders, but savvy anglers enhance their effectiveness with the addition of a secret attractant. Instead of relying solely on a fish's visual senses to detect movement and trigger a strike, the scent attractant allows the lure to be fished in off-color water or left motionless on the bottom. We tip our jigs with fresh shrimp! Sabine Lake Guide Service specializes in fishing families and kids. Most parents give their children 'hand-me-down' rods to begin their fishing experience. In most cases these rods are simply too long and cumbersome for younger kids to fish with. We provide rods and reels for children at their level. Robin Pomeroy of Lafayette, La. recently booked a very important fishing trip for his grandson. Mr. Pomeroy decided to come over and check it out before his scheduled trip. He brought home over 240 jumbo, sand trout filets. That's over twenty pounds of filets. " I wanted to make sure my eleven year old grandson could catch some fish. We have been on other trips where the rods and reels were too big and the fishing simply wasn't suited for his age level. He'll have a ball and catch lots of sand trout," says Mr. Pomeroy. For a recommendation you can call him at 318-987-2672. Fall is our favorite season for Sabine Lake fishing. Trophy specks gulping topwaters under feeding gulls, giant reds inhaling Rat-l-traps and flounder the size of garbage can lids hitting Mr. Twisters. Everything is falling in place. Yes, all the earmarks are there for your fantastic fall fishing trip on the forgotton bay. If you've never fished the Sabine eco-system, you owe it to yourself to explore the many fishing opportunities it offers. Recently while fishing the desolate " badlands" on the Louisiana side of Sabine, we ran accross Roy Walters, the biologist for the Sabine National Refuge. After he checked our licenses and our thirty-five flounder, Roy explained how different our Sabine Lake fishing conditions are in comparison to other seasons. " We've never seen the salt levels so high at this time of year. We're reading 15 parts per million as far north as the Burton's Ditch area. There are a lot of fish here early this year.In fact, many fish never left. " These are great words for Sabine Lake fishermen! Rich, warm, salty waters has keptSabine Lake the top choice of savvy coastal anglers. Simply put, as we head into summer our fishing looks promising. Yes, we need some rain to body up the marsh fish with the lake fish.......and hopefully we'll get some. But by and large, conditions are great for Sabine specks, reds and flounders. SABINE FLOUNDER Hot boxes of thirty flatfish are common. Standard chartreuse slugs are working best near Blue Buck Point on the southend. "This has been one of the best days of my life," said an excited Pete Altinger of Houston. "My brother, my dad and I all have boats but rarely fish together. This has been a real treat for our family and the 35 flounder we caught were just the gravy. I called my wife and told her to heat up the grill." You can call Pete for a recommendation at 281-350-2925. Dr. Ray Midgitt of Sugarland, Tx. stroked twenty-five flatties up to four pounds. "We fish Sabine all the time. There is just not as much boat traffic as Galveston and Matagorda. The wind was up so we couldn't work the specks and reds under the birds in the bay....so we opted to ease down the banks and jig for flounders. TROPHY SABINE TROUT Last year our speckled trout record was broken twice. Old local salts look for the record to be broken again soon ! Huge, fat, trophy trout are being taken to the taxidermist on a regular basis. Take a look at the photo....nine pounds of silver hooked up to a topwater. What a blast ! " Fish early with red and white spooks. Work the baits at a fast pace. Sometimes the trout blow up on the topwaters two or three times before they decide to eat it," reports veteran, trophy trout angler, Mike Denmon of Orange, Tx. Trout fishing under the birds can be extremely exciting. Screaming, diving gulls, white shrimp the size of your finger jumping out of the water and three to five pound,yellow mouth trout busting the surface, all make for a super adrenaline rush ! SABINE SPOT TAIL REDS Ten years ago, the Texas Parks & Wildlife stocked nearly one million fingerling redfish in the north end of Sabine. It worked ! Out of all the options available in Sabine Lake fishing....working for redfish is perhapes the most consistent on a yearly basis. "We have fished with other guides on the south end of Sabine Lake without too much success. The south end is so wide that the wind can blow you out. We are fishing with Skip now on the north end and in the badlands. It just seems like there is more fishing available because of all the bayous. On our first trip over to Sabine we caught over thirty specks and six reds," said Tina Watson of Houston. For a recommendation call Bob or Tina at 409-597-4201 and ask them how they like fishing on Sabine Lake. SABINE LAKE FORECAST Look for