Two great trips today and one yesterday. All three trips focused on redfish, speckled trout and flounder. Sticking with the Gulp! 5″ Jerkshads since they catch the most fish. The trout in the bayous ranged from 15-18″ and the ones in the northern bays are much bigger with many in the 3-4# range. The redfish were also biting very well and we found lots of fish in the 24-27″ range. Flounder are a bit of a bonus but there are certainly a few areas where there are quite a few fish. Over 100 trout in three trips. They’re biting very well. Two catch-and-release trips and this afternoon’s outing was quite different with a limit of quality speckled trout, redfish and one flounder. Superbowl cookout! Tired and my apologies for the very short report. Taking a few days off since the new boat is coming very soon. Thanks, E Holstman Please click an image to...

Guided my longtime family physician and a family friend today. They had been hearing about the huge catches of redfish, speckled trout and flounder and wanted to get in on the action and have a fish fry. One angler was very experienced and the other was a true beginner and needed extra guidance. Very, very windy today but the water was moving very rapidly which helped tremendously. Started with quite a few very nice speckled trout(one 4# fish) in the 16-22″ range and a 26.5″ redfish right off the bat. Travelled south and found a bunch more speckled trout, quality redfish and some flounder. Fished both wind-blown and protected banks where there was an abundance of mullet in all sizes. The guys did a great job of focusing on technique and casting in between beers and cigars. We actually had 5-6 nice flounder to the boat today but only one hit the deck which turned into a Grand Slam for our new inshore angler, Dr. Bill. Bill also stuck the largest speckled trout I’ve ever seen in our target area. Hooked the fish, it jumped, took lots of line, jumped again, came to the boat, surfaced and spit the hook. I would estimate the trout at 6-7# easily. Just as well, he would have been released. Ended the day with several topwater strikes but nothing found the hooks. Total for the short trip was 9-10 redfish, 25-30 trout and some dropped flounder. Most fish released but three redfish from 24-26.5″, some speckled trout in the 16-23″ range and a flounder were taken for the cookout. They caught so many fish and worked me so hard I charged them double! Hitting them with the hammer again tomorrow, Thursday and Friday. Thanks, E Holstman Please click an image to...

Guided Mike and Shawn today for some inshore redfish, speckled trout and flounder action. Mike’s last Redfish University trip back in December was an outstanding experience with a rare Super Slam(redfish, trout, flounder and stripers) and tons of quality redfish and speckled trout so the pressure was on to do the same or even better. Well, not so much but a pretty decent display of how to catch extremely uncooperate inshore fish. The upside of each extreme trip may be the recognition of how easy it can be and how difficult, but not impossible, our local fishery can be. Nonetheless, we always expect a high quality catching trip. Started out with a 4# speckled trout followed by some more legal trout with many short-bites and misses. Next, we covered an area infested with huge amounts of mullet of all sizes and could only stick the short redfish and dropped a very big speckled trout on a shallow flat. Poop. This meant the redfish were going to be a pain all afternoon and the statement stood true. Ran into some ponds to find some flounder and ended up with a few quality flounder in addition to those that we got while hitting the speckled trout. We even had a double-hookup on flounder today which was neat. Each area we fished was good for a few decent speckled trout and flounder but really failed to find a consistent group of cooperative fish. Just before dark we approached a shallow flat where several over-sized and legal redfish were tailing away. Well-placed Gulps!, spoons and topwaters were ignored. I dropped a few pinpoint spoons on the fish with no response. Maybe they were scratching their noses on the bottom. Anyway, we ended with several speckled trout in the 14-22″ range, 4 nice flounder and surprisingly, no legal redfish in the boat. Doesn’t happen often at this place called Redfish University. Most fish released and some went home for dinner. Back again tomorrow and I hope the redfish will wake up. Thanks, E...

After a quick four day break, I was very excited to get back on the water. Guided a fella stationed here for a few weeks that wanted to get out and catch some redfish and trout. We chose this afternoon since the water was coming in and the forecast indicated diminishing winds. Met with a pretty decent breeze out of the north and water that wasn’t moving in as fast as anticipated. Found plenty of really nice speckled trout in the 16-19″ range on our first stop and these fish were pretty particular about bait movement. Slow taps and deadsticks drew the most bites. Second stop produced some nice redfish in the 23-25″ range that were found inside small schools of mullet. At the third stop we found lots of flounder in the form of mud-trails and on our hooks. A few flounder were in the 3# range which was a pleasant surprise. We continued to plug away at the redfish and speckled trout as the sun fell and even had a few good topwater strikes right before dark. All-in-all, slow but steady fishing with very little movement from the stalling north wind. All trout and most redfish were released and a few better quality eating fish made it home for dinner. Back at it tomorrow. Thanks, E Holstman Please click an image to...

Sunday’s instructional/catching trip at Redfish University was a real drag. Met with extremely foggy conditions, calm winds and slow water. Instruction, techniques and areas is simple but we like to see some solid results and instill a high level of confidence in our valued clients. Started fishing at first light and found it shocking not to catch a fish in the first five casts. I let that go on for about 15 minutes before I opened the rodlockers and put a few sticks in my hands. Cast, cast, cast, cast, cast…. nothing. Switched areas and same result. Wow. Went to an area littered with redfish and found a few that seemed annoyed by our topwaters and got a couple nose-pushes from some sizable redfish. Hit a deep water area and no bites. How can I expect clients to catch a fish when I can’t? Not even the drop-shot rig worked! Instead of struggling all morning, Matt was gracious enough to reschedule and wouldn’t have been charged either way. It seemed impossible to us both especially with the huge numbers we’ve seen in the past weeks and months. Back to the ramp at 800am we went. Ran into a friend, a great angler and past client at the ramp who reported exactly to same frustrations so I didn’t feel so idiotic. Hit the normal Pensacola Beach Hilton Sunday brunch and even booked a string of trips with some anglers that apparently were very entertained by the “Sponge Bob” episode of “Sportsman’s Challenge.” The day wasn’t a complete loss. Monday and Wednesday were much more smooth. Better water and some much needed wind. The same areas produced decent catches of speckled trout and redfish but no flounder this week. Got down to business and hit them with smaller Gulp! baits on a drop-shot rig. Found the fish to be very lazy and uncooperative really but all clients gained the normal great information, techniques and productive areas and caught plenty of fish. We also took some redfish and speckled trout on Johnson 1/8 and 1/4oz Gold Spoons over broken bottom. I know these spoons are very small but that’s exactly what they...