It's a shallow bite on the Sabine

Written by

Steve Wright

It's officially the first day of spring, so you'd expect bass to be shallow in the southern U.S. In a river/bayou/marsh system like the Sabine River, the fish don't have much choice any time of year. But many of the bass here are in spawning mode, so it's definitely a shallow bite.

When asked the maximum depth of his fish catches Thursday, Chris Lane said, "A foot. Maybe two feet."

Stephen Browning was asked to estimate the deepest water a bass would be caught in during this tournament.

"Six feet will probably be the deepest," he said. "That's really pretty cool. You can eliminate a lot of baits. I'd say 75 percent of the fish caught this week will be what I call mud-dabbing.

"It's the time of year where they like to get shallow, and that's where I like them."

While many possible lure choices are eliminated with a shallow bite, that doesn't mean these anglers don't have plenty of rods on the deck, as usual.

"You just never know," Lane said. "You can pitch a bait by a log and not get a bite. Then you can throw a spinnerbait by it and catch one."