the speck and red action to continue to be great around the diving gulls and pelicans near the south embankment wall. Best bait seems to be a rat-l-trap. Some anglers are bringing in decent boxes of trout and reds using a standard poppin' cork drifting with live bait. Topwater lures are producing some huge, monster, yellowmouth trout near Stewart's Island. Flounder fishing will be world class for the next couple of months. Flatfish anglers across the entire Sabine ecosystem are reporting decent boxes of doormats ! If you are planning a trip to the Sabine Lake area, call me at 409-886-5341 or email me at Sabinelake@pnx.com and I'll zone you in. For more information, check my web site at www.pnx.com/sabinelake. Remember, if you see a fisherman without a smile, give him yours. SLAM DUNK SPRING SPECKS Because of extremely salty conditions, many speckled trout have opted to winter in our forgotton bay....Sabine Lake. Mild winter conditions combined with a lack of rain have resulted in a large concentration of hold-over speckled trout. Trophy trout in the five to eight pound class have been common. The topwater trout fishing that had previously slowed down in the last couple of weeks is now back with a vengence. In fact, the last few days I have seen speckled trout jump clean out of the water while chasing baitfish. "I fished with Skip on Wednesday. We caught twelve reds and twenty-two specks by 2pm. The thing that sticks out in my mind is how hard those speckled trout can fight. I fought what I thought was a red for about five minutes.....but it ended up being about a six pound speck," reports John Thomas of Orange, TX. Folks, look for the speckled trout fishing to just get better. Not only are we starting to get good reports on the famous southend Causeway Reef, but we are also getting excellent reports about big topwater trout being caught off the rocks on the south embankment wall. "I slipped over to the south embankment wall on Thursday morning just to check it. Last year at this time I caught several trout over six pounds on a topwater plug. You can imagine how surprised I was that morning when I caught two trout in the eight pound class within thirty minutes," reports Ed Maier of Texas. SABINE LAKE FORECAST Specks, reds, and flounders should continue to bite on a daily basis. The only thing that can shut down a day of fishing right now would be weather. Look for your trout around the Causeway Reef and Blue Buck Point. Try topwaters in the shallows early and switch to chartreuse plastics from 10am until 2pm. Redfish action continues to be good all over the Sabine ecosystem. Reds are being reported in the Bessie Heights marsh, along the Sabine riverbanks around channel marker #8. Those great big, giant, monster bullreds have just hit the jetties. Try for flounders in any of the tributaries running into the Neches River. If you are planning a trip to Sabine, call me at 409-886-5341 or email me at Sabinelake@pnx.com and I'll zone you in. Remember if you see a fisherman without a smile, give him yours. Capt. Skp 1/29/00 Sabine lake is spotty right now. The only thing that is consistent is the inconsistency. There are definitely huge, trophy speckled trout to be caught on both topwaters and plastics. On any given day, with the right conditions, we are catching fifteen to eighteen trout per boat with a couple of bonus reds. There are still some fish under the birds working the northend. Wade fishermen, grinding with the big baits, are poppin' a couple of big yellow mouths a day when the weather is right. Bait anglers, fishing the hot water ditches in both the Sabine and Neches rivers, are holding there own with sometimes incrediable catches of redfish.We are even getting a few ol' stripped bass mixed in with the schools of reds. Flounder are pretty slow with some scattered catches being reported. Overall fishing conditions right now in Sabine lake and surrounding marshes are spotty. We are looking for things to improve, just like they did last February with the El Nina affect ! Folks, we just simply haven't had a lot of rain. A lot of our fall fish never left the rivers and the mid-lake area. As soon as we get another warm spell, Sabine lake can explode. Don't forget that last year our lake record for speckled trout was broken in February and March. Don't forget if you are planning a trip to the Sabine area give me a call at 409-886-5341 or e-mail me at Sabinelake@pnx.com . Capt. Skip 12/17/99 Sabine Lake Great Service Here we are at that time of year when most anglers have put the rods in the closet and the boat in the garage. Who would have ever thought that we would be catching good boxes of trout and reds this late in the season ? Well, we are, and doing so consistently ! Fishing under the birds at this time of year is very rare. But then we have had a rare year. No rain to speak of and very salty water. Big trout on topwater and plastics. Reds until your arms hurt. It's happening right now. "Sabine