After a few days off to work with Berkley, I guided Mr. Mitch Smith this morning. Mitch is a very good angler and wanted to go find some redfish. Very poor conditions today with 20-30mph winds, no water movement from the neap tides and a full moon to top it off. No problem. Started out early with some very nice speckled trout while we waited for sun to get high. After catch our trout we headed for the redfish. Hard winds made things difficult but we made the appropriate adjustments and decisions. Mitch started off with a 25.5″ 6.25# fatty and then stuck the perfect redfish. On the paint at 27″ and 7.75#. Nice tournament weight of a little over 14#’s of meaty redfish. Continued to stick more fish including some oversized beasts between 10-20#. Plenty of redfish around and they are very willing to bite. All fish caught on Berkley Gulp! Jerkshads in camo and rootbeer rigged with my favorite Marsh Works jigheads. Johnson Spoons also took some fish. Pompano tomorrow! Please click an image to enlarge and view...
Read MoreBerkley/Penn Tour update March 25-27, 2010
As a Berkley Pro Staff angler, I have some great opportunities to travel and introduce anglers to new products from the world’s largest fishing company, Pure Fishing. From March 25-27, I joined Berkley Marketing/Team Coordinator, Scott Dubiel, and FL/GA/AL Senior Regional Sales Rep., Kevin Benton, for the 2010 Eastern FL Panhandle Berkley/Penn Tour in Panama City, Destin and Port St. Joe. Highlights of this year’s event included the new Penn Conquers, the Penn Torque Spinning reels, the Penn Sargus Series and the new Berkley Gulp! Ghost Shrimp. As always, we stayed at the beautiful Bay Point Marriott and will return in the summer with the Penn Tour for the 2010 Bay Point Invitational Billfish Tournament. The Berkley/Penn Tour will visit Pensacola, Gulf Breeze and Navarre on May 20-22. See everyone there! Had a few days off from guiding but back at it hard next week with trips Mon-Saturday then heading to WalMart in Bentonville, AR. next Monday and Tuesday. See everyone soon! Please click an image to enlarge and view...
Read MoreBeautiful but tough day at Redfish University-March 23, 2010
Guided Brian and Holly McDuff this morning. Brian and Holly are moving to Gulf Breeze very soon and wanted to learn about our inshore fishery here in Pensacola. Started out early in search of speckled trout. Found some fish and caught a few in the 2-3.5# range but the bite was painfully slow. Made our way into the upper bays in search of redfish and trout. Found some fish sitting but no takers. Very unusual in normally very productive areas. Headed south to find redfish in clear water. Immediately stuck a few oversized fish and then never found another decent concentrate of redfish. We saw a few uncooperate fish but it was all downhill from there. All fish taken on Berkley Gulp! Jerkshads rigged with Marsh Works jigheads. Holly was able to cast a spinning outfit pretty well by the end of the trip and even stuck the largest redfish on the day! Because I thought this trip was unsatisfactory, Brian and Holly will be joining me in the next month or so for a makeup trip to really show them how productive our inshore fishery can really be. Looking forward to redeeming...
Read MoreFinally found them at Redfish University-March 16, 2010
Guided Mr. Fred McGafferty and Mr. David McGafferty this morning. Started out in the upper bays looking for redfish and trout but the combination of dirty water and little water movement from the neap tide made things difficult. Picked off one 5.5# speckled trout and a few smaller ones. Also got a few small redfish. With things looking grim up there, we decided to cruise south in search of clear water and redfish. We immediately found a great area to sightfish redfish in the 29-42″ range. Stuck plenty of 12-21# redfish in 4-8ft of water. All fish caught on Berkley Gulp! Jerkshads rigged with Marsh Works Jigheads. Also worth mentioning, these big fish were taken on 6# and 10# Berkley Crystal and Spiderwire Ultracast InvisiBraid. All fish release. Heading to Jacksonville tonight for the first HT3 Cup East event. See everyone next week!! Please click an image to enlarge and view...
Read MorePart 1-Big Trout at Redfish University-March 14, 2010
Guided Dr. Jay Erickson on this beautiful Sunday morning. Jay wanted to learn about the speckled trout near his home and then go catch some redfish in the backwaters in the coming weeks. The winds laid down for us and although we had a neap tide with very little water movement, we really stuck it to some big trout. In fact, we didn’t catch a speckled trout under 4 pounds and had a few fish a bit over 5 pounds. Fished some deeper potholes and had to trust that these fish were laying out the bottom. Caught a bunch and missed even more! Also, landed a small redfish in the same area. All fish taken on Berkley Gulp! Jerkshads rigged with Marsh Works jigheads. All fish handled with great care and released healthy. Part II in the coming weeks! Stay...
Read MoreThese 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...
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |