Love To See It
As I sit writing this, it is a little after midnight and I just can’t find it in me to go to bed yet. I am staying at my buddy’s place on the south end of Sabine Lake, and it is just me out here. I spent the early part of my evening tying a small shrimp pattern fly and figured I would put it on my 4-weight rod and see if I could catch a fish. I have fished the lights several times the past few summers and it has been a long time since I have had a night like I just witnessed. The trout were in small groups, coming up and popping shrimp as they scurried by. The small fly I tied drifting along the edge of the lights couldn’t be ignored by any fish down below. Needless to say, it has been years since I have fished the lights and said, “I think that’s enough fish for the night.”
During the nine years since Hurricane Harvey, if you have followed any of Dickie Colburn’s, Chuck Uzzle’s, or articles I have written, then you are fully aware that Hurricane Harvey did a number on the Sabine Lake fishery. It has been a long uphill journey but I believe we are almost back to where we were in the pre-Harvey era. The numbers of big trout aren’t quite back to where they once were, but more and more 5- to 6-pound fish have been showing up frequently. A combination of time and the reduction of bag and size limits from TPWD have no doubt played a part in this recovery. Sabine Lake still has a ways to go to get back to her glory days but, overall, I think it is safe to say that she’s back.
Earlier this summer, a buddy and I hit the lake at first light in hopes that we could pick up some trout. It was a little too rough to get to the jetties so we resorted to our typical go-to spots in the ship channel. To our surprise, they produced several solid fish with a few being over the 15 to 20-inch slot length. Our morning was already made so we decided to ride around the south end of the lake and just take a look. As we made it into the main body, our view included several different groups of birds working. We picked a set that seemed to be the most promising and setup to fish them. For the next two hours we followed screeching gulls hovering and diving over popping shrimp and must have boated at least a hundred fish, maybe more. Just an absolute epic morning of fishing!
Later that afternoon I texted two other buddies and told them about my day. I thought about it and the last time I caught trout like that was actually with them, dead in the middle of summer and we chased birds all afternoon. That may well have been the best day of trout fishing I experienced in my entire career. We had the lake to ourselves; the water was perfectly green, and you could see the trout in the upper layers of the oncoming waves. It was a one-of-a-kind experience for Sabine. After reliving that trip with them, the very next day on my Facebook history, the photo of us popped up. It was ten years ago, two months before that monster named Harvey hit us.
With the recent trip that I just had and knowing that conditions were going to be close to the same the next day, I made a call. I talked to my buddy Dylan and told him to bring his boys and meet me at the ramp the next morning. I had everything they would need on the boat, just meet me at the dock and come aboard. The next day, two excited boys got on the boat and I was hoping that my feeling about the birds still working was going to remain true. It did and the fun began.
I had Wyatt, his oldest, on the bow while Dylan had his youngest son Hank in the back. We immediately began to hook up on nearly every cast and began just handing the rods over to them. They yelled and laughed the whole time and kept remarking how much fun they were having. We boated well over 50 trout in just a short time and, needless to say, getting them on the water was worth it!
The week following, my buddy Chance phoned to ask whether I might know anyone with a pier I might be able to arrange permission to take his son and friends to fish on. I promised to make some quick calls and inquiries and get back to him. I called my friend Foss and he answered without hesitation; bring them boys out to my lake house. Chance went down to the causeway bait shop and bought a quart of shrimp and some corks; knowing full well this would be the easiest setup. Away they went to chunking into the lights and away we went to dodging corks. It wasn’t as fast paced a night as I’d just experienced earlier due to the slower moving tides, but they all managed to catch a few trout and some smaller redfish.
Lately on the lake, the schools of redfish have been the real fun. They’re all bulls, with a few jack crevalle mixed in, and they’re putting on a show that National Geographic would be proud to capture and televise. It is a fast-paced, fast-action workout, but boy is it ever fun. I have had a few buddies and family members get their kids on some of these fish and it is such a cool thing to see. I mean, I’ve been able to witness this dozens of times and I still get tickled watching it.
The most important thing about all of this is that my friends and family’s kids are finally getting a chance to see Sabine Lake at a very healthy level. The next few years in their life are likely going to be some of their favorite memories of fishing the lake. In my view this is important as it will be the benchmark they will all carry into the future. Once they get older, hopefully the realization of how important conservation of the resource they are enjoying will sink in for them, as it has for me as I matured. I look back at the wild ride I have been on and I know where my benchmark was as a kid compared to what it is now; and we are not far off.
All I could ever ask is that they fall in love with fishing, and with hopes of maintaining the fishery at or better than its current level. If we can accomplish that, I will call it a huge win for them and also for the fishery.