lake is probably the hottest trophy trout fishing venue on the entire Gulf of Mexico coast right now. That's saying a lot, but I don't know of any other saltwater bay, anywhere in the world, that's producing double digit trout as rapidly as Sabine. Right now conditions in the lake are primo. The water is clear and the water temperature is in the low 60's. The fishing for trout from 5 to 10 pounds has been excellent," reports outdoor writer, Robert Sloan, of the Beaumont Enterprise. For best results on trout and reds, work the south end near Blue Buck Point. Draw an line to the Pt. Arthur Yacht Club from Blue Buck Point and stay in that area. The fish are bodied up and incrediably hungry. In the last week we've cleaned over 200 trout and 50 reds full of shrimp.....full of shrimp!!! The surrounding marshes finally purged and the fish are stacked up waiting for bait that has fled the marsh. If you are planning a trip to the Sabine area, call me at 409-886-5341 or email me at Sabinelake@pnx.com and I'll zone you in. CAPT. SKIP 9/30/99 This premier 1999 fishing season on Sabine Lake has got to be one for the record books. Impressive stringers of flounders, reds, and specks have consistently been taken on our lake since early March ! The ishing has been world class and so many good things have happened. It's difficult to recall each and every one of them, but following are just a few of the highlights. Early in the season, during February and March, our lake record for speckled trout was broken twice. Yes, two huge sow specks taken on surface lures ! Since the gill net ban three years ago, alot of the old Salts predicted that Sabine would put out some real gator trout....... obviously they were right ! The success of our 99 Sabine Lake gulf coast round-up was unprecedented. Local anglers, media folks, conservation minded volunteers and the Pt. Arthur SALT Club sent over fifty fish to the Texas saltwater fish hatchery, Sea Center in Lake Jackson. These fish will be viewed by the public in huge saltwater aquariums. No other coastal fish round-up has even come close to matching the results of that record breaking event ! Breakthrough information collected by Molt Marine Laboratories and philanthropist Chester Moore of Orange, indicates that Sabine Lake is a breeding ground for neo-natal black tipped sharks. Sabine lake a rearing ground for sharks? The record breaking stringers being weighed in by the Troutmasters in tournament competition prove we have an underrated and viable fishery. These are just some of the many good reasons Sabine has been the choice for many savvy saltwater anglers. The following is up to date fishing infomation that will help you put more and bigger fish in the cooler on your next Sabine adventure. HOME OF THE GIANT REDS If you have been following this report, you already have seen the many photos we've published of huge,monster reds. From the end of the jetties to the short rigs offshore, to the IH-10 bridge on the northend, our ecosystem continues to put up some incredible redfish. Looking back, we've recieved reports of reds in every nook and cranny of Sabine. But by far the most popular area has been the famous Bessie Height's Marsh. The marsh should remain good until our next major cold front. Gold Johnson spoons, Super Spooks, and live bait have been the most productive baits. This fall look for reds to really begin to body up on the southern end. With the passing of each cold front, much of the life in our surrounding nursery marshes will purge into our main lake waters. Each October, November and December these reds that have been cruising the shallow marsh water will take the lake in massive schools and feed heavily in preparation for a hard winter. To find them, simply cruise the southend of the lake, near Blue Buck Point, visually searching for diving birds, fresh slicks and nervous bait. FALL FLOUNDER FORECAST If our 99 spring flounder run is any indication of the population dynamics of flatfish holding in Sabine, our ongoing fall flounder run might also make it into the record books. Ten fish limits of saddleblankets are already becoming common. Both the Sabine and Neches Rivers are putting out good boxes. Louisiana's primitive eastern banks are a sure bet. But the hottest area we've heard about lately is around the Causeway Bridge. Each fall thousands of flounders mass in the narrows at the bridge. Live mud minnows, mullet, and shad are all catching now. Our fall flounder run has just started...look for it to peak the last two weeks of October and the first two weeks of November. Incidentally, flounder movements are greatly affected by tides. Always try to work the first two hours on incoming tide for best results. Flounder enthusiansts working the Keith Lake boat cut are reporting good catches early every morning using chartreuse jigs tipped with shad. SOW SABINE SPECKS Our Sabine lake speckle trout have created alot of excitment this season. As mentioned