Plenty of bull redfish, legal redfish and big speckled trout here in Pensacola, FL. Guided some fellas from Maine/Jacksonville on Monday who just wanted to sight fish some large redfish in shallow water. Started a little later than normal at 7am so that we’d have plenty of sun for our five hour trip. Arrived at our first stop and an immediate double hookup with a 33# and a 25# bull redfish. It continued on like that for a while and moved on to some other shallow flats. All fish caught on Berkley Gulp! 4″ Shrimp in lime tiger. Today, I had some great anglers from Starkville, MS. who wanted to catch some fish for dinner and then go hit the same groups of bull redfish that they had been reading about. Started very early this morning and ran way to the east. Our bank was a little wind-blown but we couldn’t resist some topwater redfish and speckled trout action. They were pretty interested in the topwaters this morning but with the all the surface distraction in the form of 1′ chop, the fish definitely had a problem targeting the baits. They didn’t have a problem when we went through the same area again with Berkley Gulp! 5″ Jerkshads and put the hammer to them. Awesome quality fish this morning with most in the 3-4# range and very healthy. A few redfish but nothing great so I took them to the REDFISH. Arrived at our spot and saw them immediately. Got a few fish hooked and to the boat but not as many as yesterday. A fun few days of fishing with some really cool clients and back at it for another 8 days straight. Thanks everyone for choosing Redfish University as your guide service here on the Gulf Coast. Thank, E Holstman Please click an image to...

Hello! I had a feeling this Winter, with the huge number of RU trips, this fun, part-time hobby I call Redfish University was going to get out of hand this Spring and Summer. Thank you to everyone who has fished, will fish and is currently fishing at Redfish University. It’s more than I expected, really. March 23-26 was actually 5 trips in 4 days. Hence, the opening drama. Definitely not doing anymore daily double trips. Fished Destin a few times, Navarre once and then the rest here in Pensacola. All areas along the Gulf Coast continue to be excellent and catching tons of fish is absolutely no problem. Lots of speckled trout and legal redfish in the upper bays of Choctawhatchee Bay as well as larger redfish in Ft. Walton and the deeper flats around Destin. Pensacola Bay has come alive and some areas that haven’t been productive in years are really firing on all cylinders at the moment, a result of a mild Winter no doubt. Topwaters on the flats early, then Johnson Spoons and Gulp! for the rest of the session. Fishing should be fantastic all week, with you guessed it, Redfish University trips all week. Going straight to Belize when I’m done for some lounge-time and fishing on my own. Adjo! Thank, E Holstman Please click an image to...

We’ve had some strong SE winds and some unfavorable tide movement but the fishing remains very productive at Redfish University. Guided some anglers on both mornings that just bought beach houses in the area and wanted to get familiar with Pensacola Bay and the surrounding areas. Started early for some legal redfish, speckled trout and some flounder. Had no problem finding a few of each on Gulp! 5″ Jerkshads. In fact, a few speckled trout were 22-23″. When the sun rose, we took off for some very clear, shallow flats in search of the bull redfish. We found plenty and had no problem getting them to attack Gulp! 4″ Shrimp in lime tiger and white. We found several huge groups of 20-30# redfish and pulled on them for a while. Next, we ran back west and found a huge amount of legal redfish on some shallow sand flats. Threw Gulp! 5″ Jerkshads as we sight fished redfish in the 24-28″ range. It was nice to see so many redfish and speckled trout in the shallows so early in the year. Both trips kept a few fish to take to Aegean Breeze, but most fish released. Taking a few days off and then everyday for the nearly three weeks. Thanks, E Holstman Please click an image to...

Guided a few Texas college students in search of redfish, speckled trout and flounder. They also wanted to take some fish to Aegean Breeze for dinner tomorrow night and I knew just the place their requests could be accomplished. Started with some great speckled trout along the edges and deeper flats. Lots of trout in the 14-15″ range this time but it wasn’t long before we found the bigger fish and a really nice 22″ trout inside a school of mullet. Took off to an area known for numbers of flounder but only found one nice flounder with another dropping the hook. Next, it was off to the redfish. Our lady angler stuck a great 25″ redfish immediately but we really struggled to get more bites on a few passes. Slow water movement could have been the culprit but with the wind blowing hard, it’s difficult to say. Headed north to find the huge schools of legal speckled trout in deeper water but they just didn’t show for us today. Weird… they’ve been a sure thing for last few weeks. We found a few more stray trout and called it an evening. Much learn, much caught and a fabulous dinner is in store for our Texas anglers. All fish caught on the Gulp! 5″ Jerkshads and 3″ Shrimp in New Penny. Thanks, E Holstman Please click an image to...

Guided some very good bass anglers from Arkansas this afternoon. In fact, one angler had never seen the saltwater and had never caught a saltwater fish. Fished the afternoon and immediately found some quality speckled trout and a few redfish. We really worked some areas slowly and methodically to produce our fish as they just didn’t want to commit to holding the bait. We did scale down our Gulp! to the 3″ Shrimp which helped a bit. Targeted some areas with hundreds of mullet but really didn’t hit the big numbers of redfish and speckled that we are accustom to. It was great to see our new saltwater angler picking off the speckled trout and even a nice redfish. These bass anglers are great at adjusting to the freshwater-like techniques here in Florida. I think switching to the InvisiBraid on my rods helped them recognize bite and make longer casts as they were using 10# fluoro on their own rods to start. Ended the afternoon by sticking some really nice speckled trout which were again schooling to the north. It really surprises me at the quality of some of these fish, some of which were in the 16-19″ range. We even nailed some on topwaters!! Today was a much needed catch-and-release trip. We’ve really been working the area over and taking a TON of speckled trout, redfish and flounder. Took it easy on them today. Thanks, E Holstman Please click an image to...