Spending a lot of time on the water lately with more guide trips than I can handle and lots of people wanting to go fishing. Santa Rosa Sound has been great in the early mornings for redfish and medium trout over the shallow grass but it really dies around 8am. Bongos and Stick Shadds are great choices right now. Around 8am, we’ve been running to some areas in Pensacola Bay where there are lots of sharks between 3-5′. Shark Week!! Plenty of blacktips that really put on a great show when hooked. Many anglers have requested shark fishing after the flats so that really makes the last few hours simple although it’s a little nerve-racking with so many unpredictable sharks coming to the boat. In the last few days, East Bay and Escambia Bay have really turned on with the rains ending and the water clearing. Early morning topwaters are producing huge amounts of quality speckled trout and a handful of nice redfish. A few mornings we must have gotten over 50 trout in the 14-23″ range on topwaters. The trout are off the banks inside the large schools of mullet and the redfish are very close to the banks on high water. Most fish were released but several were taken for dinner at Aegean Breeze and for cookouts up north. E Holstman Please click an image to...

Monday I guided Richard Woodall for some instructional redfishing over in Santa Rosa Sound. Met with excellent conditions except for all the seagrass on the surface which made topwater fishing nearly impossible. The few redfish we did catch must have landed right on their nose because they pounded the bite in the first two feet. Also found some decent speckled trout and a few more small redfish on Johnson 1/4oz Gold Spoons. At 800am, I decided to trailer the boat over to East Bay and give that a try. Dirty water everywhere but we managed a few better trout including a 4# fish. Gulp! Jerkshads in Camo with worm rattles did the trick. Also found lots of gafftop catfish which was lovely. A very slow day but I hope much was learned. Today, I guided Mrs. Bekki Studer and her son, Calam, for some more inshore fishing. Thankfully, Bekki mentioned that Calam would like to catch lots of fish and big fish. Since the redfish and trout have been crap recently, I was very happy to accommodate the duo on the easiest fishing trip in the world!! Hit the Pass and caught a plethora of Spanish and ladyfish. They really has a blast! Threw about 10 of those in the livewell and made a run back into the bay. Set up near Buoy 22 and dropped a few large spinning outfits with long wire leaders. Good grief there are tons of sharks out there!!! It took about 2 minutes to get a double hookup and the chaos was on. Jumping sharks, long running sharks, I just sat on the poling platform and laughed all morning. Little Calam was thrilled and Bekki got an incredible arm workout with numerous sharks herself. Most fish were 3-5′ at around 10-40#’s and no idea how many we caught or jumped off. Mostly blacktips I think, although who knows. I know nothing about sharks quite honestly. Didn’t get many photos of the sharks as I needed to handle the fish as they aprroached the boat for obvious reasons. Hopefully Bekki will send some photos of my struggles with these crazy animals. Smiles, photos, sore anglers and the easiest...

Sometimes it’s a little tricky to predict what our local redfish are going to do from day to day, but the redfish under the conditions we had the last few days were as predictable as it gets. Light to zero mph north winds, VERY slow incoming tide, high sun and hot water meant the redfish would be found in extremely shallow water. Both outings were very similar. Topwaters at first light produced some big strikes and a few redfish and trout. Slow moving water means inactive redfish and trout but they will bite, especially over sand bottom. Since we were in Santa Rosa Sound both days, most of the fishable sand bottom areas can be found on the south side and in a handful of fishable areas on the northside. Being in close proximity to deeper(3-6′) water is also very helpful and as always, huge amounts of mullet and flashing pinfish is an absolute must.  Trolled the fellas down very shallow banks that had great shallow sand areas near the shore and found the redfish and big trout pretty cooperative. I viewed many fish behind us over the solid grass that were definitely uncomfortable. Of the 75-100 redfish that I saw, only a few showed any interest at all and took the spoons or Gulp! The sand banks were another story. Tailing fish, waking fish, cruising fish and sitting fish on the sand are ALWAYS more likely to take artificials in clear, slick, dead, hot water. Gotta make the accurate cast though! All fish released except a few for Aegean Breeze tonight. Thanks, E Holstman Please click an image to...

They got a little tricky on us the last few days but the beauty of artificial baits is you can cover lots of water. That was exactly what we did. Guided the head of the Yamaha Testing Facility up in Alabama, Keith Vince and his son this morning for some redfish action in Santa Rosa Sound. We really had to work for them today. The full moon, although it was covered most of the evening, really made things difficult with lots of big bites but very few sticks. Started with the Sebile Bongos and I encouraged the guys to really slow down the baits and use a pause. Stuck a few small redfish and then got a 24″ fish that finally grabbed the bait. Even the trout were off today. Frustrated with the first hour or so, I switched us over to the Johnson 1/4oz. Gold Spoons and went in search of large schools of mullet. Success!! We found some huge schools of mullet and slowly rolled the spoons through the mullet on the surface. Slow, slow, slow was the difference between a handful of fish and zero fish. Redfish to 27.5″ and some better trout made the day much better but overall it was very slow. The fellas took a few for dinner and we released the rest. Oh, and I caught the smallest redfish today at 8″. Rescheduled tomorrow’s trip for better conditions next week. E Holstman Please click an image to...

Finding some excellent redfishing in the early morning hours at Redfish University. With the recent rains and dirty water in the bays, we’ve been concentrating in the far reaches of Santa Rosa Sound. The most productive hours are between 515am and 7am. Guided Robert Ruffino and Robert Jr. of Baton Rouge, LA. yesterday and my website designer, Randy Hamilton, and my dad for a short trip this morning. Started with Sebile Bongos over grass in 2-3ft of water and around small schools of mullet in mixed sizes. Robert Jr’s second cast was hammered by a 27.5″ 8# redfish that really worked him over. Further down, he stuck a -27″ redfish that weighed in at 7.25#. Had some quality trout coming to the boat as well. It wasn’t long been he did it again with a 26 7/8″ redfish at 7.25# again. Would have been a great tournament morning with +/-14.5#’s in 20 minutes. Maybe I’ll fish a little tournament here soon!! Anyway, sent the guys home with a few nice fish for fish tacos. This morning, my dad and, website designer, marketing genius and advertising guru, Randy Hamilton joined me for some redfish action in similar areas in the Sound. Again, redfish to 7#’s although the west wind and surface grass slowed things down a bit. In choppy water, a topwater that has a pitchy rattle and produces some bubble-splash is key. The Bongos do both so we were golden. Sent some redfish home with my dad. Last week, I worked with Penn Reels and Berkley down at the Baypoint Invitational Billfish Tournament in Panama City, FL. Met several nice folks and saw some nice offshore species hit the scales including a 404# Blue Marlin. Lots of new Berkley Gulp! baits, Sebile jigheads, superlines, monofilament and reels/rods from Penn coming out in September. Keep your eyes peeled. Thanks again, E Holstman Please click an image to...