earlier, since the removal of the gill nets, our population has soared. Already this season I have personally made over one hundred confirmed sightings of schooling specks.....with more than fifty specks per school. It is not uncommon to limit out by 10 am when the fish are aggressively surrounding, corralling, and ambushing bait fish. This schooling phenomenon is incredible to watch unfold by the light of early morning. Further, our trout fishing is so good that the Houston Chronicle featured Sabine in an in depth piece in the outdoor section. In fact, we have so many schools of specks that the birds have worked since early April and show no signs of quitting. As hard as it is to believe, speckle trout fishing will just get better with the arrival of the winter season. The best method for consistently finding these silver beauties is to search for the many flocks of working birds all over the lake. Large specks have been boxed on a regular basis for the last several weeks around the intersection of the Neches river and the intracoastal canal. The mouth of Cow Bayou near the Sabine river has also been hot. Plastics, topwaters, shad, you name it they'll hit it. These specks know winter is coming and are definitely putting on the feed bag. Heat up the grease ! Capt. SKIP SABINE LAKE FORECAST As is the case every October/November on Sabine lake, fishing just gets better and better. Big, fat, hungry speckled trout gourging under diving seagulls....hitting anything that you throw in them ! Large schools of ravenous reds slicing through nervous pods of ten and twelve inch mullet. Huge, doormat size flounders massing before their annual migration. You bet folks, all the earmarks are there for an outstanding fall fishing season here on forgotton bay. If you are planning a trip to Sabine, just call at 409-886-5341 or email me at Sabinelake@pnx.com and I'll be happy to zone you in on where the fish are biting daily. ( It's good to have a Sabine lake map in your hands when you call ) Remember, if you see a fisherman without a smile, give him yours.September 3, 1999 SABINE SPECKS SPITTIN' FIRE!!! The last couple of weeks has probably been our best fishing of the year for specks and reds on Sabine Lake. Reports of big trout, and lots of them, are being called in daily. Also, just in case you haven't heard, our bay was featured in the Houston Chronicle's Outdoor section last week ! This article, as well as our continued incredible fishing, has put alot of out of town anglers on Sabine waters stalking big, topwater, trophy trout. To the best of our knowledge, most anglers working Sabine specks have not left our bay dissappointed ! FALL FLOUNDER RUN ARRIVES Last week, we reported things were beginning to shape up for our annual fall flounder run on Sabine. After recieving email reports, and numerous photos and calls, we can assure you that the fall run is in full swing. Most flatfish anglers think this annual phenomenon starts after the first couple of cold fronts. That's just not the case. Have you noticed some of the trees are beginning to get yellow leaves ? Perhaps you've noticed the days are getting shorter ! These are nature's signs that fall is approaching, and a sure indication that the flounder are beginning to "bodied up." SABINE LAKE FISHING FORECAST The specks and reds will continue to feed daily under the many sets of seagulls all over the lake. Probably the most consistent area on the southend is near Garrison's Ridge. The most consistent area on the northend is near the North Embankment Wall. Try topwaters, tauts, and live bait. When you are in the voraciously feeding fish, color is not important as long as the bait is moving. Flounder fishing will continue to be excellent all the way until Thanksgiving. Cuts, bayous, and canals entering into both the Sabine and Neches rivers, are great locations to try for those ol' Sabine saddleblankets. Mud minnows, finger mullet, and live shad appear to be working best. If you are planning a trip to Sabine, call me at 409-886-5341 or email me at Sabinelake@pnx.com and I'll zone you in. Remember, if you see a fisherman without a smile, give him yours. Capt. Skip August 19, 1999 FALL FLOUNDER RUN IS SHAPING UP If you have been following this report for the last couple of months, you already know that our Sabine lake flounder fishing has been spotty lately. That is just simply not the case anymore. Anglers from the southend to the northend of Sabine are beginning to call in with some fairly decent saddleblanket reports. Because of the tremendous speckled trout fishing under the birds, many anglers overlook, or just don't know, the prefall migration is in full swing. In fact, for the last couple of years, I've been so preoccupied with the easy specks and reds that I've missed the best part of the migration. It's difficult to drive through feeding gulls and specks hitting topwater, but if you do you've got a good chance of a trophy flounder now! NATURE'S SIGNS You may