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.
Jan21
Took a much needed break last weekend and earlier in the week but got back to business mid-week. Business is GOOD. Big numbers of redfish, speckled trout and a few flounder each trip made for some incredibly successful instructional and pure fish-catching Redfish University guide trips. With the warmer weather as of late, we fished lots of mullet and bait infested flats and especially windy, unprotected banks. As always, a Gulp! 5″ Jerkshad is absolutely deadly but we did switch over to some Johnson 1/4oz. Gold Spoons and small Bongos in areas with large numbers of redfish. In some areas, the speckled trout can be taken on nearly every cast with most being legal in the 16-18″ range. In fact, we’re really seeing more quality speckled trout than years past and found consistent 3-4# speckled trout in some areas. The flounder are still found on current swept points around uneven bottom. I suspect if we were actually targeting flounder we’d catch many more per trip but our primary focus is redfish and trout. Speaking of redfish, some beautiful redfish...
Jan13
It is Friday the 13th but I’m pretty certain it was the overnight 35 degree temperature drop that stopped the fish in their tracks this morning. When people want to fish, they want to fish. In any conditions, I guess! Guided a few fellas that wanted to catch some redfish, trout and flounder that have been so easy to come by this week. Started at 600am with ice on the boat and a stiff NW wind. Slowly, slowly cruised to our first stop and we all felt the immediate windburn. Made a few strategic casts and caught some decent speckled trout and a few small/medium redfish. Pretty nice start considering! Well, it was a tremendous struggle from there. No mullet, no bait and very little water movement. We used some rivers and creeks as our water movement and picked up a few more speckled trout and some more solid strikes. Finally, we decided to just stick in water depths of 5-10′ and be around as many fish as possible. Slow taps and deadsticks lured a few more trout and...
Jan12
Guided Steve from Georgia yesterday and a fellow from the Milton area on Tuesday. Both gents were in search of angling instruction and nice catches of redfish, trout and flounder. Needless to say, the last few days have been very windy. A big west wind shouldn’t be feared but celebrated, especially in rising water conditions. The good thing about a hard west wind is the fact that it will move the water more quickly and I really like where it pushes the mullet and bait. Each day, we focused directly on wind-pounded banks and found more redfish, trout and flounder than I’ve seen in a long time. In fact, many of the speckled trout were in the 3.5-5# range. These fish can still be found on shallow flats and obviously, much less stressed by falling water temperatures. We’re even getting plenty of big trout on topwater baits. In 20-30 mph winds, boat positioning is critical and casting with the wind is an absolute must. Also, very light Ultracast InvisiBraid(6#), a bit bulkier jighead and Gulp! with worm rattles in...
Jan09
Guided a nice couple from West Point, GA. this morning. Started with some nice speckled trout but found the bite to be pretty slow. Eventually, we found a big group of fish and had a decent run. At 800am, we took off to find those huge redfish everyone is coming to Redfish University to see. Got on the trolling motor and didn’t see a redfish! Checked a few more productive areas and didn’t even pick one up blindcasting. Very disappointing but they simply were not there. All fish released this morning and we’ll get the redfish later in the week. This afternoon’s trip with Mr. Colby is another story. More of an instructional trip this afternoon with a very good angler who was interested in learning a few new areas to produce great numbers in the Fall/Winter. Predictably, it started a little slow but really ramped up as the water rose and the sun fell. Stuck some big trout on Jerkshads and Bongos including a great 4.5# fish. We also had some great flounder action in shallow water. A...
Jan08
Today we performed two more extremely instructional and very successful trips at Redfish University. The morning session started at 600am and the matinee got underway at 1230pm. Both groups of anglers wanted to learn highly productive areas and techniques for the upper bay areas of Pensacola. Great tides today with falling water in the morning and a rising tide in the afternoon. The full moon was completely ignored as always by the fish and Redfish University. Both trips yielded huge catches of speckled trout, legal/over-sized redfish, flounder and striped bass. Both trips accomplished the Super Slam today with a redfish, trout, flounder and striper. We had some incredible topwater action for redfish today with some explosive topwater hookups with some fish clearing the surface to pounce on the Sebile Bongos. Gulp! 5″ Jerkshads and Sebile Bongos were the baits of choice for the morning and afternoon sessions. Lots of fish were released and quite a few were kept for dinner. Camera pooped out on the second trip but the photos are identical to the first. Another double booking tomorrow...
Jan07
Ran a double-header today and absolutely hammered the fish. Guided a new resident in the Milton area that wanted learn about the upper bay areas in hopes of producing great catches of redfish and speckled trout in the future. Started at daylight with a bunch of really nice speckled trout including some 3-3.5# fish. Covered some shallow flats later and found both redfish and large speckled trout mixed in the mullet. For the finale, we approached some schools of large menhaden and really stuck it to the 30-35″ redfish which were found under and outside the bait schools. Really fun morning of catching and lots of great instruction. Our angler took a few nice trout and a redfish for dinner this evening and will, no doubt, be very pleased with his future angling adventures. For round two, my clients, Roger and Barbara Orth, invited me to a poolside lunch before we took off to catch some large redfish in shallow water. Yellowfin tuna steaks, roasted potatoes, a ginger salad, Texas toast and (one) a fine Chinese beer called Chang....
