Wait for that Cold Front to Bring Good Kayaking and Fishing !

By Richard Bothel     

Bring in a cold front with a 30 degree drop in overnight temperature with north winds 10+ miles an hour. Add low tide conditions below neap levels. You would probably never think of a great day of kayaking and fishing, but that's what a cold snap brought this December—a great day to kayak and fish the Blue Elbow Swamp in Southeast Texas.

The place was the lower end of the Blue Elbow Swamp just off the Sabine River a few miles up from the Gulf Coast of Texas. This area has a moderate climate most of the year. Plummeting temperatures do occur, but are inconsistent throughout the winter.

A temperature record of 80 degrees was set in Beaumont, Texas to the east, two days earlier. Now, the temperature was nose-diving to almost a record low of 30 degrees. But the Southeast Texas Kayak and Canoe Group had set this weekend for a paddle. There were 15 paddlers determined not to let the temperature stop them from a day on the water.

Southeast Texas is an area of contrasts. You can see urban Orange Texas and directly to the east you can find wilderness area off the Sabine River. The Blue Elbow Swamp and Tony Houseman State Park and Wildlife Management Area (SP/WMA) runs the western bank of the Sabine River from the community of Echo to Little Cypress Bayou on the south.

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