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Guided one of my favorite clients, Redfish University alumni and VIP, Bob Willice this morning. Bob wanted to do a little of everything this morning. Find some big trout, learn the bay grouper fishing and then I was going to show him some awesome areas to sight fishing bull redfish on the fly when they are nowhere to be found and not on the surface. I was a bit concerned last night with the hard north wind but thought we’d be okay as long as there wasn’t any east in the wind. The grouper fishing gets a little tricky in a flats boat over at Ft. Pickens when the bay chop originates from the north or northeast. Met Bob at 545am and started at first light in Bayou Texar for some big trout. Bayou Texar is a pretty big area but it’s important to find dropoffs, deeper water and bait. About 15 minutes into our fishing, we both realized that the bay was going to be a little challenging with the building winds and I asked Bob if he wanted to reschedule on a better day late next week. He agreed. I figured since I got him up early and he drove all the way from Tiger Point, I’d show him some fantastic techniques for catching big speckled trout, redfish and flounder in our local bayous. Plus, Bob is an avid fly angler and would not doubt appreciate learning some extremely productive, protected and very consistent areas to throw a fly during the winter. We messed around and both fished for an hour and a half. Not a bad little trip with over 20 trout(some reaching 3.5#), 6 redfish(15-24″) and 3 flounder(13-15″). All fish released. I let Bob in on a super trick to get these difficult speckled trout to bite. Using a Gulp! 5″ Jerkshad in camo or rootbeer with a 3/8oz. Marsh Works jighead, we make long casts and let the bait settle. Sometimes just the commotion on the bait hitting water will trigger a bite once the bait comes to rest. A slow tap-tap retrieve with a 3-4 second deadstick is my normal cold water retrieve....

A few fish-along, instructional trips today and yesterday. Thank goodness for my Patagonia base layers and Yamaha Pro Staff cold weather riot gear. I think my clients enjoyed looking swank in the awesome Yamaha jackets and bibs as well. Looking good is fishing good(or well)!! The last few mornings have been bitterly cold, we’re on a full moon, LOW water and the water movement/tides have been poor. We’ve really had to draw on solid experience to produce quality numbers of redfish, trout and stripers. One great thing about the early morning lows is the fact that the fish are concentrated and predictable, but getting them to bite can be difficult with a full moon and dead water. Scaling down bait size is most important followed by a slow presentation and being around a ton of fish. Both mornings redfish and trout were found in the same areas in 4-8′ of water near shallow mud flats. Redfish can be seen and present in the form of muds and wakes. The presence of mullet and small minnows also increases the odds of finding both species. Gulp! 3″ Shrimp and trimmed 5″ Jerkshads work great. Also, a small plastic worm rattle will draw them to a slowly moved bait. A handful of redfish in the 23-28″ range and 15-25 legal trout were scored each morning, but overall, a very slow bite. All fish released. More to come tomorrow. E Holstman Please click an image to...

Got back late last night and decided to pick up a quick trip since the weather and tides were looking very promising. Wow! We’ve been landing on some great fishing lately!! Guided Mr. Mike Peters this morning and I’d say Mike did extremely well for his first inshore, artificials-only fishing experience. Mike knocked out a Super Slams in no time with plenty of redfish, quality trout, a nice flounder and solid stripers. All fish taken on Gulp! 5″ Jerkshads in camo and a sharp Marsh Works 1/4oz jighead. Concentrated on ledges, uneven bottom and mullet. Great fishing with Mike this morning as we learned we share many of the same interests including surfing, travel and fish tacos. Mike took home a ton of fresh fish for fish tacos today. Busy, busy, busy in the coming days and weeks so more to come shortly. Thanks, E...

We really needed to hustle around this morning with the front blowing through some time in the mid-morning. Started at 515am and took off to some very productive areas for redfish and speckled trout. Light winds, decent water movement and overcast skies provided us some confidence in finding and catching our targeted species but I knew our time was limited. We immediately boated several very nice speckled trout and a few redfish on Gulp! 5″ Jerkshads and Sebile Bongos. Unlike the last few days, all of the trout were legal fish in the 16-20″ range and even found a 31″ redfish interested in a well-place Gulp!. It was interesting because this fish was visible in six feet of water as he was just under the surface when I saw him. As the fish fell to the bottom, I asked the angler to make a 20′ cast in that direction and he took gladly took the bait. Not really sight fishing but a great redfish nonetheless. We continued to steadily stick speckled trout and a flounder in a few similar areas and the around 900am we were covered in the blue skies and a 15-20mph wind. Even with all three of us fishing hard, we only managed a few more speckled trout. Frustrated by the conditions and our luck, I decided to hit a shallow protected bank to see if I could pick out a few redfish for the fellas to target with Gulps! No problem finding the redfish but they were EXTREMELY uncooperative although we did pick up a few blindcasting and I nailed a 24″ fish that I spotted from a huge distance. Fortunately, we got out very early and used the tricks and techniques to catch as many fish as humanly possibly before the conditions really went downhill. It’s always difficult to explain that beautiful weather, blue skies and sunny conditions isn’t always the best fishing conditions. No excuses at Redfish University because if they’re wet, we’ll catch them! Skipping tomorrow(I think), got some beggers but hitting it again Friday-Sunday then out of town with sponsor commitments next week. More reports to come and Happy Thanksgiving. E Holstman Please click an image to...

Well, the fishing got back to normal for us at Redfish University this morning. With the exception of several redfish misses on topwater, I think both the redfish and speckled trout were pretty cooperative especially during this early morning slow water movement period. Fished with a couple very talented anglers this morning for a little fish-along trip. I don’t get to fish too much on Redfish U. guided trips but these guys were on their game so we engaged in some friendly competition. Following up with Gulp! after topwater bites, ribbing, trash-talk,  that sort of thing! Really got into big numbers of speckled trout of all sizes on both Bongos and Gulp! Jerkshads. The redfish did a pretty good job of hiding today although we saw plenty cruising and exploding on our surface baits. Again, we caught redfish, speckled trout and flounder to complete our inshore Grand Slam. Or should I say, I caught a nice Grand Slam with a 6# redfish, a 4# speckled trout and a 1.5# flounder. Better luck next time fellas!! Anyway, we had a great time yapping about fishing and pulling on fish all morning. All fish released healthy and happy. Thanks, E Holstman Please click an image to...