SUBTLE SIGNS
Look for subtle signs. A small mud boil may mean a lone redfish on the prowl; a ripple in the water can lead to a large school of aggressively feeding reds. Think small in early fall to find big numbers of redfish.

On windy days, the buoys along the Intracoastal Canal from Lighthouse Cove all the way to the Hackberry cutoff are prime for red action. Thousands of marker buoys and barnacle-encrusted channel marker poles stud the Intracoastal Canal, and each marks a good spot for targeting reds at this time of year. Like oil and gas platforms offshore, each creates its own mini-ecosystem -- one of a magnitude obviously far smaller than a rig's, but still capable of drawing in fish.

The first thing you need to do is to check if the poles have many barnacles on them. Those spots are likely to draw lots of baitfish and crustaceans on which reds dine.

CHANNEL SURFING
In addition, channel markers near shell-covered shorelines are marvelous places to fish. The markers typically indicate the point at which channel and shallows meet, so setting up between the shell along the shore and the marker puts an angler in an advantageous position.

Throw one line in the shallows and another in the deeper water, and you'll have a good chance to score on redfish. Live baits like mud minnows or finger mullet work well in the spring, but so do crankbaits like Rat-L-Traps or even freshwater plugs like the Bomber 9A and the Fat Free Shad.

If you launch in the Vinton Drainage Ditch -- a popular area for locals -- or in Hackberry at the Intracoastal Canal, a convenient spot to fish is the island in the middle of the Sabine River in front of the port of Orange. This island has a lot of variation in depth and all kinds of dropoffs and flats around it, and can hold huge redfish in the summer -- the kind you usually catch at the jetties or on offshore trips. Live baiters would do well to fish with mullet about 6 inches in length on the bottom in the deep water and also cast along the edge of the shoreline on the east side. Another surprisingly good live-bait method is to use a finger mullet under a popping cork with the bait rigged about 3 feet deep. Pop it frequently, and be ready for it to submerge quickly if the reds are around.

Artificial enthusiasts should use crankbaits of the diving variety or Rat-L-Traps trolled slowly around the island's deeper points. If that doesn't do the job, switch over to a glow/ chartreuse Cocahoe Minnow rigged on a 1/4-ounce jighead and pitched around the dropoffs. On plastics, you'll probably catch a fair number of sand trout, as this island is known for harboring them, but if you can get past them, monster reds are to be found.

Sabine Lake is a unique system, one that offers many different kinds of fishing from the schooling reds of the lake itself to its jetty system, vast marshes and the virtually untapped action in the Sabine River. Few are the places that can boast that kind of variety, or such impressive numbers of redfish -- and that's the heart of Sabine's status as a special place for both first-time anglers and veterans.