Guided a new angler to the area yesterday afternoon on his brand new boat. Again, what a great way to learn the Pensacola inshore area, save on fuel/tackle and produce lots of fish. It seems more and more anglers are taking advantage of this fantastic service at Redfish University. Our focus was to cover the eastern, southern and northern bays and introduce him to the most productive areas for speckled trout, redfish, flounder, etc. during the Spring and Summer months. With the Lowrance map on, we took off for a three hour tour. In each area, the MARK bottom was hit, a brief description of the area was offered, techniques and baits demonstrated, great tides for the specific area and so on. It was really incredible how much water we covered in a small amount of time. A little bumpy in some areas but we covered everything! I’m looking forward to receiving some excellent reports from our new angling friend very soon. Off to Seaside for the weekend and some Bass Pro Shops promotions with it really heating up with BassMaster University next weekend and Redfish University’s presentations on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Hope to see everyone at the Destin Bass Pro Shops next weekend. Thanks, E Holstman Lots of water...

Yesterday Feb 22., I guided some fellas with a shared vacation house down in Navarre Beach. They wanted to fish close to them so they could just go out and do some fishing on their own. With the mild Winter, it was very possible that some larger redfish were already in the area so we took off to check some shallow banks and ledges. I didn’t take long to see some 30-40″ redfish cruising the banks. In this situation, we like to toss at Gulp! 4″ Shrimp on a bit heavier jighead to get it to the bottom quickly. We found a decent amount of over-sized redfish and some legals mixed in. When we ran out of bank, we concentrated on the very few cormorants in the area and found some more redfish directly underneath them. It was a really fun trip and it was great to see the redfish have already entered some areas in the Sound. Dead phone, left the camera in the Excursion and still trying to get used to this small, borrowed boat meant no photos but here’s what the big redfish looked like. Thanks again, E...

For the third trip with my Alaskan anglers, we departed Navy Point boatramp at 8am in search of some shallow bull redfish only to be met with stiff SE winds and some rollers over the bow of the Maverick 17 Master Angler. Returned to the ramp and asked the fellas what else they might be interested in. Both stated that they’d love to bring even more “redfish on the halfshell” back to Alaska for a family cookout. With the water moving in quickly, a SE wind and cloudy conditions, this sounded like an excellent plan. Travelled way east in the Excursion over to East Bay. I’ve been observing lots of mullet on wind-blown banks down there in the past few months and thought we’d be able to grant the request. Tied on some 1/4oz. Johnson Gold Spoons in gold and black and knocked out the redfish in a very short period. Continued down the bank and stuck redfish after redfish with some doubles in the mix. Most fish were great 23-27″ redfish but we did have a few overs in the 27.5-31″ range, but no complaints. We noticed quite a few flounder squirts as well in the very clear water but only picked up one. Some Gulps! would have picked up more flounder but they said redfish. It’s a great day when you don’t know how many redfish were caught. We didn’t bother with the speckled trout today since they were having so much fun with the redfish so we played catch-and-release for the rest of the time. I had a great time smashing them as well! They took four redfish and a flounder home and all other redfish were released after some photos. Total was probably 20-25 redfish between 18-31″ and a flounder. The guys will be back in Pensacola very, very soon and I’m thrilled with the huge numbers of repeat clients at Redfish University. I think I’ll ask tomorrow’s clients if they like “redfish on the halfshell.” Thanks, E Holstman Please click an image to...

Guided some anglers from Alaska today that scheduled a three day trip at Redfish University. Yesterday’s high winds forced us to squueze in two trips today and we’ll finish up tomorrow. Started in Pensacola with some bayou fishing for speckled trout and redfish. Found plenty of speckled trout after the temperature drop and some surprisingly large redfish. After a few hours of that we travelled north to find some really low water conditions but the fish were very concentrated which made things a bit easier. They definitely didn’t like the cold temperatures last night so we needed to make them bite. The fellas did a great job drawing bites and slowly down their baits. Caught plenty of trout and limited on redfish pretty quickly. Found a few flounder but only got one nice fish to the boat. We even had a few doubles on the redfish which made for some chaotic moments on the small flats skiff. Ended up with 30+ trout, 10-12 redfish and a few flounder. Some great tournament fish today with over 14#. The fellas kept some fish to eat at Aegean Breeze tonight and for tomorrow night. All other fish released. Back at it tomorrow. Thanks, E Holstman Please click an image to...