Redfish University has become Speckled Trout University for the last few weeks. Guided Bob and Lauren Taylor this morning for some big speckled trout. For speckled trout, I’ve always preferred the bays not the Sound. In my opinion, the presence of large croakers, pinfish, small mullet and even spots, draw larger speckled trout and redfish to our bay system’s sand and mud flats. Started at first light and ran to a great topwater flat in East Bay. Found very dirty water from bank erosion and yesterday’s rains. Caught a few nice trout in the 2-3# range with Bongos, Stack Shadds, Gulp! Jerkshads and popping corks. The corks really work great in the dirty, turbulent water. Again, around the large schools of mullet is always best. Took the crew to some deeper oyster structure and really found some nice trout. Berkley Gulp! Jerkshads in camo with a 1/4oz. Marsh Works jighead works awesome. Very slowly on the bottom is the key. Many smaller speckled and white trout were being inhaled by huge trout at the boat. One was a 28.5″ beauty! Moved around alot and ended the day along the rocks of Scenic Hwy where I have found that some very large speckled trout lay in the uneven bottom troughs. Lots of fish over 4# today. The Taylors kept 5 medium fish for tonight’s dinner and all others released healthy and happy. E Holstman. Please click an image to...

Got a little backed up on reports so I’ll jam the last three trips together. All trips were performed in various area around Pensacola, East and Escambia Bays. Early morning topwater action has been epic with solid trout and some decent redfish. Sub-surface baits like Sebile Stick Shadds are great once the sun gets up and the trusty Gulp! Jerkshads in camo are always productive. You just have to find some larger mullet and small minnow baits and the fish are definitely there. Finding some 3-5# trout on deeper(8-15″) structure with slow Gulp! Jerkshads making them bite. Its so important to get out early especially in the last few days where the water has really slowed down at mid-morning. Lots of fish in the cooler and most released. More detailed reports on Tuesday and Wednesday. E Holstman Please click an image to...

Guided Chris Ferstl and his friend Brett this morning in the Pensacola Bay system. The fellas are from Houston and fish Trinity Bay(one of my favorites) for huge trout and redfish so I wanted to get them around those big 3-5# trout and redfish we’ve been finding. Found the wind to be coming from exactly the wrong direction today which really fouled up our early morning topwater action. Started at 500am running the nose of the Hewes 21 Redfish tabs down into a wind/tide stacked chop. Arrived to find some nice rollers pounding the banks but found a few confused speckled trout to suck some topwater Sebiles. We quickly switched to Gulp! Jerkshads with 1/4oz. jighead(in windy conditions) and found many more quality takers. Ran to the south side of East Bay for some protection and found more speckled trout in deeper holes around the docks. No redfish or flounder yet. Made our way into Escambia Bay only to find many more trout. Clear water lines with lots of mullet was the key to catching fish today. We probably hit 30-40 trout, embarrassingly only a few that hit 2.5#, but found it pretty odd not to get the normal handful of good redfish and some early flounder. It should make it very interesting tomorrow with a solid neap tide! All fish released. E Holstman Please click an image to...

Guided Kal Jansen this morning on his 22 Pathfinder to introduce him to some very productive areas for redfish, trout and flounder in Pensacola, Escambia and East Bays. Got on the water at 515am and started throwing topwaters for redfish and trout. There’s no doubt Kal has a lifetime of experience in bass fishing but just needed some ideas on locations, bait choices and techniques. After boating plenty of each species at our first stop, we proceeded to cover several areas in East Bay and Escambia Bay and tested each area for numbers. All areas had one thing is common and that was huge amounts of mullet and croakers. We even went up into Blackwater Bay where I showed him the golden spots in the late Fall and Winter. More trout than redfish with a few small flounder around as well. Kal’s set! All fish...

Guided Jay and Tommy White again this morning down in Santa Rosa Sound. Picked the guys up at 500am at Portofino and made a short run east. As the morning progressed, many areas on the north side resembled a parking lot with boats absolutely everywhere. Another reason I rarely guide on the weekends, especially in Santa Rosa Sound. Fished the first area from dark to about 3o minutes of light and did very well. Threw topwater Sebiles for some quality speckled trout and a few decent redfish. We got quite a few big redfish strikes with some misses and a few unbuttons but that’s topwater fishing for redfish! Decided to take a long run to the east to find less pressured areas. There was plenty of mullet and bait and we found more nice trout and a few more redfish on Johnson 1/4oz. Gold Spoons. Finished the morning out on the south side around some grassy points and coves to grab a few more trout and drop a few redfish in between. We had great early morning action and it really dropped off after 830am. All fish released. Please click an image to...

Guided Jay and Tommy White this morning in East Bay and Pensacola. The fellas are excellent bass fisherman from Memphis and wanted to catch some inshore saltwater species “bass-style.” We made a short run east and stopped in an area with mullet jumping everywhere. Handed the Whites some Penn Conquer 2000/Abu Garcia Verdict combos with small topwaters and they really put on a show. I think the first few big explosions really caught the anglers off guard. The classic bass fishing hook set was in full swing! I mean these guys have neck-breaking hookset techniques. After some laughing and ribbing, they got the steady pull back technique mastered and nearly every fish made a connection. It’s really almost better to work topwaters with your eyes closed and only side-set when you have tension. It’s a very good trick that will produce twice as many fish. Found the small fish outside the mullet and the large ones inside. We also got a few decent redfish as well. Travelled into Escambia Bay to find some big trout on some eastern mudflats. Gulp! 5″ Jerkshads in camo and suspending Sebiles made it easy. We also stuck some decent flounder but nothing huge. Finished up on the southside with some quality redfish, more nice trout and flounder on the same baits. Overall, a very good day with two very talented anglers. Lots of trout in the 3# range and redfish up to 26″. They had so much fun today they requested an encore tomorrow so we’ll hit it again for a short trip in the morning. Different scenery, same fish. All fish released. E Holstman Please click an image to...