Time for vacation, to get married and some fishing on my own. Heading to Ambergris Caye, Belize in the morning and spending eight days fishing for bonefish, permit, tarpon and more. Some free diving, sailing, Mayan ruins and looking for some property is also in the plans. Planning on spending LOTS of time down in Belize in the very near future. For clients looking to schedule a trip at Redfish University, please email me or leave a message on my cell which I will check a few times while in Belize(but possibly not!) I will return Monday, January 25 with a 3-Day trip already scheduled. I will be well-rested and ready to put everyone on quality fish upon returning. Reports and photos to follow in about a week’s time. See you soon. Eric...
Read MoreQuantity but not quality at Redfish University-December 26, 2009
Guided Capt. Skip Barry this morning. Capt. Skip was down from Michigan and is a salmon and trout guide up on Lake Michigan with his charter service Terminator Sport Fishing. Skip has fished all over the world and I was very pleased to show him how to catch redfish on artificials here in NW Florida. Started out on some shallow water schools at first light. Stuck a few quality fish but mostly bottom slot fish with some decent trout mixed in. As the water rose, we concentrated on some deeper uneven bottom and picked up many legal trout, redfish and 7-8 small stripers which were fun. Caught fish pretty much all morning but the quality redfish were difficult today with the exception of one 26-27″ fish that was boat-side only to split the leader. Crap!! Anyway, the total for the day was 20+ small-medium redfish, 20+ quality trout and 7-8 small stripers. 2 redfish and 5 nice trout were kept for the grill. All fish caught on 3″ Gulp! Shrimp in New Penny and Lime Tiger as well as 5″ Gulp! Jerkshads in Lime...
Read MoreInvasion of the little redfish at Redfish University-December 22, 2009
Guided Mr. Brad Barber this morning. Brad wanted to learn about shallow water redfishing in our local upper bay areas. Started out at first light and cruised to the first area. Immediately saw wakes everywhere. Push poled at first and then switched to the trolly to bump up fish. Found large groups of lower, mid and upper level redfish but found it very difficult to entice the larger fish to bite as they were very unactive and basically laying on the muddy bottom in extremely dirty water. Stuck a few decent fish and then proceeded to absolutely hammer 20-25 lower slot redfish. Only a very slow tap-tap retrieve would produce fish and the big fish wouldn’t even take a dead-stick stinky Gulp! Not really used to that frustration! Anyway, much was caught and much was learned. Hopefully Brad will return to produce lots of fish for himself and his family in the future. All fish taken on 3″ and 4″ Gulp! Shrimp in whatever color you’d like. All fish...
Read MoreVery wet day but lots of redfish-December 15, 2009
Needed to do some prefishing this morning for many upcoming trips. Grabbed my friend, Eric M, who was up for fishing in the rain and off we went. We hit some great areas and fished for a hours. Ended up with around 20 small-medium redfish. Not a bad day under the difficult conditions!! All fish released. Please click photo to...
Read MoreFun fishing with Bobby Quarles-November 13, 2009
Took a short spin around the bay this afternoon with friend, Capt. Bob Quarles. Bob is a fellow Maverick Boats guide and one of my favorite anglers to fish with. Found a big school of bull redfish and got to work. Hooked four fish on four rods including a sweet topwater strike right next to the boat. I also wanted to test my new favorite redfish combo, the Penn Conquerer 4000 and the Allstar ASR Redfish rod. Hooked a 25# redfish on this combo and really put some major pressure on the rod and reel. It came through like a champ and I actually tried to break the rod with the fish near the boat but actually broke the braid. Very, very tough set up!! Anyway, achieved my goal of pulling on some heavy fish, getting some sun on my face and watching the Blue Angels. Fun afternoon. Several trips schedule in the coming weeks and the fishing should be excellent. See everyone soon. Eric Holstman Please click an image to...
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