Ended a long string of trips this morning by guiding my dad and Randy Hamilton, my website designer, for some more pompano and redfish. A free trip, of course! Having a big fish taco cookout at my house with friends and Kevin and Scott from Berkley on Friday night. Got on the water at 800am and headed towards the beach. My dad and Randy wanted to see what the new Yamaha VMax SHO 250 could do so we travelled at 67mph the entire way. Got there fast! Immediately found the pompano again concentrating around the same washouts and off-colored water. There appeared to be no pompano in the shallows and in the surfline so we jumped around to find the washouts. Picked up 10 pompano and kept 8 for the cookout. On the way back, we sight fished a few legal redfish and then a giant that my dad hooked. Ended the day with a small photo shoot for some better photos of my Yamaha SHO for the website. Back at the ramp at 1100am. Cleaned 16 pompano today and we had some great fillets for the tacos. Redfish University will spend the next three days on the Penn/Berkley Tour in Navarre, Gulf Breeze and Pensacola. Hope to see everyone there! Please click an image to enlarge and view...
Read MoreVery slow but caught some fish at Redfish University-May 14, 2010
Guided Mr. Jeff Shiver and his son, John, this morning. Today is what we call, at Redfish University, a below average day. Started out early with some topwater action over shallow sandy bottom. With quite a few topwater strikes, we found it very difficult to get the fish to stick to the hooks. Speckled trout blew the bait out of the water several times but only a few were actually hooked. Tried several different retrieves as well before we had to switch to Gulp! Jerkshads to insure fish. Ended up with a handful of quality trout including a 4# fish. With the trout bite coming to an end, we jetted for some great redfish areas, areas that have been outstanding for the last few months. Arrived around 830am to sight fish these redfish and were greeted with a few boats in the same area throwing topwater. Weird… Threw spoons at redfish and caught some very nice fish there. Travelled four or five miles to escape the crowd and found lots of uncooperative redfish but did make a few bite our spoons. Ended the morning on a nice group of hungry redfish and managed to get three or four more in the boat. Very difficult at times today but we plugged away and did as well as we possibly could. I fished hard as well the last part of the morning to locate fish and quickly found how annoying those little boogers were today! Great job Jeff and John in tough conditions!! All fish caught on Berkley Gulp! Jerkshads, Johnson Gold Spoons and a few fish on Skitterwalks. All fish released. Please click an image to enlarge and view...
Read MoreLots of redfish and trout at Redfish U.-May 13, 2010
Guided Mr. John Prudhomme and Mr. Richard Cobb this morning. Richard is strictly a livebait inshore angler but after today, we hope he’s a true believer in artificial baits for redfish and trout. Started out at 515am with some topwater speckled trout action. Found some medium-sized fish but it was much slower than earlier in the week and had some larger fish come unbuttoned. At 730am we took off for some clear water to sight fish redfish. Found some great concentrations on medium to upper slot fish in shallow water and even had some double hookups in some areas. The guys were able to see the fish and make great casts to entice some epic strikes. We also got some large speckled trout in the same areas. Early morning, the fish were taken on Skitterwalks and in the shallows, the redfish loved the Johnson 1/4oz. Gold Spoons. Great morning of fishing with 10-12 nice trout and 12-15 redfish and all fish released. Please click on an image to enlarge and view...
Read MoreTopwater and Sight fishing at Redfish University-May 5, 2010
Guided Mr. Tim Wright and friend Doug this morning. Both fellas wanted to learn about early morning topwater baits and techniques for redfish and trout. Started out at 530am and found some nice redfish immediately followed by some healthy speckled trout on the same flat. The topwater action ended around 800am so we headed for very clear water to do some sight fishing for redfish. Found large concentrations of redfish quickly and stuck some very nice redfish in shallow water. We had a plethora of sight fishing opportunities These fish seemed to prefer a slow-rolled Johnson 1/40z. Gold Spoon over everything else. Spent the rest of the morning picking off redfish and even found a large school of over-sized redfish but that ended quickly when a lady in a kayak paddled right through. Hot at times and slow at times but got to show lots and lots of redfishing and trout fishing techniques to Tim and Doug including the infamous Berkley Gulp! 4″ Shrimp deadstick on difficult redfish. All fish caught on Berkley Gulp! Jerkshads, Shrimp, Johnson Spoons and Rapala Skitterwalk. Three redfish and two nice trout were taken for dinner. Fishing is great so book now!! Please click an image to enlarge and view...
Read MorePre-Fishing for a string of trips at Redfish University-May 4, 2010
Redfish University continues normal guiding operations from Pensacola to Panama City(Port St. Joe). On days off, we will assist with BP oil spill issues if the need arises. With a long string of trips approaching and no cancellations in the coming weeks, I got out for a few hours today to locate some redfish and trout after the last five days of bad weather. Made it look easy with lots of redfish, trout and flounder taken on various baits including Gulp! Jerkshads, Baitfish, Shrimp, Lipless Cranks and even some decent topwater action. Fished for two hours and boated 7 redfish, 15 trout and 2 flounder. Lots of great fish around right now and Redfish University knows where they are and, most importantly, how to catch them! Trips tomorrow, Thursday and Friday and next week so we’ll report back soon. See everyone at Redfish U. soon. Yours, Eric...
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