The key to catching fish in the passes and jetties lies in being there on moving tides. But just being there on an outgoing or incoming tide doesn’t guarantee fish by any means. A good example of what I’m talking about is the water at Sabine Pass and the jetties on the Texas/Louisiana border -- a stretch of several miles that can be lit up with reds and trout one hour and as dull as a presidential debate the next.

On moving tides, the currents push all sorts of baitfish, crabs and shrimp through the passes and jetties. That’s why those areas attract so many game fish like reds and trout.

Having fished the Sabine area for 18 years, I can tell you for sure that the color of the water there has nothing to do with the feeding activity of trout and reds. Plus, some spots are red-hot on an outgoing tide but seemingly devoid of a living critter on an incoming tide.

Some of the most popular areas to fish along the Sabine jetties are the boat cuts, about halfway out of each jetty. What makes these two areas so good? The currents moving through them on any type of tide, which on any given day will be holding big numbers of shad, shrimp and mullet.

If you’re ever out at the Sabine jetties, you can easily recognize Beaumont angler Harry Clark: He’s the one wearing a white pith helmet and fishing in a Boston Whaler. Being in his mid-80s, he’s put in quite a bit of time along the rocks at Sabine. He noted that those dead-set on catching big reds need to fish the boat cut on the east Sabine jetty.

“My favorite place to catch big reds is on an outgoing tide on the Louisiana side of the east jetty boat cut,” he said. “I’ll fish two to four rods rigged up with fresh chunks of mullet on bottom. On most days I can reel in whatever bites, and it’s usually a big red weighing anywhere from 5 to 25 pounds. But every once in a while I’ll set the hook on something that heads south and never looks back.”

The Sabine area is unique in that it’s connected to a bay running into a pass connected to the jetties that flow into the Gulf. That’s about the best combination you can have for attracting reds and trout.

One of the best areas to fish in Sabine Pass is Lighthouse Cove, which is across the ship channel from the boat ramps just east of the four-way stop in the town of Sabine. Fairly large, very shallow, and loaded with oyster reefs, it’s one of my favorite areas both for fishing topwater plugs, and for fly-fishing with big poppers.

The water from the pass comes up from 20 feet to 2 feet in an instant. Trout and reds -- big ones -- will move up out of the deep water in the pass to the flats in the cove. It can provide some outstanding topwater fishing for reds and trout in the 5- to 10-pound range. My best trout from that area weighed right at 10 pounds; she ate a chartreuse-and-black Top Dog worked in about 2 feet of water.