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.
Mar06
March 4, 5 and 6. Back in Pensacola with some shallow water redfish and speckled trout trips the last few days. Guided a father and son team from Daphne, AL. on Sunday and some local anglers Monday and Tuesday looking for some areas and techniques to catch redfish and trout here in Pensacola. Sunday’s conditions were extremely tough with high winds, stained water, a big temp drop and slow water but the last few days got much better although the wind was still howling. All three trips were extremely productive in the form of high numbers and instruction/techniques provided. We actually found the speckled trout to be most difficult but the trout we found were all in the 16-21″ range with several shorts. The redfish were in their normal areas and were very willing to take baits placed inside small schools of mullet. All fish caught on Berkley Gulp! Jerkshads and Johnson 1/4oz Gold Spoons. Lots of fish released and a few went home for dinner. Back at it tomorrow. Thanks, E Holstman Please click an image to...
Mar05
Wow! What a busy few days! Bass Pro Shops seminars, guiding in Destin and Pensacola, I need a few days off but no luck!! Great crowds at Bass Pro Shops and everyone seemed to enjoy the Redfish University seminars. Must have booked 20 guided trips so that was a great bonus!! Thank you to everyone for coming out and great meeting everyone. Guided some local anglers here in Pensacola last Thursday that just really needed some specific areas and techniques for catching mounds of speckled trout and redfish. Fished the East Bay area to find plenty of both species. The fellas were very good bass fisherman so the transition was pretty smooth as many of the techniques apply to these saltwater attractions. We stuck with Gulp! Jerkshads and Shrimp and caught a few redfish on the 1/4oz Johnson Gold Spoons. Great instruction, several beers(not me) and fun guys to fish with. Total was 30-40 speckled trout(as many as we wanted) and 8-9 redfish in the 22-30″ range. I think they’re set with the redfish and trout here in Pensacola....
Feb28
Welcome Pensacola Fishing Forum and Gulf Coast Fishing Connection members!! Great to seeing the big jump in traffic! Guided in Santa Rosa Sound yesterday and then over in East Bay today. Yesterday’s trip was strictly a redfish adventure with some Navarre residents that wanted to find some productive areas to fish near their home. Fished the same shallow banks and ledges as we did last week to find mostly over-sized redfish in the 30-36″ range but also put a few legal redfish on the boat as well. Stayed with the Gulp! 5″ Jerkshads and Gulp! 4″ Shrimp. We even picked up some small speckled trout in deeper water, one of which was inhaled by a large redfish halfway to the boat. It was a little tough seeing the redfish in overcast conditions but the presence of mullet really helped our efforts. Most fished released and a few hit the cooler. Today’s trip was interesting. I guided three anglers on two boats since I’m still fishing the small 17′ Maverick and the new Pathfinder 2300 HPS isn’t quite ready. The...
Feb24
Guided a new angler to the area yesterday afternoon on his brand new boat. Again, what a great way to learn the Pensacola inshore area, save on fuel/tackle and produce lots of fish. It seems more and more anglers are taking advantage of this fantastic service at Redfish University. Our focus was to cover the eastern, southern and northern bays and introduce him to the most productive areas for speckled trout, redfish, flounder, etc. during the Spring and Summer months. With the Lowrance map on, we took off for a three hour tour. In each area, the MARK bottom was hit, a brief description of the area was offered, techniques and baits demonstrated, great tides for the specific area and so on. It was really incredible how much water we covered in a small amount of time. A little bumpy in some areas but we covered everything! I’m looking forward to receiving some excellent reports from our new angling friend very soon. Off to Seaside for the weekend and some Bass Pro Shops promotions with it really heating up...
Feb23
Yesterday Feb 22., I guided some fellas with a shared vacation house down in Navarre Beach. They wanted to fish close to them so they could just go out and do some fishing on their own. With the mild Winter, it was very possible that some larger redfish were already in the area so we took off to check some shallow banks and ledges. I didn’t take long to see some 30-40″ redfish cruising the banks. In this situation, we like to toss at Gulp! 4″ Shrimp on a bit heavier jighead to get it to the bottom quickly. We found a decent amount of over-sized redfish and some legals mixed in. When we ran out of bank, we concentrated on the very few cormorants in the area and found some more redfish directly underneath them. It was a really fun trip and it was great to see the redfish have already entered some areas in the Sound. Dead phone, left the camera in the Excursion and still trying to get used to this small, borrowed boat meant no...
Feb21
For the third trip with my Alaskan anglers, we departed Navy Point boatramp at 8am in search of some shallow bull redfish only to be met with stiff SE winds and some rollers over the bow of the Maverick 17 Master Angler. Returned to the ramp and asked the fellas what else they might be interested in. Both stated that they’d love to bring even more “redfish on the halfshell” back to Alaska for a family cookout. With the water moving in quickly, a SE wind and cloudy conditions, this sounded like an excellent plan. Travelled way east in the Excursion over to East Bay. I’ve been observing lots of mullet on wind-blown banks down there in the past few months and thought we’d be able to grant the request. Tied on some 1/4oz. Johnson Gold Spoons in gold and black and knocked out the redfish in a very short period. Continued down the bank and stuck redfish after redfish with some doubles in the mix. Most fish were great 23-27″ redfish but we did have a few overs...
