I was off line the entire weekend because I spent the entire weekend fishing with my two little brothers on Sabine Lake (on the border between Texas and Louisiana).
Everything about the weekend was perfect: the weather was mid 70s and sunny with just a hint of breeze. The beer was cold and plentiful. The fishing was amazing, and since it was youth weekend to open up deer season most of the fishers were out hunting and we had the lake mostly to ourselves.
My little brother (and US Army, Sergeant First Class, active duty) getting ready to launch the boat into Sabine Lake at sunrise
But best of all was getting to spend an entire weekend with just my two brothers — we rehashed a thousand old stories, all the while making a boatload of new cherished memories.
Me and my little brother fishing on Sabine Lake.
Oh, and the fishing was amazing, too.
I caught the biggest redfish of the day, a nice 27" keeper that faught as hard as any fish I've ever caught.
Sabine Lake is one of the best spots in the country for fishing big redfish:
In Texas/Louisiana, Sabine Lake and redfish might as well be synonymous.
Known along the Gulf Coast as one of the top spots for targeting big redfish, this fertile estuary once called “the forgotten bay” is gaining national attention.
We ended up catching our about 75-80 fish total — lots of Redfish, Black Drum, some Flounder, a Speckled Trout, and a bunch of Sand Trout. We all hit our daily limit on reds, and caught several others over the 20″ keeper minimum that we had to release after we hit our limit:
Our day's keeper haul before we start cleaning 'em
Me and my two brothers and our yummy fish...
My brother Randy lives near Port Arthur and fishes this lake almost every weekend, so he knew exactly how to get us onto some reds when they were running with the outgoing tide. He also was a gracious host and cleaned all the fish for us:
Randy filleting the redfish
And less than 24 hours after those fish were happily swimming in the saltwaters of Sabine Lake, they were on my plate back in Austin:
Fried redfish: it's what's for dinner...
Oh…and I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention my choice of footwear for nearly 10 hours of on-your feet fishing (since I’m trying to work some kind of sponsorship deal with Vibram), here’s a picture of me and my favorite pair of Vibram Five Fingers:
VFFs on a boat: the perfect fishing shoes
I hope everyone else had as fantastic of a weekend as I did. Now I just have to figure out what to do with a freezer full of redfish…
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Glad y’all were able to be together for the weekend and had a great time.
I see you got the corn meal action going on, don’t forget the blackening spices for those red fish.
Robbie I had a great day of fishing with you and Randy. We need to do the more than just once every 20 years…
Brothers Should spend more time together !! My DH, J. recently spent 9 days with his older brother in Houston. His brother took a week off and they virtually took apart his home office and remodeled it and added some new furniture. They had a really good time together. They hadn’t spent more than 2 days together in 23 years and that’s too long. I hope they plan to spend a week together at least once a year. We’re 100 miles from Houston where C. lives.
My older brother, and only sibling, was killed by a drunk driver in 2003 and I cannot stress enough to others the importance of spending time together whenever you get the chance !
A freezer full of red fish ?
I hate you !!