Hometown News For Orange County, Texas
Hometown News For Orange County, Texas
Sorted by date Results 183 - 207 of 271
Redfish continue to provide most consistent bite. Dickie Colburn - For The Record Seldom if ever do I make the short walk from the front doors of the H.E.B. on 16th street to my truck without running into someone that wants to talk about the local fishing. I don’t know if that’s because more fishermen shop H.E.B. or simply because my grocery shopping consists of picking up only two or three items nearly every day. Either way, it is amazing how much you can learn about fishing...
Capt. Dickie Colburn For The Record The catching had been far too good to take a chance on the weatherman blowing a forecast once again for us to cancel the trip. His educated guess was calling for 20 to 25 mile per hour south winds which would preclude the option of fishing the open lake, but Jason and Delaney were determined to give it a try. Unfortunately, the weather man did in fact miss the forecast and as usual it was on the low side. By the time I eased out of East...
Captain Dickie Colburn - For The Record “This isn’t what I wanted to do,” snapped Wayne Hollier while glaring at me with an incredulous look on his face. At that moment he was huffing, puffing and struggling to get even one leg into the stocking waders. Having seen him only twice in the past thirty years, I had taken no chances and thrown a pair of large and x-large waders in the rod locker. It proved to be a good decision as even the largest pair provided a marginal fit at best. While he is now, by his own admission, appro...
Joe Kazmar - For The Record CHRISTMAS COLUMN NOTATES 50TH YEAR It’s hard to believe I’ve been writing this Christmas column for 50 years and have loved every minute of it. I hope you readers have enjoyed reading these sometimes clever and sometime humorous gifts to sports celebrities and local folks half as much as I have enjoyed creating them over the years. Usually if your name shows up with some sort of facetious present, it’s only because I like you. Some sports celebrities are not nearly that lucky. This year we will...
Capt. Dickie Colburn - For The Record Okay, Mom……how many times since throwing away the last of the Thanksgiving turkey, have you asked Santa’s number one helper what he wanted for Christmas? The answer is always that same less than helpful, “I don’t need anything.” While that answer is not altogether truthful, more especially if you have a pot of money remaining after taking care of everyone from the kids to second cousins, it is at least honest and doesn’t necessitate a...
Capt. Dickie Colburn - For The Record Okay, Mom……how many times since throwing away the last of the Thanksgiving turkey, have you asked Santa’s number one helper what he wanted for Christmas? The answer is always that same less than helpful, “I don’t need anything.” While that answer is not altogether truthful, more especially if you have a pot of money remaining after taking care of everyone from the kids to second cousins, it is at least honest and doesn’t necessitate a...
Capt. Belcher recently took advantage of Mother Nature's hospitality Capt. Dickie Colburn - For The Record The fisherman-friendly weather that Mother Nature served up this past week did not atone for the previous six months of challenging wind and rain she delivered on a daily basis, but it still enabled us to fish different areas and patterns that we have been unable to exploit for quite awhile. As a matter of fact, I enjoyed leaving the boat launch conflicted as to where I...
Nice way to spend a winter day! Captain Dickie Colburn - For The Record “Well…did y’all have a good day?” asked Gene Locke while helping tie off my bow rope back at the dock.Without hesitation, both clients nodded their heads in a positive direction and continued unloading their waders, rods and a lot of stuff they could have left at home. By the time they had dried off and loaded their gear in their truck I was cleaning the last of the eight trout and one redfish that we...
RAT-L-TRAPS COVER ALL THE BASES Over the years I have thrown everything from unweighted tails to Corkies under a popping cork when wade fishing, but until this past week I had never tied on a Rat-L-Trap when stalking big trout.Not that it worked because we never caught the first trout with one, but my two clients caught redfish until Carter Sensat finally cried, “Uncle.” I still haven’t personally caught the first fish on a Trap while wading, but only because I stayed with a Corky Fat Boy the entire time.The game changed when...
Capt. Dickie Colburn - For The Record Our confidence level was waning and I was more in tune with a small group of teal bucking a stiff southeast wind than I was with the black-chartreuse She Dog attached to the end of my line.Over the past hour we hadn’t caught the first fish and I could only see the noisy topwater between every other whitecap anyway when the jolt of a solid strike snapped the wind-blown slack out of my line. The 20-pound braid sliced through the tops of the white caps as the fish raced parallel to the s...
Dickie Colburn - For The Record Every time I find myself even remotely encouraged by decent weather conditions that increase the odds of locating and catching fish on Sabine Lake we are immediately swamped with a month’s worth of rain in a single day.The deluge that parked over southeast Texas this past weekend, while not as bad as predicted, will at least slow down the red hot bite we enjoyed the week before. Amazingly enough, due in part to huge incoming tides generated by the storm that roared across the Gulf the week b...
Water was high even before weekend downpour! Captain Dickie Colburn - For The Record Count me as one of that handful of local fishermen foolishness enough to think that we had survived the worst weather 2015 had to offer and were finally looking at closing out the year with two great months of fishing.There was every reason to entertain that thought going into this past weekend as the bite had improved all week long in spite of incoming tides that pushed water over the docks...
Captain Dickie Colburn - For The Record Prior to last Monday afternoon I was reasonably certain that over the years I had seen just about everything that could possibly go wrong at a boat ramp do just that.I have seen panic stricken girl friends and wives weep unashamedly while in the midst of jack knifing the boat trailer time and again while their soon to be ex-boyfriends or husbands cussed them from behind the bass boat console. I once saw a veteran angler back truck, trailer and boat into the lake and much to everyone’s s...
