Sabine Lake locations targeted by Adam Jaynes and Robby Trahan are fairly traditional.
These trout hotspots include Coffee Ground Cove in the northeast, the point of Pleasure Island, the north and south Revetment walls on the Texas side, Lighthouse Cove, the eastern flats and reefs on the Louisiana side, the Louisiana Pocket and the beachfront to the southeast of the jetties.
These locations feature reefs and sand flats near deeper waters, but those bottom features are not in themselves the main consideration, the anglers agreed.
“Baitfish activity is also important, but slicks along with moving and jumping baitfish is by far the better,” Jaynes said.
Knowledge of how to fish these slicks is tantamount to catching trout, he said.
“Remember, slicks will drift with the wind and with the current,” Jaynes said. “It is vital to position yourself upwind and upcurrent to try and cast to where the slick first developed, not where it drifted.
“Make long casts and fish slowly until you are able to locate the fish. Sometimes there will just be one or two good fish, and at other times you will find a school under a slick that produces fish for several hours.”
But stealth is important.
“To increase your chances fish as quietly as possible — simply shutting a hatch or cooler lid too loud can completely ruin a good bite,” Jaynes said. “That’s another reason why I prefer to wade.”
When trout are feeding aggressively on mullet, Jaynes has observed baitfish bunched up together. So he works hard to find schools of baitfish that are very tight.
Jaynes doesn’t entirely count out casting topwaters under bird activity when he finds it.
“Small trout will certainly strike topwaters under birds, but I find that a larger lure such as a Super Spook or Spook Jr. will definitely get a big trout’s attention if one is nearby,” he said. “Of course, plastics are known to take big trout, but I know an angler’s chances are better at a larger trout when using topwater plugs.”
While some anglers avoid fishing on cloudless, bluebird days, Jaynes said he doesn’t let those high-pressure conditions keep him off the water.
“There’s a persistent myth out there that you can’t catch trout under blue bird skies,” Jaynes said. “I find that to be completely untrue.”
In fact, Jaynes caught a trout weighing 8 ½ pounds when working a gold/pink Super Spook under bluebird skies in late April.
Both Jaynes and Trahan will not hesitate to motor to the beaches just east of the Sabine Lake jetties under the right conditions.
Trahan said he often finds big trout in the first trough in the surf where he will wade out to cast a spectrum Spook Jr.
The guide chooses clean water between Constance Beach and the jetties, where he knows impressive speckled trout can be found.