Cool November breeze sets up an excellent topwater bite.
Story and Photography By Robert Sloan

The cool air behind a November cold front pumps fresh life into duck and deer hunters, but it’s also a wakeup call for coastal fishermen looking to tap into some of the best topwater action of the year. As water temperatures chill speckled trout are on the move, along with redfish. And one of the best lures you can use is a topwater.
Contrary to what a lot of people think winter doesn’t always set in along the Texas Gulf coast until the first of December. We’ll get cold fronts throughout October and November but they don’t have the punch that we’ll get from hard northers pushing through in December, January and February.
Early last November I had one heck of trip to Sabine Lake. Guide Jerry Norris had called and said to get over their ASAP. We left the Sabine Pass Marina and headed up to the northeast end of the lake. It was a protected shoreline from a light southeast breeze behind a cold front that had moved through two days prior to our run.
“Look at all those mullet jumping,” said Norris. “There’s a ton of ‘em in here. And the trout are running with them. Caught one weighing about 8 pounds yesterday, right up against the bank on a topwater. It’s been pretty good and it’s only going to get better for the next couple of weeks.”
We were fishing anywhere from 10 to 50 yards off the bank. The key was to stay with the mullet. I had tied on my favorite topwater lure for fishing Sabine. It’s a Top Dog with a chartreuse head and black body. At almost five inches long it’s a trout catching machine.
That’s the lure I used several years ago to catch a trout weighing just over 10 pounds in Sabine Pass. This particular lure is like a big mullet. It can be cast a long distance and makes a lot of noise with low-frequency rattles.
Norris had tied on a five inch Super Spook with a red head and white body. We were after big trout so it only made sense to tie on big lures, and we weren’t disappointed.

continue article»