Guided Don Patterson today in Escambia and East Bays this morning in search of redfish and trout. Found plenty of trout to take our topwater and suspending baits but found the redfish to be very difficult with the high pressure, blue skies and cooler temperatures. Threw Gulp! Jerkshads to grab a couple small fish but nothing great. All fish released and hopefully tomorrow will be...
Read MoreWindy redfish and trout at Redfish University-May 4, 2011
Guided Mr. Robert Nelson this morning. Met with high winds out of the north, cool temps and an incoming tide. Started at 530am and launched near our fishing grounds to avoid rough water and a saltwater shower. Concentrated on some protected banks in S. Escambia Bay and East Bay where we found large amounts of mullet and minnows. Small slicks gave away the location of redfish and trout feeding over the flats and made catching pretty easy for us. We skirted the banks very closely and casted with the wind where we thought these slicks originated to find large amounts of speckled trout and a few redfish mixed in. Trout out, redfish in. Many of the redfish were actually sunning on the banks and were taken within ten feet of the bank, while the trout were anywhere between 20-100″ off the bank where the water remained relatively clear. Topwaters, suspending hardbaits, Gulp! Jerkshads and Shrimp were all taken equally. The redfish prefered a well-placed Gulp! 3″ Shrimp off the bank from where they were sitting(they will respond better with the bait towards open water). The high winds really limited our areas of fishing so we spent quite a bit of time along the long, protected bait since we never ran out of mullet and baitfish to hold our targets. For a little bonus action, we spent some time around some piling structure of the Garcon Point Bridge, especially pilings 95-120, to look for some larger trout and some over-sized redfish. With an incoming tide, I like to start on the down-current side of the structure which was on the east side of the bridge this morning. Down-current isn’t always where they are so I like to hit 5 pilings on one side and then hit the next 5 on the other side. The water depth ranges from 8-15′ in these areas so a heavier jighead or spoon is necessary especially windy conditions and with current. We prefer a 1/4-1/2oz. jighead with a 5-7″ Gulp! Jerkshad in camo or black, a 3/4oz. Johnson Gold Spoon or even deeper diving crankbaits and rattle trap type hardbaits. This particular morning we found both redfish in the 28-32″...
Read MoreA tour of Escambia Bay, East Bay and Santa Rosa Sound at Redfish University-May 3, 2011
Guided new Pensacola resident, Wendell Thompson, this morning for a thorough tour of our inshore waters. Wendell is a great bass fisherman and contacted Redfish University to introduce him to some of it’s very productive areas for redfish and speckled trout where he could use some similar bass fishing techniques to score great numbers of these popular inshore species. I decided to bring some rods and test each area with a 5-6 casts with Wendell just to make sure he was satisified with each area. Started at 600am with maps, a Sharpie and notebook in hand. Cruised over to Escambia Bay and East Bay stopping at various areas. At each area, we spent a few minutes discussing, in detail, weather conditions, tide conditions, winds, water clarity and amounts of bait/mullet. Made a few casts, caught a few redfish and trout and then moved on. *In today’s windy conditions and sometimes off-colored water, the Gulp! Jerkshads with plastic worm rattles worked great and even some topwater baits got some attention.* Around 900am, we trailered over to Santa Rosa Sound where we covered some great areas on the north and south side between Tiger Point and Navarre Beach. These areas are great because we were able to see lots of redfish and trout in the shallows, over sand and everywhere else. *In these areas, we used 1/4oz. Johnson Gold Spoons and Gulp! Jerkshads weedless in camo for the redfish and Gulp! 3″ Shrimp in camo over the deeper holes of the speckled trout.* It really made no difference between protected and wind-blown banks. In fact, the wind-blown were a little better. Wendell got some great coverage today and learned a ton about our inshore fishery. There’s no doubt he will be extremely successful in the very near future(like tomorrow!.) Covered almost 60 miles of water today and burned 12.7 gals of fuel. I love the Yamaha VMax SHO 250. Back to regular Redfish U. fishing trips the rest of the week so look for more great reports to follow. E...
Read MoreRedfish and trout in the holes at Redfish University-April 28, 2011
This will be a VERY informative report today. Great advice for targeting redfish during the last few day’s weather patterns. With very, very high winds yesterday, I chose to postpone yesterday’s Redfish University trip until next week. Today looked better and ends a very long string of Redfish University trips in a row. I think we fished every day available for 17 days straight. Thats busy!! Today, I guided Keith Jones and Cullum Miller for some of the same fantastic redfish and trout action from Tuesday. Now, Tuesday was very different with high winds from the south, falling pressure and great water movement. Today, we had north winds, rising pressure and very little water movement. In fact, it’s a neap tide. We didn’t target the banks or ends of docks like we did so successfully on Tuesday. Instead, knowing the same fish would move out and over sand holes in water between 4-8′ in depth, we rolled 1/4oz. Johnson Gold Spoons and Gulp! 5″ Jerkshads over large flats with said bottom. They were definitely there, both nice trout and medium redfish were very happy to take our baits. We scaled down to 12# Stren Tinted fluoro in Gunsmoke and really concentrated on slowing down and fishing these sand spots thoroughly. Got lots of trout and some decent redfish. All fish released. Taking a short vacation out of town for the next few three days and then back to a full slate of trips at Redfish University next week and beyond. Brought camera, battery dead, so we got a few shots with Cullum’s iPhone. E Holstman Please click an image to...
Read MoreAnother stellar morning of fat redfish and trout at Redfish University-April 25, 2011
Big winds and big fish! Guided Johnny Middleton and Mee Eun Kim of the world famous Trans-Siberian Orchestra this morning. Johnny is a bassist in the band from St. Petersburg and Mee Eun is a keyboardist from Germany. Prior to there performance tomorrow night at the Pensacola Civic Center, the artists wanted to get in some shallow water inshore fishing. These guys really caught on to the artificial bait techniques and absolutely smashed the fish today. I wish we were fishing a large, big money redfish event today because according to my calculations, Johnny and Mee Eun produced 14.25-14.5# today with several 13-14#’s duos. Oh well. Started at first light in the bay and threw Sebile Bongas at some hungry trout on sand bottom banks. Got several nice speckled trout in the 1.5-4# range but found very little mullet and very little redfish. At 8am, we trailered the Hewes 21 Redfisher and went to Santa Rosa Sound. Ran way east and found vast amounts of redfish in the 24-28″ range that just loved Johnson 1/4oz. Gold Spoons slow-rolled in 3-5′ of water. The key was targeting areas just outside small schools of large mullet. Mee Eun also picked off a very nice 4.5# speckled trout in shallow water. Two firsts for Mee Eun, redfish and trout, but even better were that they were 7.25# and 4.5# respectively. Looking forward to watching them perform tomorrow evening for the “Beethoven’s Last Night” and having some cocktails afterwards. All fish released. Book now to experience the absolute best in shallow water angling at Redfish University. Hurry. E Holstman Please click an image to...
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