Wish You Were Here SABINE

from Texas Fish & Game July-August 2023

Dead Deer Crossing T

Reported by CAPT. EDDIE HERNANDEZ

OUR WISH HAS BEEN granted. A er months of dealing with strong winds and some cooler than normal days for the most part, the conditions have se led in a big way. Now that we are entering the two ho est months of the year the weather and wind have stabilized signi cantly and we are ge ing our wish of shing on warm (hot), calm days. Most days are so warm and calm that I have to remind myself to be careful what I wish for. I’ve gone from praying that the wind would give us a break, to praying for a li le breeze so that it wouldn’t be so miserable.

ese slick-o s are normal and should be expected in the hot, summer months, especially from about mid-July through August.

During these slick-o s, the wind will die down from about a whopping 6 mph to 1 or 0 mph. e entire lake will become like glass and the best part is they usually occur around mid-day when the temperature is reaching its peak. During these periods, large schools of trout and reds push shrimp to the surface and are easy to locate and stay within the ultra-calm water. It’s nice being able to locate schooling sh easily without any help from birds for limits of trout and reds. You basically just need to look and listen for any surface activity whatsoever, from lady sh or trout popping, to shrimp skipping for their lives. e north end of Sabine Lake between the north revetment on Pleasure Island and ree Bayou is prime real estate. Come armed with 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 foot medium-light spinning or casting gear rigged with 1/8 to 1/4 oz. lead heads, 10-12 lb. test line, and a variety of so plastic baits. Some good choices are D.O.A. C.A.L. Series Shad Paddle Tail and Down South Lures. Experiment with di erent colors to see what they want the most, but usually light colors like glow or anything with a chartreuse tail will get the job done. rowing a so plastic bait about 24” under a popping cork is also very e ective. ere is no shortage of shad in our system during these hot summer months. You should encounter several large clouds of them all over the lake. Fishing the perimeters and a li le deeper should yield some nice trout and bruiser reds.

Other good bait choices are topwaters like Ski er Walks and She Pups, which usually a ract some of the bigger trout.

Free-lining or rigging live or dead shad under a popping cork is another great technique for catching solid trout and reds near these pods of shad. e ounder bite is still going strong ahead of their fall migration, and the bayous on the Louisiana side of the lake have been giving up some nice boxes of a ies. Bridge, Willow and Johnson Bayous have been the most consistent lately and it’s only going to get be er over the next few months. Live mud minnows and curl tail grubs tipped with fresh shrimp have been the most productive.

If catching sh in excessive heat and basically no wind sounds like fun to you, come join us this summer for some slick action on Sabine.