Guided Mr. Steven Schubert this morning. Collected Steven at the Ramada on Scenic Hwy. at 450am and continued to the ramp. Made a quick four mile run to begin with the topwater baits. The protected bank was pretty glassy(too glassy in my opinion) but we quickly attracted some great blowups. I believe a significantly slower dog-walk is the key to producing more fish on topwater in glassy conditions. Steven stuck quite a few nice speckled trout and was gloriously rewarded with a second cast to a redfish looking for his topwater bait. A fine 26″ stout fish. Abandoned the topwaters around 730am and stayed with Berkley Gulp! Jerkshads with worm rattles the rest of the day. Found some water to be stained and off-color, hence the rattles. Rattles in Steven’s bait and zero rattles in my bait. I think Steven had 5-times as many bites and probably learned a bit about stained water fishing. Anyway, pounded away at nice trout and redfish the rest of the morning. Strangely, we both had several fish drop hooks this morning including a few huge trout and some nice redfish. In fact, a very large trout inhaled a small croaker that I accidently hooked and held it all the way to the boat only to be lost through the hole in my net. Need to fix that!!! Steven was a blast to fish with and he took some redfish and trout home for dinner. Please click an image to enlarge and view...
Read MoreTricky redfish and trout at Redfish University-June 6, 2010
The calls/emails keep coming, so Redfish University will continue to guide on the Gulf Coast. Our inshore waterways remain clear of oil. Guided Mr. Preston Thomas this morning. Preston is an experienced angler and wanted to go checkout some redfish and trout action in Pensacola Bay. Started out at 515am with some topwater action. Found the fish to be pretty sluggish today(maybe as a result of all the rain yesterday), but we did catch a handful of speckled trout until the bite came to a halt. Travelled to some other productive areas and found the redfish/trout more cooperative on the Berkley Gulp! Jerkshads. Most of the redfish were on the small side but we did find one larger 4.5# trout. Continued a little milkrun and found a few fish in each area. Today was pretty difficult but I think we did as well as we possibly could. Slow bite, lots of freshwater. Preston returned home with some redfish and trout to prepare on that new professional oven of his. Please click an image to enlarge and view...
Read MoreMore pompano and redfish at Redfish University-May 19, 2010
Ended a long string of trips this morning by guiding my dad and Randy Hamilton, my website designer, for some more pompano and redfish. A free trip, of course! Having a big fish taco cookout at my house with friends and Kevin and Scott from Berkley on Friday night. Got on the water at 800am and headed towards the beach. My dad and Randy wanted to see what the new Yamaha VMax SHO 250 could do so we travelled at 67mph the entire way. Got there fast! Immediately found the pompano again concentrating around the same washouts and off-colored water. There appeared to be no pompano in the shallows and in the surfline so we jumped around to find the washouts. Picked up 10 pompano and kept 8 for the cookout. On the way back, we sight fished a few legal redfish and then a giant that my dad hooked. Ended the day with a small photo shoot for some better photos of my Yamaha SHO for the website. Back at the ramp at 1100am. Cleaned 16 pompano today and we had some great fillets for the tacos. Redfish University will spend the next three days on the Penn/Berkley Tour in Navarre, Gulf Breeze and Pensacola. Hope to see everyone there! Please click an image to enlarge and view...
Read More22 Pompano, redfish and trout at Redfish University-May 18, 2010
Guided Jim Tully and Dustin Martinson for some redfish, trout and pompano fishing. Started out early with some topwater in shallow water and scored some decent trout and some medium redfish. Fished a few more areas but the bite was pretty slow so we took off to the beach to find some pompano. The pompano were very cooperative and we found them on washouts and deeper drops in the surf-line. Very hot action from 930am-1200 on the rising tide. We had some nice strikes near the boat as well as fish followed the bait on a quick retrieve and we were able to drop the bait to the fish. Pretty cool opportunities! Ended up with 22 pompano in a few hour period with lots of annoying ladyfish mixed in. Today, the fish were caught on Skitterwalks and Berkley Gulp! Jerkshads in the morning and all pompano were taken on orange pompano jigs. 15 Pompano were kept by Jim, Dustin and myself. Thanks for the pompano fellas and see ya soon! Please click on an image to enlarge and view...
Read MoreVery slow but caught some fish at Redfish University-May 14, 2010
Guided Mr. Jeff Shiver and his son, John, this morning. Today is what we call, at Redfish University, a below average day. Started out early with some topwater action over shallow sandy bottom. With quite a few topwater strikes, we found it very difficult to get the fish to stick to the hooks. Speckled trout blew the bait out of the water several times but only a few were actually hooked. Tried several different retrieves as well before we had to switch to Gulp! Jerkshads to insure fish. Ended up with a handful of quality trout including a 4# fish. With the trout bite coming to an end, we jetted for some great redfish areas, areas that have been outstanding for the last few months. Arrived around 830am to sight fish these redfish and were greeted with a few boats in the same area throwing topwater. Weird… Threw spoons at redfish and caught some very nice fish there. Travelled four or five miles to escape the crowd and found lots of uncooperative redfish but did make a few bite our spoons. Ended the morning on a nice group of hungry redfish and managed to get three or four more in the boat. Very difficult at times today but we plugged away and did as well as we possibly could. I fished hard as well the last part of the morning to locate fish and quickly found how annoying those little boogers were today! Great job Jeff and John in tough conditions!! All fish caught on Berkley Gulp! Jerkshads, Johnson Gold Spoons and a few fish on Skitterwalks. All fish released. Please click an image to enlarge and view...
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