Heading to Wal-Mart Headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas in the morning to focus on Wal-Mart’s fishing departments on the Gulf Coast. Arriving in Bentonville at 300pm and immediately hitting the water with Jeff Cope and other Wal-Mart and Pure Fishing execs for a little bass fishing. Hotel check-in and dinner Monday night and then meetings all day on Tuesday. Departure at 300pm and back home for a busy week of guiding Wednesday-Sunday. I’m really looking forward to helping as much as I can. I will provide a detailed report upon my return. See everyone soon! E...
Read MoreRedfish in the shallows at Redfish University-April 3, 2010
Guided Mr. Billy Thigpen again this morning. Dropped off my Hewes 21 Redfisher at The Ship’s Chandler to have the new Yamaha 250 SHO mounted and pick up the Maverick 17 HPX. Hit Santa Rosa Sound around 1000am and found redfish immediately. Sight fished and blindcasted small, medium and over-sized redfish in 1-5′ feet of water. Found fish on the banks and dropoffs. The Maverick 17 HPX poles beautifully and was able to get into some very thin water where the fish were. All fish caught on Berkley Gulp! Jerkshads and 1/4oz. Johnson Gold Spoons. All redfish released. Please click an image to enlarge and view...
Read More7# Speckled Trout, 6.5# Redfish, bulls and pompano at Redfish University-April 2, 2010
Guided Mr. Billy Thigpen this morning. Billy is a regular client from Atlanta and is down for Easter. We started out early for some big speckled trout and did we find them!! Billy stuck a 7# trout at first light. We also hit some very nice redfish in the same areas including a nice 6.5 fish. After an hour of slaying the redfish and trout, we took off for the beach in search of pompano. Found some pompano concentrating around deeper holes. We also sightfished several large redfish in the surf while we searched for the pompano. All fish caught on Berkley Gulp! Jerkshads and pink/orange pompano jigs. Guiding Billy again tomorrow in the Maverick 17HPX in some very shallow water and we’ll be throwing at tailing and cruising redfish all morning long. Can’t wait! Please click an image to enlarge and view...
Read MoreRedfish and Speckled Trout but no Pompano(yet) at Redfish University-March 30, 2010
Guided Mr. Jim Tully and Mr. Dustin Martinson this morning. Jim and Dustin are regular clients, great anglers and lots of fun to fish with. Today, Jim and Dustin asked me to take them sight fishing for pompano. For a little bonus action, I offered them an hour or so targeting speckled trout before the sun got high. Both anglers stuck some trout including Jim’s 5# beast. At 800am, we took off for the pass. As we came around the point we found a school of redfish and stopped for some light tackle fun. Good thing we found them first before some other boats big motored through the fish. The redfish were fun but not what we were looking for. Spent 2 hours sight fishing a 3-4 mile stretch of beach. Jim actually had one pompano following his bait, but we only saw 5-6 confirmed pompano. What was also surprising, no redfish or drum to throw at either! With no possibility of pompano and after looking in some more unconventional areas, we were unfortunately left to hit the big redfish again. Stuck 4 or 5 more redfish and called it a morning. At Redfish University, pompano were promised. Jim and Dustin will be joined me for a pompano specific trip in the coming weeks when there are actually some pompano in the water. That’s how we roll! All fish taken on Gulp! Jerkshads rigged on my favorite Marsh Works jigheads. Also worth mentioning, these 15-25# redfish were taken on 6-10# InvisiBraid(pompano tackle) with a 10-15# fluoro leader. All fish cared for and released healthy. Please click an image to enlarge and view...
Read MoreBerkley/Penn Tour update March 25-27, 2010
As a Berkley Pro Staff angler, I have some great opportunities to travel and introduce anglers to new products from the world’s largest fishing company, Pure Fishing. From March 25-27, I joined Berkley Marketing/Team Coordinator, Scott Dubiel, and FL/GA/AL Senior Regional Sales Rep., Kevin Benton, for the 2010 Eastern FL Panhandle Berkley/Penn Tour in Panama City, Destin and Port St. Joe. Highlights of this year’s event included the new Penn Conquers, the Penn Torque Spinning reels, the Penn Sargus Series and the new Berkley Gulp! Ghost Shrimp. As always, we stayed at the beautiful Bay Point Marriott and will return in the summer with the Penn Tour for the 2010 Bay Point Invitational Billfish Tournament. The Berkley/Penn Tour will visit Pensacola, Gulf Breeze and Navarre on May 20-22. See everyone there! Had a few days off from guiding but back at it hard next week with trips Mon-Saturday then heading to WalMart in Bentonville, AR. next Monday and Tuesday. See everyone soon! Please click an image to enlarge and view...
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