have noticed that our days are a little shorter. Instead of getting dark around 8:30 -9:00, now dusk settles in around 7:45-8:00. This yearly phenomenon is called the equinox. Unlike the the solstice, which indicates the longest day of the year, the equinox is a heralding of our upcoming fall season. Much like ducks and geese, these shorter periods of daylight trigger the flounder to "body up" before their annual spawning run into the deeper waters of the lower Sabine basin, ship channel, and Gulf. Other signals......the sumac leaves begin to change color, our lake water takes on a darker look, and the presence of a few migrating teal unquestionably represent good indicators to heat up the skillet! WHERE TO LOCATE SABINE LAKE FLOUNDER There are plenty of good, consistent areas to check for fall flounder. Unlike the spring run, look for flatfish on the main lake points, not the bayous or the many canals surrounding Sabine. The water temperature in the back ends of the cuts and tributaries is just too hot to hold any fishable populations of flatfish. The mouths of both East and Middle Pass are two of the best zones each fall. Experienced Sabine flounder anglers work the two main points at both passes. Fishing in two to six feet of water on incoming tides produces the best results. Other flatfish gathering areas include, Blue Buck Point, Lighthouse Cove, Causeway Bridge, and the many points on the eastern Louisiana banks. The mouth of the Cow Bayou area feeding into theSabine River as well as the Dupont Outfall are producing good boxes of saddleblankets now. Ron Sigler of Orange reports, " Last Tuesday we smoked the big doormats in the mouth of Cow. We couldn't catch any finger mullet so we settled for live shad. In a morning of fishing, my brother-in-law and I put fourteen, Texas keeper, flounders in the cooler". HOW TO FISH FALL FLOUNDER There is no question that live bait is by far the best offer for Sabine flatfish. The bigger the bait, the bigger the flounder. Yes, jigs tipped with fresh dead shrimp will consistently produce, but if you are looking for a trophy, the size of a garbage can lid, use live finger mullet ! Over the last ten years, I've journaled all the information I could gather on when, where, and how huge flounder were taken on Sabine. Yes, there are alot of those ol' big ones netted each year using shrimp, mud minnows and shad, but the information indicates that live mullet get the really big doormats. "The high wind kept us from working the specks under the birds in the middle of the lake. We had already used a cast net to catch a few finger mullet and we decided to try the calmer banks on the intracoastal waterway for flatfish. After checking a couple of spots, it didn't look to promising, but then we hit the mother lode in the mouth of the Dupont Hot Ditch. In about two hours, we landed eight 4 to5 pound flounder with mullet. One was so big I had to cut it in half to fit in the oven," explains flounder guru Frank Moore of Orange. When using live bait, make sure you use a pretty stiff action rod. Flounder have a bony mouth and you've got to set the hook a couple of times to get good penetration. Number 2 or 3 bait hooks are sufficient. Seventeen to twenty-five pound test line will help get the big fish in the net. Some folks like casting live bait on a split shot rig....slowly bumping the bottom. Some folks like anchoring, casting out a live bait under a cork, and watching the cork disappear. Whatever live bait method you prefer, flounder will readily react to either presentation. SABINE LAKE FISHING FORECAST Autumn is a time of change in the world of nature. Unfortunately it is also a time when many anglers dust off their shotguns and rifles. But the hardcores, who continue to fish the Sabine Lake area, will tell you that fall brings the best fishing of the year. In the coming weeks, look for fat trout and reds to school daily in the Blue Buck Point area. Folks, there must be several large schools of both reds and specks using this area....we've been getting excellent reports all year. Throw large topwater's, such as the Gilmore Jumper. Larger trout don't want to expend alot of energy chasing down small bait, when in one bite they can have the whole 9 course meal ! Look for birds working, small emerging "washtub" size slicks and schools of nervous baitfish. If you are planning a trip to Sabine, call me at 409-886-5341 or email me at Sabinelake@pnx.com and I'll zone you in. Remember, if you see a fisherman without a smile, give him yours. Capt. Skip HOT TROUT FISHING ON SABINE! AUGUST 13, 1999 If you like the combination of sweltering heat and fat, hungry fish.....try some early morning, Sabine Lake, topwater speckled trout fishing this month. Our lake is as salty as it will get all year, and the water has a surf green look to it. The lake is just loaded with reds, specks, and flounders just waiting for you to wet a hook. A good indicator that our Sabine fishing has peaked