Navigation Menu

High water, rain and redfish(and a surprise)-September 17, 2009

Guided Mr. Jim Lawrence and his four sons this morning in Destin. Jim is one of my favorite clients and it was our goal to top our 30-35 redfish massacre back in March. With five anglers and me, we split up with two on my boat and two on Jim’s boat. Well, we were predictably greeting with high and very muddy water in Hogtown. Lots of mullet and menhaden on the banks but very little redfish. We managed to stick a handful and dropped another few before we changed locations drastically. Headed back towards Destin and fished a couple flats where we picked up a few more fish. Ended at Crab Island where we stuck a 29″ cobia on light tackle. A nice surprise. All-in-all, the fishing was pretty slow but we covered lots of water and a few different techniques that should produce for the Lawrence Family in the...

Read More

Redfish and Rain-September 16, 2009

Guided Mr. Jeff Mowery this morning. With all the recent rain, I decided to concentrate in Santa Rosa Sound towards Navarre Beach and the Opal Beach area. Lots and lots of mid-sized redfish with a few smaller and few larger. Concentrated on grassy ledges and sandy dropoffs. All fish caught on Gulp! Jerkshads in camo rigged with a jighead and drop-shot style. Photos to...

Read More

Redfish University invades Destin again-Sept. 9, 2009

Guided Mr. Kevin Stillworth this morning in Destin’s Hogtown Bayou and some nearly banks east of there. As always, Hogtown provided lots of action and lots of redfish. The schools of mullet were in full flight and the redfish were positioned within these massive schools. Went to the old faithful in Hogtown, the Johnson 1/4oz. Gold Spoon, and went to work. We banged redfish after redfish!! Some were 24″, some were 19″ and some were 26-28″. Worked there for a few hours and then buzzed to a school of consistent fish about 2 miles east of Hogtown. Mostly mid-sized (23-24″) with a few studlies mixed in. Quite honestly, I can count how many fish we caught but 45 would be a safe guess. Sore arms...

Read More

Steady Day at the University-Sept.7, 2009

Steady trips at Redfish University this week although there small concentrations of redfish in very few areas. Good news is, I expect the redfishing to improve dramatically in the coming weeks and especially next month. Guided Mr. Barry James and his wife Cheryl this morning. Barry is an avid local kayak angler and I was able to cover lots of water with him and introduce him to some excellent kayak fishing areas and some clever tricks with artificial baits. Started out with some quality trout and lower slot redfish as we waited for the water to drop in the upper bay areas. At 730am, we blasted to some very productive area and a found the fish to be very difficult(local Labor Day traffic?) Whatever the cause, we managed to product an decent range of quality redfish. Ended the day trying to scrape up a few flounder which proved to be predictably grim on slow water movement. All in all, a below average day according to Redfish University standards but hopefully much knowledge was gained and a fantastic redfish dinner was had. Thanks again for the wonderful bottles of wine, James and Cheryl!! Please click on photos to...

Read More

The End of an Up and Down Year- September 1, 2009

Well, the 2009 Redfish Cup season had come to a close. After starting the year in fine fashion, placing 16th and receiving a nice check in Punta Gorda, we started an uncharacteristic free-fall. Kemah was a big disappointment(should have fished the jetties, obviously, and entered the “fishing lotto”, and Chalmette still haunts us today. At the regular season ending event in Biloxi, we took a whole new approach. We prefished for 6 hours!! Yes, we knew where some very nice 28-30″ were in the Biloxi Marsh. A little pond on the outside that was full of oysters was the promised-land. Went there on Wednesday afternoon during a low tide and tails and wakes were everywhere. Jetted straight there on tournament morning, got a 10# and a 9.5# and slow cruised back arriving at 11:30am and took a nap. Ended up in 7th place after Day 1 with 19.45#. Great start and knew we could do the same on Saturday. Day 2-jetted back to the same oyster pond, stuck two great fish- both over 9.5#! We’re feeling pretty good but still looking for a 10# fish to secure the Top 5. Had a few chances and a few that were 9.5# but it was also a great idea to visit a few other areas nearby just in case we would be returning on Sunday to clean-house. Back at the weigh in, it was a little nerve-racking. Finally, it was our turn to weigh in and we secured 5th place with 19.38# with only 10 teams left to weigh in. With only 3 teams left, my fears came true as we were only worried about what the Watts Brothers would bring to the scales. We heard the weigh, but it took a few minutes for them to officially announce what position that weight would put them in. Crap!! They bested us by .19 of a pound!! We were happy for the Bryan and Greg who are awesome fellas but felt pretty shocked after what a disappointing 2009 season we had. No complaints with a 6th place!! We had a great two days of fishing and secured our exemption into the 2010 Redfish Cup where I assure you, we’ll do much, much...

Read More

    These are the incredible companies that have made me so successful in professional tournament fishing and provide my clients at Redfish University with the world's best and latest in saltwater fishing gear. Please visit Eric Holstman's Pro Staff pages on all sponsor websites.

    To visit one of our sponsor's websites, just click on a logo below...

    skeeter-logo legendary-marine
    ABU GARCIA_BLACK_RED_LOGO_png-150x150 berkley-logo   patagonia-logo