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.
Dec11
Angling perfection and an inshore species beatdown with Pensacola’s best this morning!! After an ill-advised, and unfortunate(for him) guiding postponement last night by a regular Redfish U. client due to cold weather in the month of December, I assembled the Dream Team to go explore some winter areas for redfish and trout. Grabbed the two best all-around, technical anglers in the region, long-time tournament fishing partner Sonny Granger and my brother, Wesley Holstman. Lots of vast angling experience and knowledge on the boat and I was looking forward to the show and learning a bit myself! We decided to fish hard and hammer as many fish as humanly possible. Both of these guys can absolutely bring the heat and they didn’t disappoint this morning! We fished for four hours and covered areas north and south. Most areas produced very quick Grand Slams of redfish, speckled trout and flounder. Many trout in the 3-4# range which was nice. We actively looked for big stripers early but we weren’t able to find any on Bongos and sub-surface baits. We mainly fished...
Dec10
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Dec10
Guided one of my favorite clients, Redfish University alumni and VIP, Bob Willice this morning. Bob wanted to do a little of everything this morning. Find some big trout, learn the bay grouper fishing and then I was going to show him some awesome areas to sight fishing bull redfish on the fly when they are nowhere to be found and not on the surface. I was a bit concerned last night with the hard north wind but thought we’d be okay as long as there wasn’t any east in the wind. The grouper fishing gets a little tricky in a flats boat over at Ft. Pickens when the bay chop originates from the north or northeast. Met Bob at 545am and started at first light in Bayou Texar for some big trout. Bayou Texar is a pretty big area but it’s important to find dropoffs, deeper water and bait. About 15 minutes into our fishing, we both realized that the bay was going to be a little challenging with the building winds and I asked Bob if he...
Dec09
A few fish-along, instructional trips today and yesterday. Thank goodness for my Patagonia base layers and Yamaha Pro Staff cold weather riot gear. I think my clients enjoyed looking swank in the awesome Yamaha jackets and bibs as well. Looking good is fishing good(or well)!! The last few mornings have been bitterly cold, we’re on a full moon, LOW water and the water movement/tides have been poor. We’ve really had to draw on solid experience to produce quality numbers of redfish, trout and stripers. One great thing about the early morning lows is the fact that the fish are concentrated and predictable, but getting them to bite can be difficult with a full moon and dead water. Scaling down bait size is most important followed by a slow presentation and being around a ton of fish. Both mornings redfish and trout were found in the same areas in 4-8′ of water near shallow mud flats. Redfish can be seen and present in the form of muds and wakes. The presence of mullet and small minnows also increases the odds...
Dec02
Got back late last night and decided to pick up a quick trip since the weather and tides were looking very promising. Wow! We’ve been landing on some great fishing lately!! Guided Mr. Mike Peters this morning and I’d say Mike did extremely well for his first inshore, artificials-only fishing experience. Mike knocked out a Super Slams in no time with plenty of redfish, quality trout, a nice flounder and solid stripers. All fish taken on Gulp! 5″ Jerkshads in camo and a sharp Marsh Works 1/4oz jighead. Concentrated on ledges, uneven bottom and mullet. Great fishing with Mike this morning as we learned we share many of the same interests including surfing, travel and fish tacos. Mike took home a ton of fresh fish for fish tacos today. Busy, busy, busy in the coming days and weeks so more to come shortly. Thanks, E...
Nov23
We really needed to hustle around this morning with the front blowing through some time in the mid-morning. Started at 515am and took off to some very productive areas for redfish and speckled trout. Light winds, decent water movement and overcast skies provided us some confidence in finding and catching our targeted species but I knew our time was limited. We immediately boated several very nice speckled trout and a few redfish on Gulp! 5″ Jerkshads and Sebile Bongos. Unlike the last few days, all of the trout were legal fish in the 16-20″ range and even found a 31″ redfish interested in a well-place Gulp!. It was interesting because this fish was visible in six feet of water as he was just under the surface when I saw him. As the fish fell to the bottom, I asked the angler to make a 20′ cast in that direction and he took gladly took the bait. Not really sight fishing but a great redfish nonetheless. We continued to steadily stick speckled trout and a flounder in a few similar areas and the around 900am...
