Lots of morning inshore trips recently at Redfish University. A few weeks ago, I met a bunch of great folks from the GCFC while I was working with Penn Reels at the Bud Light King Tournament.  I also fished a few hours in the Bud Light inshore event with my old Redfish Cup partner, Sonny Granger and our friend, Chad, from Shimano. Grabbed a 6+ lb redfish and some 3# trout but never got a big bite. Of course, I stuck with artificials but strangely, the guys didn’t get any bites on the live croakers, pinfish, etc. Maybe I have them trained on artificials!! Anyway, fished with them until 10am and attended a prior engagement.  We’ve been concentrating mostly in Pensacola, Escambia and East Bays with some great early morning topwater action and then finding plenty of fish near structure in 6-15′ of water. It’s been so important to find large schools of mullet for the last few months. Both the redfish and trout have been hanging inside and outside these groups and will take topwaters early and then Gulp Jerkys and Johnson Spoons after about 730am. The Scenic Hwy flats have been pretty inconsistent lately but are always good for a few big trout and some average redfish. Our most productive areas have been on the south side of East Bay from Toms Bayou to the Garcon Point Bridge. We are looking for the mullet early and launch topwaters in between the docks to find some great trout and even some 22-26″ redfish. As the sun gets overhead, we can actually see lots of trout and redfish to target with Gulp! Shrimp, Jerkshads or 1/4oz Johnson Spoons. Some days are better than others but good water movement is the key to hungry fish. Plenty to see but they are tough on slow water in my recent experience. Slow it down in slow water. More to come. Thanks, E Holstman Please click an image to...

Had some trips last week, took a little trip to South Beach, then started at it again this week. We’ve been concentrating mostly in East Bay and Escambia Bay and have had very good results. Topwater action along Scenic Hwy has been great with both redfish and large trout. The east side of Escambia has been good as well with more trout than redfish. Finding some legal and oversized redfish now over in East Bay on sand flats and around shallow sandy docks. Gulp! Jerkshads are all you need and the fish are very easy to see. We are also finding some very large trout on the sand as well although they can be tricky to catch. It can be done!  Lots of groups and fish inside schools of large mullet. Many anglers are keeping a few redfish and trout for dinner. Working with Senior District Pure Fishing Rep. Kevin Benton tomorrow night at the Penn Reels tent at the Bud Light Tournament at Flounders. Stop by and say hello. Please click an image to...

Redfish University has become Speckled Trout University for the last few weeks. Guided Bob and Lauren Taylor this morning for some big speckled trout. For speckled trout, I’ve always preferred the bays not the Sound. In my opinion, the presence of large croakers, pinfish, small mullet and even spots, draw larger speckled trout and redfish to our bay system’s sand and mud flats. Started at first light and ran to a great topwater flat in East Bay. Found very dirty water from bank erosion and yesterday’s rains. Caught a few nice trout in the 2-3# range with Bongos, Stack Shadds, Gulp! Jerkshads and popping corks. The corks really work great in the dirty, turbulent water. Again, around the large schools of mullet is always best. Took the crew to some deeper oyster structure and really found some nice trout. Berkley Gulp! Jerkshads in camo with a 1/4oz. Marsh Works jighead works awesome. Very slowly on the bottom is the key. Many smaller speckled and white trout were being inhaled by huge trout at the boat. One was a 28.5″ beauty! Moved around alot and ended the day along the rocks of Scenic Hwy where I have found that some very large speckled trout lay in the uneven bottom troughs. Lots of fish over 4# today. The Taylors kept 5 medium fish for tonight’s dinner and all others released healthy and happy. E Holstman. Please click an image to...

Got a little backed up on reports so I’ll jam the last three trips together. All trips were performed in various area around Pensacola, East and Escambia Bays. Early morning topwater action has been epic with solid trout and some decent redfish. Sub-surface baits like Sebile Stick Shadds are great once the sun gets up and the trusty Gulp! Jerkshads in camo are always productive. You just have to find some larger mullet and small minnow baits and the fish are definitely there. Finding some 3-5# trout on deeper(8-15″) structure with slow Gulp! Jerkshads making them bite. Its so important to get out early especially in the last few days where the water has really slowed down at mid-morning. Lots of fish in the cooler and most released. More detailed reports on Tuesday and Wednesday. E Holstman Please click an image to...

Guided Chris Ferstl and his friend Brett this morning in the Pensacola Bay system. The fellas are from Houston and fish Trinity Bay(one of my favorites) for huge trout and redfish so I wanted to get them around those big 3-5# trout and redfish we’ve been finding. Found the wind to be coming from exactly the wrong direction today which really fouled up our early morning topwater action. Started at 500am running the nose of the Hewes 21 Redfish tabs down into a wind/tide stacked chop. Arrived to find some nice rollers pounding the banks but found a few confused speckled trout to suck some topwater Sebiles. We quickly switched to Gulp! Jerkshads with 1/4oz. jighead(in windy conditions) and found many more quality takers. Ran to the south side of East Bay for some protection and found more speckled trout in deeper holes around the docks. No redfish or flounder yet. Made our way into Escambia Bay only to find many more trout. Clear water lines with lots of mullet was the key to catching fish today. We probably hit 30-40 trout, embarrassingly only a few that hit 2.5#, but found it pretty odd not to get the normal handful of good redfish and some early flounder. It should make it very interesting tomorrow with a solid neap tide! All fish released. E Holstman Please click an image to...