FLOODING CHANGES THE GAME AGAIN

“Oh, there was no doubt I was tired of pulling wet sheetrock off the wall,” said Joe Deshotel.So it came to pass that I had to move my boat to make room to load the trash on my utility trailer and I never looked back.” By the time his wife, Michelle, called to see where the heck he had gone he was already past Newton.“I told her I was running up to the camp to get my compressor and nail gun, but she was standing by the compressor when she called,” said Joe.So much for that lie! “She just laughed and said she needed a break too and was not going to even look at the house until I got back.”That kind of patience has not been exhibited by the majority of folks forced to redo only two years after Harvey.

The good news for fishermen that suffered no water damage or have a wife with Michelle’s disposition, is that Joe just hammered bass up to six pounds for two days.“I hated to come back for obvious reasons, but I think the Good Lord decided I needed a little pick-me up.” Deshotel and one of his neighbors at the lake found the bass holding in small patches of scattered grass in 12 to 15 feet of water just south of Toro.“Devin actually found them the day before I got there fishing a Carolina rigged brush hog, but we caught fish almost non-stop drop shotting a pearl Fluke.” “I think we hung a fish or two larger than Devin’s six-pounder, but they both pulled off before we could see them,” added Deshotel.

“I have always fished my drop shot on 10-pound fluorocarbon, but Devin made a believer out of me fishing with 10 pound braid and a short mono leader.” Joe also said that the school bass worked around them all morning both days, but they never gave them a shot.“I don’t know how large they were, but we saw two different groups keep most of the bass they caught.” Eddie Hudson also called with yet another good report from the south end of Toledo Bend.He recently finished upgrading a new lake house and if he isn’t working in New Orleans he is at the lake.He has been able to spend a lot more time just looking and fishing techniques that he never fished and it has paid off big time.

He, too, has fallen in love with the drop shot and it has been good to him.He said they found their bass a little shallower this past week, 12 to 15 feet and they, too, ran into some very solid school bass.“We never seemed to be right where they would come up next, but they worked a long time and we caught several fish in the two to three pound class.

Hudson spent most of his time fishing the Texas side directly across from Toro so it could be that section of the lake is just hot right now.He also said that in spite of all of the rain the lake level changed very little.

After two weeks of modest improvement, Sabine Lake is once again a challenge for trout fishing following the latest glut of fresh water headed to the Gulf.Because there was no tidal surge the clarity didn’t take a big hit, but the salinity did! J.W. Perry said they had been catching their limits of redfish every day prior to Imelda while releasing fifteen to twenty undersized trout each morning.“The small trout were just crushing a bone colored Chug Bug and a Vudu shrimp under a cork,” said Perry.“We are still catching redfish, but we haven’t caught a single trout the past three days!” The redfish have not been feeding on the surface in the open lake like they were, but folks working the shallow flats and shoreline with everything from Swim Baits to Spooks are still catching solid slot fish.The four inch Usual Suspect in morning glory/chartreuse and Space Guppy have been especially good.