Today I had a great meeting with Jeff Cope and Jay Geeding from Wal-Mart Headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. Both gentlemen are Category Managers for Pure Fishing(Berkley, Penn, etc.) and asked me to assist in providing customers with a better saltwater selection and improving the overall direction of the fishing department in many stores. Started the morning at the Gulf Breeze Wal-Mart and I hope I offered some creative and thoughtful ideas to improve the saltwater choices in the fishing department. I thought I had a pretty firm grasp on the fishing industry but, like with fishing, there’s always much more to learn and I did. Well, this is where the productivity ended. After our meeting, we decided to jump on my boat and go stick a few redfish and trout. We weren’t too excited about the temps, wind, water clarity and bright blue skies but they insisted that I knew what I was doing and they just wanted to get out on the water. That’s exactly what we did. I honestly can’t remember the last time I(or clients) didn’t catch a single fish in ANY conditions!! The timing was classic as these guys aren’t exactly the company you want to have a below average trip with! Fished for two hours, got 3 decent bites and saw a handful of redfish but incredibly, they just wouldn’t pick up the bait. Did the earth counter-rotate today? Oh well, I know where not to go for tomorrow’s and Saturday’s...
Read MoreRedfish University at Bass Pro Shops Spring Classic-February 27-March 13
The 2010 Bass Pro Shops Spring Classic in Destin will take place February 27-March 13, 2010. Both weekends, I will be at the Bass Pro Shops reel counter assisting anglers and Bass Pro employees with Pure Fishing reels, rods, Gulp! baits, superlines, fluorocarbon, etc. We also have some Redfish University seminars planned. Here’s a list of the Pure Fishing promotions we will be offering during the Spring Classic. Thanks, Eric Holstman First weekend: Reel Trade-in (Abu Garcia, Pflueger, Penn and Mitchell reels) February 26 thru March 3 Bring in a reel that you no longer use, and for donating the old reel, you will receive a coupon towards the purchase of a new reel. The discount is scaled depending on the value of the new reel you purchase. See a fishing associate for more details. HOT DEALS – ABU GARCIA · Any REVO reel over $169 get a FREE pair of Wiley-X glasses ($126.00 value) · Any reel from $89.99 to $139.99 get a $10 mail-in rebate – (C4, Revo S, Kalex 6000, Soron reels) PFLUEGER · Any reel over $79.95 gets an Oster Deep Fryer ($59.95 value) – this is a BASS PRO exclusive!!! ….FILET’UM & FRY’UM … make the wife happy with a gift!!! 🙂 · Any reel between $39 & $79.95 get a FREE T-Shirt UGLY STIK · Get a FREE T-Shirt with a rod or combo MITCHELL · Buy any reel over $34.99 get a Coleman Lantern (this is a really cool lantern – no batteries needed you can hand crank it to charge it!!!!! Great for camping, bad weather, fishing the bank or in a boat…it will always work BERKLEY – · Buy 2 of anything and get a rebate – so if you see a customer with Gulp Alive at $19.99 get them to buy a spool of line or a bag of bait so they get $7 back!! · NOTE this is a great promotion and with Bass Pro doing 20% off you can give our customers a BIG rebate deal …makes our baits CHEAP!!! ALSO –Bass Pro Exclusives: Swim Baits 2”, 3”, 4”, 5” and 6” pre rigged (these...
Read MoreYou Better Belize It!! We caught lots of fish-January 30, 2010
Returned from Belize(Ambergris Caye, San Pedro) last Saturday evening. Tracy and I were married on the dock at our house in a very beautiful, tropical and private ceremony last Wednesday at sunset, January 20, 2010. Had a great Belizean dinner at Matachica along with some drinks. While in Belize, we had the incredible opportunity to fish with Captain George Bradley for two days for bonefish, permit, tarpon, snook and more! If anyone ever travels to Belize, hiring George Bradley as your guide is a must! Great guy and an awesome angler. On day one, we had a mild coldfront come through which meant west winds at 15mph. George took us to the mainland to target bones and snook along the protected banks. Once the sun was high and the wind went slack, we moved to a place called Savannah Flats and absolutely hammered the bonefish in 10″of water. Tracy actually caught the first two bonefish on the day and sightfished a few more on Sav. Flats. On day two, George took us 15 miles north into the backcountry lagoon of northern Ambergris. The most beautiful water I had ever seen. Bonefish, permit, 20# tarpon, big snook and big mangrove snapper everywhere! Again, we caught all the above until our arms cramped. We will be returning to Belize to fish with George a few more times this year and also to look for a place to live!! Enjoy the photos! Please click on a photo to...
Read MoreFreezing cold at Redfish University-January 10, 2010
Redfish University is still running trips!! It’s cold but the fish are really cooperative. Short, 25 mph runs keep things as comfortable as possible for clients and once the catching begins, the coldest temps will be forgotten. More trout than redfish at the moment but the quality of fish is very good. Quality cold-weather gear, face protection, gloves and warm socks are a must! See ya soon. Guided Mr. Larry McAdoo this morning here in Pensacola. Larry is a recent Houston transplant to the Pensacola area and a long-time Hewes flats boat owner. Today was the coldest conditions I have ever fished. The temperature range in Redfish University’s Ford Diesel 7.3 Excursion registered at 24 degrees at takeoff time and only rose to 37 degrees at noon. Nevertheless, redfish and trout were found and redfish and trout were caught. Over 25 quality trout and 12-15 redfish were landed in extremely harsh conditions. In fact, we were having a difficult time casting because of the icebergs forming between the guides on our rods! This is the first time I have EVER seen this!!! Anyway, it was an extremely cold but productive morning of redfish and speckled trout. All fish caught on Gulp! 5″ Jerkshads in Lime Tiger and Gulp! 3″ Shrimp in Natural. Rattles increased strikes and ALL fish released. Please click an image to...
Read MoreInvasion of the little redfish at Redfish University-December 22, 2009
Guided Mr. Brad Barber this morning. Brad wanted to learn about shallow water redfishing in our local upper bay areas. Started out at first light and cruised to the first area. Immediately saw wakes everywhere. Push poled at first and then switched to the trolly to bump up fish. Found large groups of lower, mid and upper level redfish but found it very difficult to entice the larger fish to bite as they were very unactive and basically laying on the muddy bottom in extremely dirty water. Stuck a few decent fish and then proceeded to absolutely hammer 20-25 lower slot redfish. Only a very slow tap-tap retrieve would produce fish and the big fish wouldn’t even take a dead-stick stinky Gulp! Not really used to that frustration! Anyway, much was caught and much was learned. Hopefully Brad will return to produce lots of fish for himself and his family in the future. All fish taken on 3″ and 4″ Gulp! Shrimp in whatever color you’d like. All fish...
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