Guided Mike Coleman and his wife, Erin, this morning. The Coleman drove all the way from their vacation spot in Panama City to get some eats last night at Peg Legs and fish today with me. Mike is down from Bentonville, AR. and  handles the Pure Fishing(Berkley, Penn, Abu Garcia, All-Star, Fenwick, etc.) durables for all the Wal-Mart  fishing departments along the Gulf Coast. We met at several meetings at Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville in the past few years. Lots of the guys have come down to fish with me and have allowed me to assist and consult their reps while visiting Wal-Mart stores here in our area. Got a late start at 545am and ran east into East Bay where we had some stiff winds out the southwest. Approached our bank in choppy but managable conditions. We tossed a  few Sebile Bonga topwaters but the wave action really made it difficult for the fish to target and find the baits. Skipped the Stick Shadds and went directly to the Gulp! 5″ Jerkshads in camo and watermelon. Because the wind and chop had been hitting the banks pretty hard all night and morning, there was a distinct line of good water and bad water. We skirted this color change to produce some good quality trout but some predictably very small ones as well. Made a run for the southside and threw at schools of mullet to find more trout. Found a few decent ones but nothing to really cheer wildly about. I just wasn’t quite feeling it in the bay today and knew the southwest wind was making it difficult. Back to the ramp at 730am, and we trailered to Oriole Beach to fish Santa Rosa Sound. We made a pretty long run to the east to get away from everyone and found some very large schools of mullet on the north side and in between some docks. Tied on some 1/4oz. Johnson Gold Spoons with very long 15# Stren Tinted Fluoro leaders in Gunsmoke and made long casts to the mullet schools. It wasn’t long before some 6# redfish were hooked and heading to the boat. We felt like we made the right decision although the fishing was...

Guided Mr. Randy Hamilton, Director of Marketing, Advertising and Website operations at Redfish University, this morning for few hours(530am-730am) to get him on the water and to check some areas for speckled trout and redfish. We saw the same huge alligator today and got some more photos. Before we got started, we decided to have a friendly tournament this morning with the loser buying lunch and a few rounds of posh, dark pints. Randy is an excellent angler and nearly as insanely competitive as I am so I knew he would work hard and produce lots of fish. Started with identical topwater baits, rods, reels, line and leader. We immediately started pounding quality trout. Randy got the first and it went to 5-all in no time. Then I hit a slump as Randy quickly jumped to a 12-6 lead. Suddenly, I hear and feel quite a commotion from the back of the boat and some strange gibberish that I couldn’t make out. He was pointing to something in the water and talking in tongues when suddenly, he leaps into the waist deep water. Of course, Im trying to figure out what the hell is going on and if he was feeling ill, stung by hundreds of bees or if the little flies were just getting to him. He frantically pops out of the water with my Oakley Scalpel sunglasses in his hand that he apparently dropped in the water. I told him, good God man!, you could have just let them go, I have several more pairs just for that reason!! Anyway, ooohh how we laugh and carried on after that little episode. I’m really glad there wasn’t anyone around to see or hear that! What made it even more funny was the fact that Randy never caught another fish after jumping in the water. Bananas vs. jumping in the water, I wonder… Since he ruined the small area, we took off for the last spot and switched to Gulp! Jerkshads and Shrimp which was going to be absolute game-over for Senor Hamilton. Went on a 15-0 run of redfish and nice speckled trout while Randy stood dripping on the deck. I gotta get...

Guided Miles Dobbs today for some speckled trout and redfish action in Pensacola, Escambia and East Bays. Miles in a college bass angler from East Texas so it was great to watch him work. Started at first light with some big, medium and small speckled trout over in East Bay. We also got some medium redfish along the banks with a couple big fish the pounded the baits but missed the hooks. When the sun got high we hit some docks on the south side of East Bay to grab some more trout on Gulp! Jerkshads. Made our last stop over in Escambia and concentrated on the eastern shore for a few hours and found plenty of quality trout to eat our Jerkys. Moved to the west side of the bay and found weekend warriors crawling all over the banks along Scenic. I guess the secret is out, but it is Saturday, isn’t it. Hit the banks a few times and picked up five  2-3# speckled trout and one 4# redfish. Ran south to a back up bank and found some more decent trout and some medium redfish. On our way south along Scenic Hwy. as we were cruising at 45mph, I caught a glimpse of what I thought was an alligator tailing in about 8′ of water. Made a U-turn and sure enough, a 9-10 foot alligator had its nose on the bottom tailing like a redfish. As we approached, he came to the surface for some photos. I see them in Louisiana all the time but this is the first one I’ve seen in Pensacola. This was a huge alligator! 30-35 speckled trout and 5-6 redfish. All fish released. E Holstman Please click an image to...

