March 4, 5 and 6. Back in Pensacola with some shallow water redfish and speckled trout trips the last few days. Guided a father and son team from Daphne, AL. on Sunday and some local anglers Monday and Tuesday looking for some areas and techniques to catch redfish and trout here in Pensacola. Sunday’s conditions were extremely tough with high winds, stained water, a big temp drop and slow water but the last few days got much better although the wind was still howling. All three trips were extremely productive in the form of high numbers and instruction/techniques provided. We actually found the speckled trout to be most difficult but the trout we found were all in the 16-21″ range with several shorts. The redfish were in their normal areas and were very willing to take baits placed inside small schools of mullet. All fish caught on Berkley Gulp! Jerkshads and Johnson 1/4oz Gold Spoons. Lots of fish released and a few went home for dinner. Back at it tomorrow. Thanks, E Holstman Please click an image to...

Wow! What a busy few days! Bass Pro Shops seminars, guiding in Destin and Pensacola, I need a few days off but no luck!! Great crowds at Bass Pro Shops and everyone seemed to enjoy the Redfish University seminars. Must have booked 20 guided trips so that was a great bonus!! Thank you to everyone for coming out and great meeting everyone. Guided some local anglers here in Pensacola last Thursday that just really needed some specific areas and techniques for catching mounds of speckled trout and redfish. Fished the East Bay area to find plenty of both species. The fellas were very good bass fisherman so the transition was pretty smooth as many of the techniques apply to these saltwater attractions. We stuck with Gulp! Jerkshads and Shrimp and caught a few redfish on the 1/4oz Johnson Gold Spoons. Great instruction, several beers(not me) and fun guys to fish with. Total was 30-40 speckled trout(as many as we wanted) and 8-9 redfish in the 22-30″ range. I think they’re set with the redfish and trout here in Pensacola. On Friday and Saturday, I was at Bass Pro Shops representing Pure Fishing(Berkley, Penn, Abu Garcia, Sebile, etc.) I guess the Bass Pro Shops mailers in Destin were viewed by some of my favorite Destin and new Destin clients. Had a handful of clients that wanted to fish but could only take a few. Guided longtime Redfish U. client, Jim Lawrence on Friday and a few new clients from Destin on Saturday. Both trips produced nice numbers of speckled trout on the north side of Choct. Bay and then both trips ended with some sight fishing for the big redfish on the flats of Crab Island. Lots of fun but made for some very long days! Thanks again, guys! Thanks, Holstman Please click an image to...

Welcome Pensacola Fishing Forum and Gulf Coast Fishing Connection members!! Great to seeing the big jump in traffic! Guided in Santa Rosa Sound yesterday and then over in East Bay today. Yesterday’s trip was strictly a redfish adventure with some Navarre residents that wanted to find some productive areas to fish near their home. Fished the same shallow banks and ledges as we did last week to find mostly over-sized redfish in the 30-36″ range but also put a few legal redfish on the boat as well. Stayed with the Gulp! 5″ Jerkshads and Gulp! 4″ Shrimp. We even picked up some small speckled trout in deeper water, one of which was inhaled by a large redfish halfway to the boat. It was a little tough seeing the redfish in overcast conditions but the presence of mullet really helped our efforts. Most fished released and a few hit the cooler. Today’s trip was interesting. I guided three anglers on two boats since I’m still fishing the small 17′ Maverick and the new Pathfinder 2300 HPS isn’t quite ready. The guys just really wanted to learn the area and where to catch plenty of redfish and speckled trout. Put one angler on my boat and the other anglers followed in their own boat. The trip worked out surprisingly well as we were able to make really nice drifts in close proximity. Started with some speckled trout which were plentiful but found it difficult to produce larger fish. We did find some legal fish but the off-colored water definitely added to our difficulties. Worm rattles in the Gulps! increased our catch today. Next, we got on top of the redfish. Gulp! 5″ Jerkshads and Johnson 1/4oz Spoons were equally as productive. We found it challenging at first to get a redfish to measure with most stretching to 27.5-28.5″, but we eventually found the legal redfish. An alarming amount of redfish dropped the hooks today and we worked tirelessly to improve hookset techniques and strike recognition but I’m glad everyone was able to stick it to some great redfish. Mainly a catch and release trip today but the anglers took a few...