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.
Jan06
Long-time Redfish University clients, Jeff and John Shiver, flew into Pensacola International Airport late last night to go do some catching at Redfish U. The fellas wanted to target some speckled trout for dinner and then catch some big fish for a little variety on light tackle. A little pressure, especially considering their extensive travel, but I put together the best plan for their requests. Started at first-light with 1-3.5# speckled trout on nearly every cast. Again, Berkley Gulp! Jerkshads rigged with jigheads and drop-shot style are absolutely the most productive baits and techniques. Fished in the fog for trout until 8am and then ran very slowly into the bay and a very thick fog. The Yamaha SHO doesn’t like to crawl at 19-20mph! Arrived on some shallow flats and immediately found what we were looking for. Huge redfish!! We don’t target diving birds or huge schools of redfish unless absolutely necessary. Used Berkley Gulp! 4″ Shrimp to sight fish some massive redfish. Admittedly, some of the redfish were very difficult this morning but seeing them from a long...
Jan05
Happy New Year! The 2012 Redfish University season has begun with some outstanding fishing, lots of instructional trips, a “slammed” Winter season and some very exciting expansion and developments at Redfish University this year. Not to mention, Redfish University will throw the new 2012 Pathfinder 23 HPS/2012 Yamaha SHO 250HP into its arsenal soon and will offer some thrilling new services for the 2012 fishing season. Stay tuned! With the dismal trip last Saturday hanging over us, this week’s trips thus far have been much, much better. Guided some Pensacola Foolish Forum members on Tuesday, a really nice fellow from the GCFC on Wednesday and a few anglers from North Carolina this morning. Each Redfish U trip took place in completely different areas but all had one thing in common. Lots of fish! There are lots of fish in very few areas. Gulp! 5″ Jerkshads rigged with jigheads and drop-shot style were the most productive baits. Found quality redfish, speckled trout, flounder, stripers and even a bald eagle for some nice variety. Trips straight through to Monday so many...
Dec31
We don’t make excuses and I was fishing as well. Admittedly, the title is a little dramatic but let’s just say an epic and extremely successful 2011 Redfish University season didn’t end with a bang this morning. We returned safely from a dense fog to terra firma, no one fell off the boat and I remained calm although painfully perplexed so all is well. One or two trips out of a couple hundred is okay but disappointing nonetheless with certainly much more being expected from us. Obviously and understood by RU anglers, the strict use of artificial baits at Redfish University adds increased pressure to produce strong numbers but then again, my clients care nothing about livebait/natural bait for any species of fish. With conditions very similar to yesterday’s tide, wind and movement, I guided a couple new saltwater anglers, Devon and Sara. Both wanted to get some in depth instruction for inshore angling in the Pensacola area and catch some fish for dinner tonight. Superior instruction is easy enough but it’s so much more fun to view the...
Dec30
Performed an enjoyable instructional Redfish University trip this morning with the Johnson duo from Navarre, FL. My favorite aspect of Redfish University in teaching kids all I know about fishing. One on one attention. Our focus was to introduce young Caleb to inshore saltwater fishing for redfish, speckled trout and flounder. Our young angler was extremely enthusiastic, very attentive, polite and kept calling me “sir”. Very polite of him but I said, “It’s Eric”, about ten times. Haha! Not used to that, I’m young! Great kid and his parents should be very proud. While my instructional trips are flooded with detailed techniques, presentations, bait choices, areas, etc., it is also important to produce great numbers of fish so that the client can truely see that this great instruction, indeed, does work. May as well catch lots of fish while learning! Fog, slick conditions and slow water meant the bite was going to be tough. Standing on the bow side-by-side, I started Caleb out with some speckled trout. The guys found the light 6-8# Ultracast InvisiBraid fascinating and couldn’t believe...
Dec29
Guided the Pluths this morning from Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. They departed Destin in a taxi at 500am and met me at the ramp in Pensacola. The Pluths are experienced bass anglers and have done some tarpon fishing in the Keys but have never caught speckled trout or redfish. I was hoping they came to the right place and the fishing was better than the last few days. Got on the water at first light and started with some good numbers of quality speckled trout in the 1.5-3.5# range and even got some on topwater Sebile Bongos. Great start already! Most were legal with a few in the 13-15″ range but only kept what they could eat in Destin this evening. Ran to a shallow flat with lots of mullet and took another quality trout on topwater but had a few legal redfish drop the hook. Solid bites and short runs but just dropped the hook. Cruised to an area where I’ve been seeing small schools of medium-sized redfish but just couldn’t draw a bite in there....
Dec28
The last few days has been pretty slow with high pressure conditions and falling temperatures. The fish are in their normal Winter areas but it’s just a bit difficult to get them to put their mouth on the bait. Each day, Redfish University guided an angler that is very new to inshore angling although both were experienced offshore anglers. Many find the inshore techniques extremely interesting, specifically, the very light 6# Ultracast, 12-15 fluoro, light jigheads and small bait. Introduced the clients to both speckled trout and redfish areas, techniques and popular baits. The speckled trout were more difficult than the redfish and found some fish in the 1.5-3# range with most being legal. Gulp! 5″ Jerkshads in camo rigged both on jigheads and light drop-shot rigs produced the most trout. We also found some small packs of redfish in shallow water as well as around schools of large mullet. Again, a few double hookups when one angler threw at hooked fish. The redfish ranged from 23-27.5″. Since both anglers were interested in sight fishing as well, we spent...