Guided Mr. Jason Dyess this morning. Jason wanted to find some redfish and speckled trout. Cruised to some East Bay banks and arrived at 515am. Again, starting very early is the key to topwater success. While we were waiting for enough light to see our topwater Bongas, Jason pulled Coke from his cooler and I noticed several yellow fruits(bananas) on the bottom of his cooler. I explained that many anglers consider bananas very bad luck and he had never heard of such a thing. He even Googled on his IPhone “bananas-bad-luck-fishing” to see for himself. I let him know that I didn’t believe in any of that silliness and that it was time to hammer some fish! First cast, there goes the banana theory. Trout after trout after trout. Nearly every cast, Jason stuck speckled trout between 14-20″. Played with that school of fish for a little while and then took off to find some better quality speckled trout and redfish.  Approached some docks on the south side of East Bay and really got some nice trout but only a few big redfish blowups. Pulled about a dozen solid trout and decided to concentrate our efforts over in Escambia. Fished the east and west side at around mid-bay and really found our stride. Lots of mullet and bait meant lots of redfish and trout. Went to Gulp! Jerkshads in camo to secure some great number of both species with some 3.5-5# trout in the mix. We cheated a little today as well. Some banks were infested with 4-6″ croakers, which are the speckled trout favorite snacks. Using the Gulp! Jerkys, we were accidently sticking lots of these croakers. Instead of reeling them in immediately, we would raise them to the surface and wait for a huge trout to grab them. This happened 3 times for us and hooked two nice trout over 4.5#’s. A true beast dropped another croaker near the boat. Jason also completed his inshore grand slam with a nice 2# flounder that I fumbled at the boat. Got the leader so we’ll consider it a catch! Lots of great action today with a great angler. All fish released healthy. Short trip in the morning...

For the Day 3 finale, Leon Conley and I(Kelly was sick this morning and couldn’t make it.  Too bad because she has been catching all the fish) entered Santa Rosa Sound at 500am and ran to our first area on the north side in the dark. Drank some coffee and waited for enough light to see our very small topwater Sebile Bongas. As soon as that moment came, I positioned Leon for a long cast into some shallow water where lots of redfish normally gather. First cast and kaboom! A very nice 5.5# fish to the boat. Second cast, kaboom! Another at the same size. Trolled down the bank and got 5 more quality fish. The secret to the topwater baits, whether it be Sebiles, Rapalas, Mirrolures or whatever, is the size of the bait. The smaller the better. We like 2.5-3.5″ baits(we use the 3″ Bongas). An internal rattle and a brief pause every 3-5′ while dog-walking the bait seems to draw many more strikes. Many fish pounce while the bait is actually stationary. Give it a try. Anyway, made a run way east and got on a flat with some big trout. Found great fish in the 2-4.5#. Caught 10 or so and kept 7 good fish for dinner. By 8am, the topwater had really started slowing down so we grabbed the Johnson Gold Spoon rods and took off for the south side of the Sound. We use 1/4oz. Johnson Gold Spoons and a 3-4′ Stren Tinted Fluorocarbon leader in Gunsmoke in 15#. This leader is tied directly to the 10# Ultracast InvisiBraid without a swivel at the leader or at the spoon. Do not use a swivel, the line may twist a bit but you”ll double or even triple or even quadruple your catch. We basically hit every area on the south side from Opal Beach to Big Sabine that had grass on the bottom near the shore. If there were lots of mullet, there were lots of redfish. Picked off another 7-8 nice redfish over there. Lots of great redfish and trout today. Kept 2 redfish, as I promised Leon “Redfish on the Halfshell”, and 7 very nice speckled...