The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

The Triangle Tail Chasers kicked off their 2015 tournament year out of Ancelet’s Marina Saturday morning and set the bar pretty high for the remainder of the year.In spite of the absolutely horrid water conditions in both the rivers and the lake, the top four teams still put together three fish stringers in excess of 21 pounds!

The finish was so tight In fact, that there is no way the fourth place team of Joe Strahan and Colt Westbrook could have just eye-balled the three catches that beat them and not felt like their 21.44 pound bag might win it all.Steven Havard and Kory Earp had the best three fish with 22.82 pounds followed by Regan Baker and Jason Johnson with 22.48 pounds and Jake and Jeremiah Jordan with 22.18 pounds.Less than a pound and a half separated the four winning teams.

Due to the excellent turn out for the initial event of the year, the Club was able to pay two places in the side pot division as well.Corey Sattler and Joe Peddy captured first place money with a redfish with fifteen spots while Strahan and Westbrook cashed the second place check for a fish with nine spots.

Catching fish wasn’t the only way to leave the Marina a winner as the Club also handed out nine door prizes.Daley’s Hunt N Fish donated five $50 gift cards, Jorgensen Marine handed out two $100 gift certificates, Neches River Works donated a rod rack and Del Papa sent a team home with a nice beach umbrella.Del Papa also provided the refreshments at the weigh-in.

The second Tail Chaser event is scheduled for April 18^th .The side pot for this event will be the heaviest redfish.For more information simply check out their web site.

Just about the time we decided that we are going to do a better job of dealing with the wind this spring and accept the fact that it may howl every day, Mother Nature throws us yet another curve that angler persistence can’t overcome.The flooding downpour that hampered the Bassmaster Elite on Day 3 of their event was the final nail for local saltwater enthusiasts already struggling with too much fresh water.

The wind only makes things that much tougher for Sabine Lake fishermen.As of today, with the river already at flood stage one generator was running 24/7 and five flood gates were open.Due to all of the rain they received above the lake, they are currently doing all they can to maintain pool level.All of which means that “If you don’t like it now……you aren’t going to like it for a while longer!”

I have no idea how much salinity a trout requires, but I don’t think that they are going to hang around and choke to death or make a bee run to Gulf.The best case scenario for the lake fishermen would be that they would hold up on the deeper breaks on the Causeway reef and be a little easier to target as they have to eat at some point.

Some of them will undoubtedly suspend in the deeper water of the ship channel and ICW, but they are especially hard to locate when you are dealing with muddy water as well and it significantly limits your choice of lures.We recently found the redfish feeding under a huge mat of hyacinth that had washed down the river and stacked up between East and Middle Pass.

Had we not seen the mullet in the open pockets we would have never made the first cast.We also caught a few undersized trout in Black’s and they were right in the middle of the bayou and hugging the bottom.I would not be surprised if some of the bayous in the Game Reserve are holding better fish, especially reds and flounder, but only recreational fishermen can fish those waters.

Given a choice, the best temporary option may be to swap out your trout rod and tails for a pitchin’ stick and handful of craw worms and jigs and head up to Rayburn or Toledo Bend.The flooded buck brush and extra miles of shoreline with lay down flooded grass make it much easier for folks that haven’t been to either lake in a while.

Jason Delk and Hunter Lejeune had no idea where to start hunting bass last Friday after their anticipated white perch bite played out too quickly on the south end of Toledo Bend.“We just started fishing the shoreline in Clear Creek,” said Delk and Hunter missed two big bass on a Rogue right off the bat.We both tied on a frog because of all of the floating grass and we were yelling every time we got a strike the rest of the day!”

Top water explosions are exciting any time, but more especially when you catch four bass over seven pounds.“We don’t eat bass so we were putting them back, but one of the fish Hunter weighed was almost nine pounds,” stated Delk.“His Dad has caught a bunch of bass on Fork over ten pounds so he wasn’t impressed with the picture we sent him on the phone.He just wanted to know about the white perch.”

Easter weekend will produce a larger than usual crowd on both lakes, but there is a lot more fishable real estate due to the high water.Don’t overlook the original grass line as a lot of folks will be parked on top of the bass chunking at the flooded buck brush.