Left Katy at about 0900 and traveled up to my old stomping grounds.  I wanted to see how the conditions were before the club outing.

Fishing the Sabine River, the generation canal @ Toledo Bend, October 2018

I had a few surprises, but was still able to catch fish.

Arrived at camp, set up, downloaded and rigged the fly rods.

Was on the river by 1500.

Fished until 1830.

Caught 11 LMB, all on the seam of fast verses slow water.

Kept hearing the “krarumph” of explosions in the distance.  Too far away from Fort Polk, so had no idea as to what I was hearing.

Back to camp by 1900 to cook dinner and relax.

Up by TDE, and at the boat launch at 0500.

On the water at 0530 with the 360° light going as I made my way upstream to the rocks.

Still dark when the first hit came.  Missed it and kept casting.

0600 the siren went off, alerting those of us (just me) downstream that the generator were about to start. I had been watching the generation schedule for weeks before deciding to make this trip.  SRA Operation Guide.  I didn’t expect the generator to run until later afternoon.

Back to the boat launch to wait out the rising water, in the dark.

I watched the sun, and the river, rise as I had breakfast and coffee.

By about 0730 the current had calmed enough to fish, so I went back out into the river.

Size 6 bendback landed the first fish of day 2, a freshwater drum.  This thing pulled hard, and I had to make my way to the shoreline as I fought it.

A nice LMB came to hand next, to the same fly.  I had to take it to shore to get a good photo.

6 fish later I decided that I was tired of fighting current and decided to try the “cold-water” side of the river basin.  I got there to find that the normally gin clear water was flowing mud.  I took a few pictures of the boat launch at “pool 2” and went back to camp.

On the way back to camp I found out what was going on with the explosions I heard earlier.  Below the bottom release dam, there was some major rock work being done, with heavy equipment in place moving dirt and rocks into place where the floods had moved them earlier in the year, and last year.  All of that activity is what muddied up the water where we normally would have fished as a fall-back from the generation canal.  I didn’t get a good picture of the area because you aren’t allowed to stop on the overpass.

For our outing next week, we have 3 options, so we can fish, no matter what the river is doing.

1.  The generation canal, the preferred option as it seems to produce the most, and largest, fish.
2. “Cold-water”  as it is usually clean and clear.  Easy to move around in, even between the pools.
3. Toledo Bend, the lake.  Not a high percentage of fish this time of year, but it can still produce sometimes.  Easy paddling, and casting practice.

 

Sabine River, 2018-10-17 from Don C Puckett on Vimeo.