My local monthly/bi-monthly clients won’t give me a break this Winter! Everyone wants to catch a Grand Slam. Fished with a great client yesterday who lives on north Escambia Bay and wanted to figure out why he wasn’t catching fish up there. I’m not a huge fan of fishing north Escambia Bay and the Escambia River during any time of the year, but we really wanted to find him some big numbers of fish in his own backyard. Fished Escambia River, another river that I don’t know the name of, Mulat Bayou(the deeper water and the ponds) and Indian Bayou. Found plenty of speckled trout in the river system but not great quality. We did find some decent flounder and some 20-23″ redfish as well. Grand Slam in 30 minutes. Moved down to the bayous and found mullet and bait in a few areas. Produced some trout up to 3#, redfish to 23″ and two more 14″ flounder. Moved back north to some coves and shallow banks to find a few more decent redfish and a few bass in the 1.5# range. I guess we got some sort of Super Slam. Threw Jerkys in camo and 1/4oz. Johnson Gold Spoons all morning. No fish released today and they’re heading to a family fishfry. He know where to catch tons of speckled trout, redfish and flounder now. Today, I fished with another awesome client that wanted to fish Bayou Grande and Bayou Texar. Started at 400am!! We fished dock lights in Grande and caught a bunch of speckled trout, medium redfish a 13″ flounder. Trailered over to Texar and decided to fish the northern reaches of the bayou. Found better quality trout up to 3.5# but no huge fish today. We also hit the shallow banks and got 6 redfish up to 24″ with most in the 22″ range. One flounder. Same baits. We’ve scaled down our fluorocarbon leaders to 10-12# and will continue with that all Winter. Better strike ratio and an increased chance for large fish in the clear water. All fish released this morning. Thanks, E Holstman Please click an image to...

Angling perfection and an inshore species beatdown with Pensacola’s best this morning!! After an ill-advised, and unfortunate(for him) guiding postponement last night by a regular Redfish U. client due to cold weather in the month of December, I assembled the Dream Team to go explore some winter areas for redfish and trout. Grabbed the two best all-around, technical anglers in the region, long-time tournament fishing partner Sonny Granger and my brother, Wesley Holstman. Lots of vast angling experience and knowledge on the boat and I was looking forward to the show and learning a bit myself! We decided to fish hard and hammer as many fish as humanly possible. Both of these guys can absolutely bring the heat and they didn’t disappoint this morning! We fished for four hours and covered areas north and south. Most areas produced very quick Grand Slams of redfish, speckled trout and flounder. Many trout in the 3-4# range which was nice. We actively looked for big stripers early but we weren’t able to find any on Bongos and sub-surface baits. We mainly fished new areas with a few regularly stellar areas in the mix to try some different baits and techniques. These guys really know how to produce fish, recognize conditions/patterns/tendencies and they did it with nearly every bait in my box. It was fun to watch and converse about the countless quality trout, over 20 redfish and a handful of nice flounder flopping around the boat. Our southern location was equally as productive. Sonny’s prize was the biggest croaker we’ve ever seen at 2 pounds and Wesley’s pounding of redfish including a 27″ 7.5# beast. Now to the biggest speckled trout I’ve ever seen in Pensacola. Before I begin, and fishing as much as I do here with Redfish University, we’ve caught plenty of speckled trout in the 6-7.75# range in all seasons of the year. Going further, I’ve had the fortune and incredible opportunity to land huge speckled trout during television shows and Redfish Cup pre-fishing in Corpus Christi, Baffin Bay, Mosquito Lagoon, etc. Some of these fish were measured at 29-32″ and weighed 9-11 pounds. I guess when you fish...

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Guided one of my favorite clients, Redfish University alumni and VIP, Bob Willice this morning. Bob wanted to do a little of everything this morning. Find some big trout, learn the bay grouper fishing and then I was going to show him some awesome areas to sight fishing bull redfish on the fly when they are nowhere to be found and not on the surface. I was a bit concerned last night with the hard north wind but thought we’d be okay as long as there wasn’t any east in the wind. The grouper fishing gets a little tricky in a flats boat over at Ft. Pickens when the bay chop originates from the north or northeast. Met Bob at 545am and started at first light in Bayou Texar for some big trout. Bayou Texar is a pretty big area but it’s important to find dropoffs, deeper water and bait. About 15 minutes into our fishing, we both realized that the bay was going to be a little challenging with the building winds and I asked Bob if he wanted to reschedule on a better day late next week. He agreed. I figured since I got him up early and he drove all the way from Tiger Point, I’d show him some fantastic techniques for catching big speckled trout, redfish and flounder in our local bayous. Plus, Bob is an avid fly angler and would not doubt appreciate learning some extremely productive, protected and very consistent areas to throw a fly during the winter. We messed around and both fished for an hour and a half. Not a bad little trip with over 20 trout(some reaching 3.5#), 6 redfish(15-24″) and 3 flounder(13-15″). All fish released. I let Bob in on a super trick to get these difficult speckled trout to bite. Using a Gulp! 5″ Jerkshad in camo or rootbeer with a 3/8oz. Marsh Works jighead, we make long casts and let the bait settle. Sometimes just the commotion on the bait hitting water will trigger a bite once the bait comes to rest. A slow tap-tap retrieve with a 3-4 second deadstick is my normal cold water retrieve....

A few fish-along, instructional trips today and yesterday. Thank goodness for my Patagonia base layers and Yamaha Pro Staff cold weather riot gear. I think my clients enjoyed looking swank in the awesome Yamaha jackets and bibs as well. Looking good is fishing good(or well)!! The last few mornings have been bitterly cold, we’re on a full moon, LOW water and the water movement/tides have been poor. We’ve really had to draw on solid experience to produce quality numbers of redfish, trout and stripers. One great thing about the early morning lows is the fact that the fish are concentrated and predictable, but getting them to bite can be difficult with a full moon and dead water. Scaling down bait size is most important followed by a slow presentation and being around a ton of fish. Both mornings redfish and trout were found in the same areas in 4-8′ of water near shallow mud flats. Redfish can be seen and present in the form of muds and wakes. The presence of mullet and small minnows also increases the odds of finding both species. Gulp! 3″ Shrimp and trimmed 5″ Jerkshads work great. Also, a small plastic worm rattle will draw them to a slowly moved bait. A handful of redfish in the 23-28″ range and 15-25 legal trout were scored each morning, but overall, a very slow bite. All fish released. More to come tomorrow. E Holstman Please click an image to...