The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

For the Record

Capt. Dickie Colburn

The first of two big summer fishing events in Orange is now on the books with the second scheduled for Thursday night.While she made it difficult at times for the fishermen, Mother Nature did little more than cool things off at the weigh-in for the 30^th annual OCARC fishing tournament Saturday afternoon.

As predicted, every category was not only filled, but also well represented. Easily the fish of the day was Taylor Guidry’s 6.81 pound bass!

Guidry said that he caught his winning fish at Claiborne Park.Better known for its brief rainbow trout stocking each year, the tiny lake is apparently home to some pretty good bass as well.

Not surprisingly, I saw no other bass that could touch that fish, but there were a lot of very solid bass weighed in that were caught fishing the river and local bayous. Bass brought in from other areas and released in the Sabine following two big tournaments combined with the glut of fresh water over the past two years have really turned around the bass fishing.

While the trout fishing has continued to improve over the past two weeks, catching a trout over five pounds has been a challenge.Even at that, Paul Sanders managed to cash the first place check in that category with a respectable 3.84 pound fish. Logan Harrison nudged Ricky Adams by one hundredth of an ounce to earn the $500 first place check in the redfish category.

Catching redfish was not the main problem for many of the anglers that chose to target that category.The biggest problem was catching a redfish that wasn’t just a little too long.Applying the 27” Louisiana limit made it just that much tougher.Most of the schooling fish hustling pods of shad in the open lake have been in the 28 to 32 inch range.

Robbie Rider didn’t catch the largest red, but he did manage to catch the right one.His winning red had nine spots earning him the $500 check for the top Appaloosa red.

Ricky Adams also finished less than two tenths of an ounce short in the flounder division as Robert Gobert edged his fish with a very nice 3. 57 pound flatfish. While Gobert’s fish proved to be large enough to earn him $500, I was a little surprised that we didn’t see an even larger flounder.This has been an excellent year for flounder and that bite is far from over!

The remaining saltwater division winners were as follows: croaker- Robert Harrison .92 ounces and black drum-Robert Gobert 11.54 ounces. The remaining freshwater winners were white perch-Willie Patin 1.11 pounds, catfish-Alex Jackson 2.92 pounds, grinnel- Carolyn Pinson 6.05 pounds and sunfish-Jaisa Denby .36 pounds.

Evelyn Cape won the coveted “Don Hubbard Mudcat” award with a lovely 1.78 pound specimen.

While a substantial amount of money and trophies were taken home by the winners, the biggest winners were the Center and Orange County. Director John Thomas issued an appreciative “Thank you” to the S.A.L.T. weigh-in team as well as all of the folks that helped make this year’s event another huge success!

Thursday night, Aug. 10^th , will mark another big fishing related event in the County.The Orange County CCA Chapter looks to welcome a sellout crowd to their annual CCA Banquet.The steak supper and auctions start at 6:00 p.m. at the Orange Convention and Expo Center located on Hwy. 1442.

The CCA is the leading voice in recreational fishing making this ticket a winning investment in the future of the sport for saltwater anglers and all conservationists.The food is great, the items up for bid are first class and it is always a fun filled evening.A call to Lou Moore at 409-988-4845 just might get you a last minute ticket.They usually cook up an extra steak or two!

If you run into Mark Williams, be sure to congratulate him on the forty-eight pound redfish he caught while fishing in Keith Lake last Thursday.The fish hit a chrome Rat-L-Trap in Fish pass in eight feet of water.

Because it wouldn’t fit in the rear livewell in his Skeeter bass boat he immediately loaded up and headed to town to have it weighed.Unfortunately, upon arriving at the meat market, a youngster waiting in line informed him that his red had turned into a black drum on the short trip!

His defense was, “Hey…I’m a bass fisherman.”My only question was why he shared that story with anyone else.” I hope he didn’t try to fry it.