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Description:
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Trip Description: Keith Lake at Sabine Pass, TX
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Putting in at Fish Pass, South of Port Arthur, North of Sabine Pass. Fishing for tailing reds and monster flounder in the shallow back lakes north of the lake. Listed as Intermediate skill due to distances involved. Most areas are very shallow, but soft bottoms.
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Leader:
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Date/Time: Saturday April 17th, 2010
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8:30am to 3:00 pm
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How to Sign Up:
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If you want to go, contact the trip leader (or sign up at a monthly meeting) and provide: name, email address and phone number (preferably cell phone). or Register for a PACK login account and then use the Auto Enroll link above to automatically have your name added to the list below.
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How to Get There:
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Take I-10 East from Houston, exit 828 at Winnie, (this is the last decent stop before Sabine Pass for coffee, snacks, and restrooms). Hop on Hwy 73 to Port Arthur. Drive 24.5 miles to Port Arthur. It’s a little tricky here when you approach the Hwy 82 interchange.
Stay on the main highway surface, avoid exiting right, and follow the sign for Hwy 82. Travel on Hwy 82 for only two miles.
Exit to the right on Hwy 87 to Sabine Pass. Aka So. 8th or Dowling Rd. Travel South through the industrial area. Drive 3.2 miles, cross the Intracoastal Waterway bridge.
Drive 3.6 more miles, cross the small bridge at Keith Lake / Fish Pass. Take the immediate right to the cleared parking area. Park at the back. There are no facilities. But if you drive another 4.5 miles to Sabine Pass you can find what you need at the Lighthouse Deli on the left.
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MAPS / Photos of Interest:
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What to Pack/Bring:
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Important items:
- VHF Radio for communication and emergency contact
- First Aid Kit
- Lunch, Water, snacks
- Kayak Drift Sock
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REQUIRED READING:
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Recommended guidelines for participates:
- Make sure trip leader or an officer has your emergency contact
- Notify the trip leader if you have any potential concerns
- If inexperienced, then buddy up. Make sure the trip leader knows your experience level
- Communicate with the trip leader, if you are unsure of your skill level required
- Member dues are current
- Guests are invited to particpate
- Have performed deep water entries
- Cary a first aid kit
- Have a life jacket
- Have a VHF radio
- Inform the trip leader of your float plan if planning to fish alone or longer then the designated times.
- Sign in and sign out at the launch site. Inform the trip leader if you will be launching in a different place.
Recommended for Trip Leaders:
- Insures proper authorizations
- Secure sites
- Prepare emergency preparedness plan
- Keep abreast of weather conditions that might effect the trip
- Point out any potential area hazards
- Maintain a head count
- Have available a first aid kit
- Have a VHF radio
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Expenses/Fees:
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None.
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Fishing Options:
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Area North of Keith Lake, accessible by a narrow canal that borders the lake. A two-mile paddle. From there you can branch out in three different directions. Fish the shorelines as well as diving terns over redfish.
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Guest Participants:
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(We prefer for you to create a login account on this website so that you can have your name added to the auto register list below. If you don't have a registered login account on this website we can list your name here; please contact the trip leader to request your name to manually added. If you have a login account then use the enroll feature at the top of this page to become part of the auto enroll list below)
Trip Report:
Chef Greg, Geoffrey “Bassssport” Morales, Ironman Stan, Steve McCann and I ventured out to Keith Lake by the way of Fish Pass at about 9 am. It was a leisurely paddle to the back lakes, north of Keith Lake. One of the power boat fisherman anchored at the rocks near the mouth of Fish Pass was pulling in a flounder that looked shy of 14”. We passed two kayak fisherman in a tandem near the lake shoreline. The winds were just a slight breeze out of the SE, water in the lake looked clear and a little green. It was clearly high tide, the water was easily flooding the marsh grass banks.
Other than a family crabbing near the entrance to the back lake we had the whole area to ourselves. Hmmm, maybe that meant something. We set off in five different directions. Once I checked in with Stan, he reported catching an undersized red on a fly. Geoffrey and Greg reported catching rat reds. Steve did a nice job of boating a rat red on a small chartreuse soft plastic. I paddled over a nice slot red in a channel that connected two lakes. Two reds were tailing in a cove in the second lake but went down before I could get a decent cast in. I did not see any other pods of cruising hungry redfish to cast to, so I resorted to blind casting the shorelines.
I managed to pick up a few undersized flounder on bone-colored gulp shrimp. There were no terns diving for bait stirred up by redfish grubbing on the bottom. Hmmm, that should have been my second indication of slim pickings. Mullet of all sizes were everywhere you turned. I did not see any shrimp trying to escape predators or witness crashes against the grass where a redfish had cornered its lunch. I did see a few quarter-sized crabs darting about. Just the right size for anything that eats in brackish waters.
The bottom line, some fish were there, maybe not enough to encounter our lures, or not hungry for our presentations. An outgoing tide pulling shrimp and small crabs out of the marsh may turn on the bite. The tide seems to run about 90 minutes after the peak at Mesquite Point in Sabine Lake. The SE winds freshened up some when it came time to cross a short section of the lake back to the Fish Pass. It created a one-foot chop that’s all.
A cold one and some chips in the breezy shade at the Lighthouse Deli in Sabine Pass, allowed us to regroup and talk about other things besides empty stringers. A good day with friends for sure!
Chef Greg, Geoffrey “Bassssport” Morales, Ironman Stan, Steve McCann and I ventured out to Keith Lake by the way of Fish Pass at about 9 am. It was a leisurely paddle to the back lakes, north of Keith Lake. One of the power boat fisherman anchored at the rocks near the mouth of Fish Pass was pulling in a flounder that looked shy of 14”. We passed two kayak fisherman in a tandem near the lake shoreline. The winds were just a slight breeze out of the SE, water in the lake looked clear and a little green. It was clearly high tide, the water was easily flooding the marsh grass banks.
Other than a family crabbing near the entrance to the back lake we had the whole area to ourselves. Hmmm, maybe that meant something. We set off in five different directions. Once I checked in with Stan, he reported catching an undersized red on a fly. Geoffrey and Greg reported catching rat reds. Steve did a nice job of boating a rat red on a small chartreuse soft plastic. I paddled over a nice slot red in a channel that connected two lakes. Two reds were tailing in a cove in the second lake but went down before I could get a decent cast in. I did not see any other pods of cruising hungry redfish to cast to, so I resorted to blind casting the shorelines.
I managed to pick up a few undersized flounder on bone-colored gulp shrimp. There were no terns diving for bait stirred up by redfish grubbing on the bottom. Hmmm, that should have been my second indication of slim pickings. Mullet of all sizes were everywhere you turned. I did not see any shrimp trying to escape predators or witness crashes against the grass where a redfish had cornered its lunch. I did see a few quarter-sized crabs darting about. Just the right size for anything that eats in brackish waters.
The bottom line, some fish were there, maybe not enough to encounter our lures, or not hungry for our presentations. An outgoing tide pulling shrimp and small crabs out of the marsh may turn on the bite. The tide seems to run about 90 minutes after the peak at Mesquite Point in Sabine Lake. The SE winds freshened up some when it came time to cross a short section of the lake back to the Fish Pass. It created a one-foot chop that’s all.
A cold one and some chips in the breezy shade at the Lighthouse Deli in Sabine Pass, allowed us to regroup and talk about other things besides empty stringers. A good day with friends for sure!
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