I think I am going to hit the Sabine River North of Toledo Bend starting about mid January.

I'll make sure to take some 1/4 oz road runners with me, from what I hear those work the best...anybody got any other pointers on what they slaughter them with at this time of the year. Another guy told me to take a road runner jig head in chartreuse or red put a 3 inch electric chicken colored curl tail minnow on it would work better?

February-April is generally the time, but it varies a lot based on water temp. Here in north Texas it starts in late February and usually peaks in late March/early April.

Sandies will show up in the Sabine as early as Christmas some years. My best experiences have come between mid-Feb to mid-March though.

As for baits, I never use roadrunners anymore. I use 1/4oz round head jig heads with 3" curl tail grub bodies. My go-to is a fluorescent red head with a chartreuse/glitter body. Second is a chartreuse head with white body. I will also use a dark green/yellow or black w/ chart tail on a chartreuse head mid day when the sun is bright, sometimes it works better, sometimes not. So yeah, at any given time I could see just about any color working.

I've seen people use all kinds of baits, including crawfish. Small crank baits are fairly popular too. But if they are biting, I can catch them on cheap jigs. I started out using road runners in the Sabine, but the last 3-4yrs I haven't tied a single one on, and have caught as many fish as ever.

Thanks. Hear there are a lot of sticks and stumps in there to take it easy since I have a bass boat I can get in 2-3 feet of water though. I just ordered some weed less jig heads to avoid hang ups as much.

It depends on the river level as to what hazards you'll face more. If it's low there are a lot of stumps. When it's high there will be entire trees floating down the river. And as the river is dropping after a good flooding you can have trees calving into the water too. You have to be aware of your surroundings for sure, and even then you never really know what is under the surface.

I've yet to tear up anything serious, but did go swimming this past Feb when the TM hung up on a submerged laydown. 49 degree water in 45 degree weather makes for a cold ride back to camp.

Nice. I talked to the lady at riverridgetx.com she said March 1st to the 15th is usually the best time depending on weather conditions even this year when water was high they were still pulling out 50-100 fish a day.

I hear they are "running"

Has anyone ever had any luck in the Colorado river north of Buchanan?

I start scouting early February...

Lol!

Very popular destination when there is enough water in the river for the fish to make a run.

Great place!

I have fished the sand bass run since the 1960's. Mostly in and around Whitney. The small males will go up stream as early as January. With the larger ones coming March through April. The best fun is where major rivers-creeks intersect the lake like where the Nolan intersects the Brazos. Huge schools will hold at these river - river intersections. Feb through May. There are always schools that will hold on the deep water bends in the Brazos, usually March to May. These deep river binds are the easiest fish to catch as the sand bass are not as spooky as in shallow water. --- The best baits are to sane some skip jacks, one inch minnows that shine like a mirror, and hook them behind a 1/8 jig. Fish extremely slow, and most of the time the sand bass will just suck the bait in, small tap. This technique was explained to me as I said before, in the 1960. Also what we used to call tight lining, now called dead sticking works well when the water is cold. Cold water sluggish fish best of luck.