I have found this site to be very reliable for the Carthage area Sabine fishing.

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?08022040

As mentioned the river is up to about 18 ft and flow of 5680 cfs at Beckville north of Carthage....too much water to catch much of anything right now. I wouldn't even bother with it until it falls back down 6 or 7 feet.

Jane told me her low water ramp is usable up to 17' on the Beckville gauge. Right now the gauge shows to be barely below that point. That will for sure have the River humping pretty good. Our trip out there for this weekend has been planned for months, so I'm heading down there tomorrow morning either way and will be there until Sunday.

I plan to head back into one of the feeder creeks to get out of the river current and find some cleaner water to fish. Hopefully the water will drop a bit while we're there, but I have no illusions that it will drop back down and concentrate the fish to make it epic for everyone. I've fished it on higher water like this before, and good fishing is still possible to find, you just have to work a bit harder to find them in any concentration.

But yes, these conditions would not be kayak-friendly by a long shot. More rain creeping into the forecast later this weekend too. I don't think this year will be a wash-out like last year was, but I don't anticipate any 7-9' water levels until after the run is over either.

Just giving this post a bump in case anyone has new info on the Sabine. I have caught fair stringers two times this past month from the sand bar at River Ridge. I'd reall like to go tomorrow since my son is in from out of town.

Here's how I put the grandkids to work on theit last visit.

Water is still up.16ft and falling now. Going to be tough fishing for a while.

Great picture of the kids and those terrific white bass on the Sabine. The flows are still too high for me at 5680 cfs. Need a few more days of stable weather.

I fished Tuesday thru Thursday this past week throughout the rise and all I can say is WOW! We had a blast. Caught 7 limits on Wednesday and 8 limits on Thursday, Tuesday we fished the rain and while we didn't limit out, we did very well. All told we laid hands on 465 fish from Tuesday through Thursday. One of my best trips ever.

Great pics.

texcajun, looks like an awesome trip. Did you launch at River Ridge? Was it pretty fast water there?

Skilletshot,

It is at 16 now.

Sabine river fishing is a no brainer. The higher the river the better the fishing if you know what to look for. Go out and learn the river on your own. Great to take the kids out on and teach them to fish!

The river rose 5-7' while we were there. Didn't matter if you know where to look. Yes we stayed and launched from River Ridge and could've used the high or low water launch. We found fish everywhere, color lines, in the trees, swirling eddies. Took a little work to find them, but once we did, quick limits usually ensued.
I've fished that river for 10 years and I learn something every time I go. I know it has the ability to humble anyone, but this year I even helped a few newcomers find and limit out on 'em. Had a great time!

A quick rundown of our trip this weekend.

I arrived first (of our group) on Thursday about 1pm and went out scouting the river. I used the low water ramp, and though a bit iffy, that was rather uneventful. After searching around for a couple of hours I had found about 3 different spots I was confident would be a good place to start on Friday morning once a couple more guys in our group had arrived.

Friday, we hit the river at about 8am, later than I wanted but the guys who arrived the night before came dragging in around 1am so I let them get a couple more hours of sleep. I showed them one spot I had located, and headed to another by myself. I had a limit by 10am, and they were well on their way to a 2 man limit at noon when I went to pick up my fishing partner at the ramp who had just arrived. By about 4pm we had the second limit in my boat, and were all back at camp cleaning fish.

We hit the river Sat morning having added another boat to our group, a late arrival Friday night. Fishing in the spots we had located was a bit tougher Saturday, but both mine, and the second boat both caught limits, with the third boat having a tough time getting the hang of things but still managing a respectable 30-40 fish for the day.

At camp Saturday evening, I talked with a fella from another group who had two boys with him, and they were having a tough time figuring things out. Since we were at our 2 day bag limits (the most we could legally travel with) I told him where to find us Sunday morning. We arrived on our spot Sunday AM shortly after daylight and the bite was a good bit slower, I think due to the falling water. But we were still catching a few. The fella and his boy, the second decided to sleep in, arrived about 8am, and we tried to help them get on some fish. They caught a few and were getting the hang of it by the time we left at 10:30. It was a blast watching his boy reeling in the fish that had been so elusive only a day before.

All in all, we had a great time, as we always do, caught decent amount of very nice fish. Our largest fish measured 18.5".

I've been going to the Sabine, staying at River Ridge, for about 10yrs now. While the water conditions are always different, this trip was probably the most I've been out of my comfort zone so far, not counting the year the Beckville gauge was reading 28' and had the fish so scattered we were heroes the day we came in with a dozen. I had my concerns as to how the fishing would be this year, but ended up adapting pretty well, I felt, to the conditions in the short amount of time we had there. We might have done better if we had searched around more. We played it safe, sat on the spots we knew and ground out the numbers each day instead of burning gas running all over the river hunting for something better than what we knew we had. I learn something new on just about every trip, and definitely did this trip. I will add that to the Sabine River file, and am already looking forward to next year's trip.

Ultimately, it was a great, much needed, trip.

I'll be heading out there this weekend. Any tips on whether to go towards or away from the lake from river ridge?

Water conditions will no doubt be much different this weekend compared to last. But either way, I fish almost exclusively down river from River Ridge. Lots of people fish upriver too though.

Always go up stream on a river. The reason being is in case you break down, you can come back down with the current. Just a rule of thumb that I practice!