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...

Took a nice little break, passing on trips over the Memorial Day weekend and was met with some very warm conditions this morning. Guided Martin Peters and his children, Victor and Eva, for some hot action in East Bay. Martin is the Communications and Dealer Education Manager for Yamaha Marine Group in Kennesaw, GA. I always enjoy having the “big guys” at Yamaha, Pure Fishing, Maverick, etc. come down for some fishing here in Pensacola. Started early and ran to East Bay. Stopped at an area infested with speckled trout and the anglers immediately started yanking fish. Little Eva was pretty new to fishing so I was able to help her on the bow one-on-one with her casting and techniques. It wasn’t long before she was sailing her topwater baits, demonstrating a classic dog-walk and catching one nice speckled trout after another. I guide very few kids at Redfish University but after today and seeing her pure euthusiasm and excitement, it’s really something I would love to see more at Redfish U. in the future. Martin and Victor held their own, sticking several nice fish with some quality redfish in the mix. Found the fish on the banks, off the banks and, most importantly, around large schools of mullet.  Targeted a few schools of menhaden and surface minnows, but lately, we’ve only found lots of gafftops in those areas. In my experience, the speckled trout and redfish most definitely prefer milling inside the large schools of medium to large sized mullet. This means, in my opinion, that these fish want smaller, slower moving baits such as shrimp, small crabs and especially croakers which a big trout puked on my leg this morning. The redfish have also been stuffed with small crabs, minnows and croakers. We matched the bait with Gulp! Jerkshads, very small topwaters and Gulp! 3″ Shrimp. All fish released except for a few nice trout for dinner. Sorry for the crap photo quality. Using my Kodak PlaySport which is great for HDvid but only has a 5MP cam. New camera coming soon. E Holstman Please click an image to...