The Gulf Coast's Ultimate Angling Experience!
Best Rates on the Gulf Coast!! $600 (1-2 anglers) for 5 hours. $50 for each additional angler up to 4 total anglers. Includes Pensacola, Gulf Breeze, Navarre and Pensacola Beach. Call (850) 748-4368 or email ericholstman@hotmail.com. *(Adjusted for fuel prices on July 1, 2022)
Welcome to Redfish University in Pensacola, Florida
Redfish University is a unique opportunity for beginner, intermediate and advanced level anglers to improve their skills in the art of shallow water fishing for redfish, speckled trout, pompano and flounder. Redfish U. specializes in the challenging realm of sight fishing for redfish with the use of artificial baits. Redfish U. also targets speckled trout, flounder, pompano and bull redfish on traditional guided fishing trips. Our extraordinary curriculum insures that no detail is overlooked. From bait choices and line selection; to casting presentation and approaching your target, you will receive unsurpassed angling instruction. Challenge yourself, broaden your angling knowledge and invest in your fishing future at Redfish University.
Apr04
We’ve been having some early morning thunderstorms for the last few days so the rescheduling tricks at Redfish University have begun during the very busy season. The fishing in Pensacola has been excellent for our specialties of redfish and speckled trout in shallow water. Early morning topwaters with Sebile Bonga Minnows has been as good as is gets!! Nearly every cast will produce a quality speckled trout in the 15-22″ range and there are plenty of 20-25″ redfish mixed in for some high quality entertainment. Concentrating on flats with huge amounts of mullet and bait is of the upmost importance as this is exactly where both the redfish and speckled trout want to congregate. These fish are both feeding on the smaller mullet and fish bait as well as picking up crustaceans, shrimp, small crabs, etc. in the turbulence behind the large school of bigger mullet. Topwaters from daylight to 730am and then over to the Gulp! Jerkshads and Johnson Spoons to clean up the rest. We’re also finding decent numbers of flounder smoking off the banks and can...
Mar28
Plenty of bull redfish, legal redfish and big speckled trout here in Pensacola, FL. Guided some fellas from Maine/Jacksonville on Monday who just wanted to sight fish some large redfish in shallow water. Started a little later than normal at 7am so that we’d have plenty of sun for our five hour trip. Arrived at our first stop and an immediate double hookup with a 33# and a 25# bull redfish. It continued on like that for a while and moved on to some other shallow flats. All fish caught on Berkley Gulp! 4″ Shrimp in lime tiger. Today, I had some great anglers from Starkville, MS. who wanted to catch some fish for dinner and then go hit the same groups of bull redfish that they had been reading about. Started very early this morning and ran way to the east. Our bank was a little wind-blown but we couldn’t resist some topwater redfish and speckled trout action. They were pretty interested in the topwaters this morning but with the all the surface distraction in the form of...
Mar26
Hello! I had a feeling this Winter, with the huge number of RU trips, this fun, part-time hobby I call Redfish University was going to get out of hand this Spring and Summer. Thank you to everyone who has fished, will fish and is currently fishing at Redfish University. It’s more than I expected, really. March 23-26 was actually 5 trips in 4 days. Hence, the opening drama. Definitely not doing anymore daily double trips. Fished Destin a few times, Navarre once and then the rest here in Pensacola. All areas along the Gulf Coast continue to be excellent and catching tons of fish is absolutely no problem. Lots of speckled trout and legal redfish in the upper bays of Choctawhatchee Bay as well as larger redfish in Ft. Walton and the deeper flats around Destin. Pensacola Bay has come alive and some areas that haven’t been productive in years are really firing on all cylinders at the moment, a result of a mild Winter no doubt. Topwaters on the flats early, then Johnson Spoons and Gulp! for the...
Mar23
We’ve had some strong SE winds and some unfavorable tide movement but the fishing remains very productive at Redfish University. Guided some anglers on both mornings that just bought beach houses in the area and wanted to get familiar with Pensacola Bay and the surrounding areas. Started early for some legal redfish, speckled trout and some flounder. Had no problem finding a few of each on Gulp! 5″ Jerkshads. In fact, a few speckled trout were 22-23″. When the sun rose, we took off for some very clear, shallow flats in search of the bull redfish. We found plenty and had no problem getting them to attack Gulp! 4″ Shrimp in lime tiger and white. We found several huge groups of 20-30# redfish and pulled on them for a while. Next, we ran back west and found a huge amount of legal redfish on some shallow sand flats. Threw Gulp! 5″ Jerkshads as we sight fished redfish in the 24-28″ range. It was nice to see so many redfish and speckled trout in the shallows so early in the...
Mar20
Guided a few Texas college students in search of redfish, speckled trout and flounder. They also wanted to take some fish to Aegean Breeze for dinner tomorrow night and I knew just the place their requests could be accomplished. Started with some great speckled trout along the edges and deeper flats. Lots of trout in the 14-15″ range this time but it wasn’t long before we found the bigger fish and a really nice 22″ trout inside a school of mullet. Took off to an area known for numbers of flounder but only found one nice flounder with another dropping the hook. Next, it was off to the redfish. Our lady angler stuck a great 25″ redfish immediately but we really struggled to get more bites on a few passes. Slow water movement could have been the culprit but with the wind blowing hard, it’s difficult to say. Headed north to find the huge schools of legal speckled trout in deeper water but they just didn’t show for us today. Weird… they’ve been a sure thing for last few...
Mar19
Guided some very good bass anglers from Arkansas this afternoon. In fact, one angler had never seen the saltwater and had never caught a saltwater fish. Fished the afternoon and immediately found some quality speckled trout and a few redfish. We really worked some areas slowly and methodically to produce our fish as they just didn’t want to commit to holding the bait. We did scale down our Gulp! to the 3″ Shrimp which helped a bit. Targeted some areas with hundreds of mullet but really didn’t hit the big numbers of redfish and speckled that we are accustom to. It was great to see our new saltwater angler picking off the speckled trout and even a nice redfish. These bass anglers are great at adjusting to the freshwater-like techniques here in Florida. I think switching to the InvisiBraid on my rods helped them recognize bite and make longer casts as they were using 10# fluoro on their own rods to start. Ended the afternoon by sticking some really nice speckled trout which were again schooling to the north....
