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Great morning with topwaters at Redfish University-May 7, 2011

Guided the Folks this morning for a little birthday trip. Started very early as the fish have been most active from 530-800am. Ran to East Bay and threw topwaters with redfish and trout almost every cast. Incoming tide but low water meant the fish were off the banks where we found plenty of mullet and bait. Some great action for the first few hours and then it really shut down. After some adjustments we found some large trout willing to bite along Scenic Hwy. Wherever we found mullet, the trout were mixed in and really found some nice numbers of quality fish. Kept a few trout and a redfish for dinner and released the rest. We did see lots of flounder squirting off early along the banks but never boated one. Weird. Please click an image to...

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Fast trout, slow redfish at Redfish University-May 6, 2011

Guided Edwin Yee and Jack today in Santa Rosa Sound. Started at first light with topwaters baits to grab some nice speckled trout and had a few redfish swing and miss. Not much mullet action this morning which made things tough for the redfish. Covered some very good areas and saw plenty of usually pretty cooperative redfish but just couldn’t draw a bite on spoons and Gulp! Jerkshads. Apparently, they are frustrated with the recent cold front and pressure conditions. I saw a few fish from long distance and still they wouldn’t bite. Picked up a nice flounder as well in the same areas. At least the fellas know where they are now and should be able to return to score big in better conditions. All fish released. Tomorrow has to be...

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Some redfish and trout at Redfish University-May 5, 2011

Guided Don Patterson today in Escambia and East Bays this morning in search of redfish and trout. Found plenty of trout to take our topwater and suspending baits but found the redfish to be very difficult with the high pressure, blue skies and cooler temperatures. Threw Gulp! Jerkshads to grab a couple small fish but nothing great. All fish released and hopefully tomorrow will be...

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Windy redfish and trout at Redfish University-May 4, 2011

Guided Mr. Robert Nelson this morning. Met with high winds out of the north, cool temps and an incoming tide. Started at 530am and launched near our fishing grounds to avoid rough water and a saltwater shower. Concentrated on some protected banks in S. Escambia Bay and East Bay where we found large amounts of mullet and minnows. Small slicks gave away the location of redfish and trout feeding over the flats and made catching pretty easy for us. We skirted the banks very closely and casted with the wind where we thought these slicks originated to find large amounts of speckled trout and a few redfish mixed in. Trout out, redfish in. Many of the redfish were actually sunning on the banks and were taken within ten feet of the bank, while the trout were anywhere between 20-100″ off the bank where the water remained relatively clear. Topwaters, suspending hardbaits, Gulp! Jerkshads and Shrimp were all taken equally. The redfish prefered a well-placed Gulp! 3″ Shrimp off the bank from where they were sitting(they will respond better with the bait towards open water). The high winds really limited our areas of fishing so we spent quite a bit of time along the long, protected bait since we never ran out of mullet and baitfish to hold our targets. For a little bonus action, we spent some time around some piling structure of the Garcon Point Bridge, especially pilings 95-120, to look for some larger trout and some over-sized redfish. With an incoming tide, I like to start on the down-current side of the structure which was on the east side of the bridge this morning. Down-current isn’t always where they are so I like to hit 5 pilings on one side and then hit the next 5 on the other side. The water depth ranges from 8-15′ in these areas so a heavier jighead or spoon is necessary especially windy conditions and with current. We prefer a 1/4-1/2oz. jighead with a 5-7″ Gulp! Jerkshad in camo or black, a 3/4oz. Johnson Gold Spoon or even deeper diving crankbaits and rattle trap type hardbaits. This particular morning we found both redfish in the 28-32″...

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Redfish and trout in the holes at Redfish University-April 28, 2011

This will be a VERY informative report today. Great advice for targeting redfish during the last few day’s weather patterns. With very, very high winds yesterday, I chose to postpone yesterday’s Redfish University trip until next week. Today looked better and ends a very long string of Redfish University trips in a row. I think we fished every day available for 17 days straight. Thats busy!! Today, I guided Keith Jones and Cullum Miller for some of the same fantastic redfish and trout action from Tuesday. Now, Tuesday was very different with high winds from the south, falling pressure and great water movement.  Today, we had north winds, rising pressure and very little water movement. In fact, it’s a neap tide. We didn’t target the banks or ends of docks like we did so successfully on Tuesday. Instead, knowing the same fish would move out and over sand holes in water between 4-8′ in depth, we rolled 1/4oz. Johnson Gold Spoons and Gulp! 5″ Jerkshads over large flats with said bottom. They were definitely there, both nice trout and medium redfish were very happy to take our baits. We scaled down to 12# Stren Tinted fluoro in Gunsmoke and really concentrated on slowing down and fishing these sand spots thoroughly. Got lots of trout and some decent redfish. All fish released. Taking a short vacation out of town for the next few three days and then back to a full slate of trips at Redfish University next week and beyond. Brought camera, battery dead, so we got a few shots with Cullum’s iPhone. E Holstman Please click an image to...

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