Guided Mr. Robert Nelson this morning. Met with high winds out of the north, cool temps and an incoming tide. Started at 530am and launched near our fishing grounds to avoid rough water and a saltwater shower. Concentrated on some protected banks in S. Escambia Bay and East Bay where we found large amounts of mullet and minnows. Small slicks gave away the location of redfish and trout feeding over the flats and made catching pretty easy for us. We skirted the banks very closely and casted with the wind where we thought these slicks originated to find large amounts of speckled trout and a few redfish mixed in. Trout out, redfish in. Many of the redfish were actually sunning on the banks and were taken within ten feet of the bank, while the trout were anywhere between 20-100″ off the bank where the water remained relatively clear. Topwaters, suspending hardbaits, Gulp! Jerkshads and Shrimp were all taken equally. The redfish prefered a well-placed Gulp! 3″ Shrimp off the bank from where they were sitting(they will respond better with the bait towards open water). The high winds really limited our areas of fishing so we spent quite a bit of time along the long, protected bait since we never ran out of mullet and baitfish to hold our targets. For a little bonus action, we spent some time around some piling structure of the Garcon Point Bridge, especially pilings 95-120, to look for some larger trout and some over-sized redfish. With an incoming tide, I like to start on the down-current side of the structure which was on the east side of the bridge this morning. Down-current isn’t always where they are so I like to hit 5 pilings on one side and then hit the next 5 on the other side. The water depth ranges from 8-15′ in these areas so a heavier jighead or spoon is necessary especially windy conditions and with current. We prefer a 1/4-1/2oz. jighead with a 5-7″ Gulp! Jerkshad in camo or black, a 3/4oz. Johnson Gold Spoon or even deeper diving crankbaits and rattle trap type hardbaits. This particular morning we found both redfish in the 28-32″...

Guided Travis and his father today. Took off at 1000am and cruised to some extremely productive flats for sight fishing redfish. It was a bit tricky today with tea-colored water and poor visibility. Made sure the fellas were supplied with my client pairs of Oakley Monster Dogs and Scalpels and it wasn’t long before we were seeing and catching some quality fish. Made a little milk-run and found great numbers of fish in each area and even caught some of those annoying redfish on the beach that have been pretty difficult as of late. Plus, the water was beautiful and very clear along the beach. I did see a few pompano including a 4-5# bruiser blazing through the surf. Hopefully one of the surf anglers didn’t lose a rod to that beast! Anyway, again tomorrow so I’ll report back then. A few dates left in March and April but they’re going fast. Book now to experience the thrill and knowledge of Redfish University. E Holstman Please click an image to...

100% sightfishing today and that’s the way I like it. Had a couple guys today with the request “we’d like to see fish and catch fish.” They came to right place, that’s Redfish University’s speciality. Hit the beach and stuck a few nice pompano and then fished some shallow flats for legal and over-sized redfish. Hammered the redfish in the 6-30# range with easily 20 fish in the boat in a few hours. With some tired anglers, I travelled way east into the Sound and found them some more legal and over-sized redfish on the shallow grass flats. Always easy to find fish but they were rabid this morning for us. Easy, easy day. Back again tomorrow. Better book now, filling up quickly. E Holstman Please click an image to...

For the fifth year,Redfish University and Eric Holstman will be at the Spring Classic event Bass Pro Shops in Destin on February 25-26 from 10-3pm. As a Pure Fishing/Berkley Pro Staff ambassador, I will be assisting store employees and customers with our products including Berkley Gulp!, Berkley Powerbait, Penn Reels, Abu Garcia, All-Star Rods, Spiderwire, Stren, Trilene, Johnson and many more. Don’t forget about the “Reel Trade Ins” and all the great deals between Feb. 25-March 13. Redfish University will also perform redfish and speckled trout seminars during various periods of the day. For those in Mobile, Berkley Pro Staff ambassador, Bobby Abruscato, will be handling the Spanish Fort Bass Pro Shops event. Abruscato is the absolute best over in Mobile Bay. Thanks and I hope to see everyone at Bass Pro Shops. E...

The first Redfish Cup event of 2009 took place in Punta Gorda, FL. on May 1-3. We were greeted with some difficult tides and conditions. We found the larger fish to be very uncooperative and set a goal of concentrating on more catchable redfish as this event would be the trickiest of the year. Each morning, we quickly secured two medium-sized fish in the well and then concentrated on a small group of redfish that were 26-30″ in hopes of grabbing a few quality tournament fish for upgrades. Ended up getting some over-slot fish and then going back to some other fish that would help us in the end. I found that the Berkley Gulp! 3″ Shrimp in camo were the ticket for both sightfishing and blindcasting holes along mangrove flats. All in all, a difficult event but we accomplished our goal and got 17.59# to secure 16th place and a nice check for $3500. Sometimes it’s best to play the tricky venues on the conservative side especially since the Redfish Cup Championship is right here in Pensacola, FL. in late September. Thank you very much for all the words of encouragement and best wishes, we represented Pensacola well and will continue to do so for the rest of the year. Photos to follow. Eric...