is the amount and the size of the fish brought to the weigh-in tables at our recent O C A R C tournament. More than 150 participants hauled in some twenty reds in the 20 pound class, and good numbers of specks to boot ! Dr. Kevin Dileo of Orange won the speckled trout division with a whopper 5 1/2 pound plus trophy trout. Yes, all the earmarks are there for another great fall fishing adventure on the forgotton bay....Sabine Lake!! Trout anglers working the many flocks of birds on the southend continue to box specks using a variety of baits. Topwater lures, such as the Gilmore Jumper, are working best early in the morning, with live bait and plastics producing best in the mid-day hours. " My husband and I landed seven nice Texas keeper trout near Blue Buck Point on Saturday. It was such a nice day, we decided just to tour the lake and enjoy the scenery..... but our little tour didn't last very long because we ran right into a huge school of reds feeding on the surface near the Causeway Reef. The fish stayed up from 10:30 am until 12:30 pm. We kept our six fish for a limit and released another thirteen. There wasn't another boat in sight," reports Tina Buscheme of Beaumont. " My wife and I enjoy riding around catching some rays after we fish in the mornings, but this was one morning we didn't get to see too much except big redfish on the end of our lines ! We lost several topwater lures and had our hooks straighten out a couple of times," explains Sabine topwater expert George Buscheme. RIPTIDE TROUT After working the birds early in the mornings, several Sabine anglers have finished off good limits fishing the riptide line in the daytime. For those not familiar with this phenomenon, each day a "tide line" developes around the middle section of the lake as our summer tides move in and out of the bay. Easily seen, this foamy area usually runs east and west and holds specks and reds, plus a variety of baitfish. Experienced anglers work irregularities in the line. For example, an area that has alot of floatsom will congregate fish. " I noticed some surface activity near the "rip". After trying chartreuse tauts with no luck, I began to chunk a big Gilmore Jumper into a scummy looking area where fish were surfacing. To my surprise, my bait disappeared as soon as it hit the water! In a couple of minutes I landed a huge gaftop! The next six casts all produced speckled trout blowing up on topwater. I only landed four nice specks...the other two staightened out my treble hooks. You just never know what to expect on Sabine," says Ed Maier of Orange. Another good method for checking the tide line is to use a big ol' poppin cork and live bait. Robert Vail of Bridge City is probaly the Golden Triangles most prolific live bait man. "I am using a #5 weightless poppin cork. Twenty inches under this cork, I've got a swivel with a 1 1/2 oz. egg sinker. This heavy weight pulls the cork down so that the water line is about half way up the red layer of the cork....perfect for making that popping sound. From the swivel, I am tying about 4 ft. of twenty pound leader. We are baiting with mullet or shad rigged on a number 2 or 3 Eagle Claw hook," reports Vail. SABINE SADDLE BLANKETS Flounder fishing still seems to be a little slow with very few reports being called in this week. Although we did confirm a report of a two man limit of twenty flatfish taken out of the Keith Lake boat cut. Savvy Sabine area fisherman have long known of this tiny, hundred yard stretch connecting Keith Lake and the ship channel. "I think we could have caught them quicker, but we kept running out of live bait. Live finger mullet is hard to find and catch, but if you get them, you'll catch flounder hand over fist in the cut....they're stacked up in there the first two hours of low tide," reports Rodney Savell of Pt. Neches. High southwesterly winds have prevented flounder anglers from working the primative east Louisiana banks. As our winds become more out of the south and southeast, flounder fishing should begin to pick up. A good area to try now would be the main canal joining the Neches River and Bessie Heights Marsh. Try to work it as the tides change ! SABINE FISHING FORECAST Look for speck and red action to continue along the southwest banks of the lake. The rocks on the southern embankment wall will stay steady with big trout being taken early with large topwater baits. Schooling reds and specks, feeding under the birds will stay consistent until the end of the fall season. A word to the wise, it can get awful hot on the lake all day. Make sure you bring plenty of water. Folks, Sabine Lake fishing has been called the hottest on the Texas coast. If you are planning a trip to Sabine, simply call me at 409-886-5341 or email me at Sabinelake@pnx.com and I'll be more than happy to zone you in on where the fish are biting. Remember if you see a fisherman without a smile, give him yours. Capt. Skip 409-886-5341  Email me: Sabinelake@pnx.com   Home