Dickie Colburn - For The Record It is rare indeed when most Plan B’s save a trip for me in the face of 20 mile per hour winds or for that matter, simply when the fish suddenly abandon a pattern that has been very good for several days. I have always scouted enough water to have a few viable back-up plans and up until this past Monday, believed that I had exploited most every possibility. It didn’t take the wind long to crank up Monday morning and the lake was white capping before local anglers had even netted their shad and...
Dickie Colburn - For The Record “Go figure,” said Jamie Diggs as he finished the last of his coffee while staring at the black water in the bayou lapping against the top of the dock.“We have had a solid week of north winds strong enough to keep us out of the open lake along with a good outgoing tide and this water still hasn’t dropped an inch!” His pre-dawn assessment was right on the money and it has not made figuring out the big trout any easier in spite of the user-friendly conditions.Unlike the water soaked spring an...
Dickie Colburn - For The Record Cleve Barrett bit his leader off just ahead of the knot on his Usual Suspect and disgustedly bounced the three-inch Swim bait off the floor of the boat.“That’s what I hate about these dang things,” he barked while already digging another one out of the package on the console. Still in the midst of his mini-tirade, he lobbed his new Swim Bait in the direction of the shad exploding out of the water and continued, “This bait has a piece of foil already sticking out of the side of the body, s...
New Not Necessarily Better Dickie Colburn - For The Record “You don’t throw your tube jig with the little piece of shrimp stuffed inside anymore?,” asked Hilton Kyle as we picked apart the flooded grass on the Louisiana shoreline with three inch swim baits and a GULP shrimp threaded on an eighth ounce jig head.The redfish bite had been slow to materialize earlier that morning and we were making due with an average flounder bite at best. “I don’t even target flounder anymore,” I replied, “so that bait is no longer a part...
Dickie Colburn - For The Record I certainly hope that the day I die someone can say, “Wow….I just saw him out on the water yesterday! ”That was pretty much my surprised response when Russell Bottley called to tell me that James Chargois had died earlier that morning. The following morning, rather than turn right in the Intracoastal and head out to the lake with clients, I took a left and ran a short distance up the river. I stopped on a point that Charg (pronounced Shag short for Chargois) showed me years ago, threw three scr...
Local Fishing - Capt. Dickie Colburn There are those that would write it off as simply a coincidence, but Trey Smith called me last week and reminded me that the tough fishing in the river and Sabine Lake was almost over.“The bite turns around every year, regardless of conditions, as soon as the OCARC tournament is in the books.” Fortunately, for the 275 fishermen that fished the event last weekend, the bite actually turned around the day before the tournament.We were ble...
The Bridge City Chamber of Commerce is pleased to announce that The Record Newspaper has been named Business of the Month for May. Janelle Sehon accepted the award, sponsored by Sabine River Ford, from Ambassador Rick Bridgers of Texas Paint and Drywall at the May Coffee hosted by Achtwoo Pool & Spa Professionals. The Record received gifts from Tiger Rock Martial Arts of Bridge City, Little Caesars Bridge City, Texas Gumbo Hut and Grill, Serendipity Chicks and Mary Kelone,...
DESPITE WEATHER BASSMASTERS A SUCCESS Despite five to seven inches of rain falling on Orange over the weekend, over 30,000 braved the weather. Had it not been for the bad weather officials predict those attending the Bassmasters festivities would have gone well over 40,000. Some great events had to be canceled. Art in the Park and its 130 booths remained closed and the Tracy Byrd concert was also canceled. The media and community had really backed this year’s Bassmasters Elite Series. I don’t believe this publication had eve...
SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TONIGHT Well, hopefully you were good all year because crunch time is about to happen when Santa Claus makes his annual visit tonight after everyone is asleep. His sleigh is chock full of presents and gifts for everyone, including these special people: CLASS 4A DIVISION II STATE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME—A Championship Trophy for the West Orange-Stark Mustangs winning the first half of Friday’s game at AT&T Stadium 25-7 and another for Gilmer winning the second half 28-0. Too bad for the ‘Stangs that it doesn’t...
WHEN THE COLD WINDS BLOW The temperatures are expected to dip and last for a few days. Hopefully Jack Frost will stay away but it’s time to pull out the jackets. Over the weekend Ms. Ginny was putting patches on “Neighbor” Cox’s longjohns. Cox first got the longjohns in 1944, WWII issue. For 70 years Ginny has mended patches on those longjohns. Today they look like Dolly Parton’s coat of many colors. She put the American flag on the back flap. I’m not exactly sure what she put on the front flap.*****Speaking of old folks,...
DICKIE COLBURN FOR THE RECORD While saltwater enthusiasts are just now moving into the most fishermen-friendly months of the year, most bass fishermen are putting the final wraps on a very good 2014 and prepping for the upcoming hunting season.I think it is safe to say, however, that this has been a year of competitive bass fishing that the team of Corey Rambo and Rusty Clark hate to see draw to a close! Rambo, of Orange, and Clark, of Sam Rayburn, have been one of those teams that you knew you had to beat to win it all at...
MISSING MY FRIEND It’s been a week now since I’ve seen my friend Jonathan Seagull. Every morning for going on a year now I’ve thrown him some vittles. He walks around proudly; head up, shoulders back and when he is eating the other birds stay away. The two pigeons that sit on the top of the building across the street just watch until Jonathan finishes. The grackles sit on the utility lines and wait also for the big boy to finish. I’m concerned about him however. I last saw him Monday of last week. Jonathanis a loner, doesn’t...
