Top 3 spots to fish within 30 miles of Sulphur, La
 

I'm looking at taking my wife and two kids on the water a few times for the next few weekends to breakin my new to me boat. It's a late 80's skeeter F-80 with a 60hp merc. I went and tested it out last saturday at Parkside marina just to take a ride and made it about 5 miles and came back. So just really getting in fishing in my own boat finally and would like to show my family the best of SWLA. I have fished only a few areas around here and this is my 1st post.

Niblets, Parkside, bagdad rd., sam houston are some of the launches I'm familiar with. I've heard of a few places but have never fished any like burnout bridge, west fork, etc... just wanting to go to some familiar spots. Again I've always fished with someone and just relied on where we were going from them.

Any help will be appreciated and thanks for looking,
Rob

Saltwater or fresh???

Fresh sorry, will try salt more towards mayish ;)

I believe you pretty much named them all in you post.

If you launch at parkside... take a right out of the creek where it meets the river (left takes you to the bridge). Pass up the Sam houston (NO wake zone) park area and there is some clear water fishing there. from there the river runs a ways then hooks hard left with a canal being on you left. The areas past this are usually good. I like to fish anywhere past Sam Houston.

went out...
 

Well we went and launched at Sam Houston and took a ride to holbrook. Man there was some crazy obstructions lol. one there was a root ball right in the middle! I fished for about 15 min in a little cut and we caught one bass that was about 16'' and was too busy rigging up perch lines for my lil ones and wife to see if there was any more. Caught it on a small brush hog with a split shot about 12'' above the bait. It was the fastest thing I could rig up while being on the river trolling to stay in one spot while riding the waves of 150's and 200hp+ rigs flying by was a full time job ontop of being bait man and catch and release guy, but it was nice to get out and show them the beauty of the water way. Boat did okay and glad we spent the time together. Smiles all the way there and back. Managed to GPS the ole rig at 35.8 mph haha. Oh and I rescued someones high dollar bass boat from drifting too far from sam houston, if your on here, you're welcome lol. Might try some other spots next weekend... How'd did you do?

Ok. Welcome to my pride and joy.


Launch at parkside fishing is just as good if you hang a left i Promise, just got to know what your doing ;)

Water is about the same right now wether your hang a left or right. Once you get to south side of westfork where it meets the main river it is muddy as heck right now.

Its not the best fishing right now, come june july and august the south end/mid westfork is on fire with schooling fish.. I won't even run north of the park when that time comes

My dad had one of those f80 skeeters back in the day....got any pictures of it?

I do. If I could log on at work like I could two weeks ago it would be no problem. I'm in the gym on my phone but will try to get it uploaded before I crash. Glad to see sone responses and will try again this weekend. May try some different baits and speeds/ depths...

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...oes/photou.jpg


Picked it up for nothing, got it running like a top in about 45 min and man it's tough! Can't say enough about it I plan on sprucing it up this fall and winter, but for now it'll be on the water as often as possible. clocked it on 35.8 on my iphone 4 loaded down with full capacity ;) Hope to put some bigger fish in the live wells soon. daddy's tired of talapia from wal-mart ;(http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h2...Hoes/photo.jpg

might give West fork a try, been wanting to fish there... to the North. I've heard of some decent fish pulled from watermellon bay although I've never fished it and my lil ones love passing over the water around the wal-mart there. So either this Saturday or the next I'll hit up from the Perkins Ferry area to the salt water barrier, then West fork to wal-mart area. Either way 1st, then maybe anthony Ferry way next... Hopefully by then the lake will die down some. I still remember taking some good fish in my buddies old 14 footer with a 25 just wishing we could go a little faster and handle the waves a little better. So now I can, If I can just remember where to go lol. Hopefully I recognize some areas by sight and we get on some...

North is what has been working for me "right now"... topwater plugs have been the ticket early morning. everyone has their own preference. I work that area bc its convenient for me launching outta Perkins Ferry launch and I haven't had any reasons to stray. But what fool says is true. If the water clears enough I like to launch out or white oak park. I have had some of my best stringers come outta that area.

Anyone fish Sabine lately ???

Thanks,
Hydro

i was over there last saturday afternoon, burned-out bridge area.. fished for about 3 hours, had 20 small bass.. all but 2 on an xcalibur zell pop - bone/chart. the other 2 ate a black/chart spro crankbait.

Jedi, when are yall going to expand your selection on crankbaits and hardbaits??? Yall carry Spro, norman, and xcalibur mostly?

we carry bandit, bomber, rapala, spro, norman, strike king, mann's, bagley, river2sea, xcalibur, mirro-lure, heddon, sebile ... what were ya lookin for? :confused:

man the last time i was there was a while back... must have not seen em. was lookin for some deep divers and square bills... yall had a vast assortment of bandits, normans, and spro. dont get me wrong. yall got a good selection. I will keep coming back buddy.

it's all good.. we keep series 5 strike kings and dd22's for your deep crankin needs..and we just got 8 colors of the new bandit square bills in. the strike king square bills have been on backorder for more than a month. we're adding more baits all the time.. more new stuff comin in today.. zoom jr. swimmin flukes! they look perfect for the river!;)

love dem swim flukes... stop tempting me to spend more money;)

lol but that's my job! :rotfl:

Met you there, I was the guy with the three yr old ;)

yeah man, i remember.. was good to meet ya! if you're still lookin for some new spots to fish, swing on by the shop when ya get time and i'll pull up the map and see if we cant find ya some new water to fish. i'm always more than happy to help put folks on fish. :)

Thanks for the info, its been a while since I have been on the Sabine but its on my hit list...

Hydro

I know this counts for nothing other than old war stories lol but around ten years ago I fished the Sabine river south of I-10 and la side with nothing but a crappy wal-mart 2-5' white crankbait with black top and pink belly. And a husky jerk bait. Filled the boat with 2-3lb bass that were all over some shad that were running in and out of a pretty big but shallow marsh. Awesome weekend and if I hear of them running like that again I may have to catch the flu at work ;)

Hey Rob yall gonna be on the river this sunday? This is Nate btw! We got two boats goin so far gonna have a friendly lil tourney!

Haha, small world ;D I'm probably going to head Saturday unless the wife throws me a change up... Evening or morning not sure... Which area, not sure either lol I'm mainly just trying to show them a good time. My number is the same and if y'all are out there give me a shout. Good luck. Itching for some saltier water soon though ;)

looks like ill be out there saturday and sunday! ill be somewhere on the west fork!

I'll be there. Launching at either parkside or bagdad rd... Thinking morning depending on reports this afternoon. Wherehave you heard there's action?

anywhere north of samhouston really... plans have changed tho... laccasine pool tomorrow morning... and river sunday morning

Well best of luck man, have fun.

Well had some nice time boat riding time with the fam. Left some nice, clear water near parkside to find myself in a cove near the watermelon bay area. The bass there were small and very white, with hardly any markings ;( Caught on white crankbait after bait fish were being chased. Threw some black creature baits with no luck from there back up to parkside... Water seemed high. When we hit the ship channel I caught some air. Fun for me and the kids, wife didn't find it too fun lmao. Don't know where next weekend will take us but it can only get better from here...

I passed over the Calcasieu river on Hwy 171 today and the water very, very muddy.

glad u and the family had a good time and caught some.. we went to sabine and caught about 25, most were small. caught almost all of them on a yozuri hardcore crankbait (shad color) i guess it was a crankbait kinda weekend! lost one about 3lbs when he jumped and shook his head, my popper came flyin out his mouth! :shaking:

Sweet. Yeah playing baitman all day is rewarding but daddys got to get on some fish soon haha. I remember the days of my thumbs being tore up just as they would heal from spring to fall. Thinking of going empty boat next time.

I always hear about these events AFTER the fact... We "used" to catch that water running out of the marsh below Houma back in the day and nail them, but its been some time since I have had a trip like that...

Thinking of braving the large lake in the am... Anyone got any advice?

If you are there early.... give topwater baits a try. It is a blast to watch the trout slam a topwater bait. Don't get too excited and "set the hook" too fast..... give the fish a second and IMO.... you will get more hookups.

Tried it, without luck. Caught on live croaker hooked through the back... See my thread for pics... Thanks for the tip. I'll try anything out there. Hopefully the winds stay calm on the weekends haha ;)