Sight fishing for Pompano $350.00 for 6-7 hours!!(1-2 anglers)

Redfish University now offers the incredible experience of sight fishing for pompano from March to June.  Test your sight fishing skills with light tackle or fly gear in the crystal-clear waters of the Gulf Coast’s most beautiful beaches.

Pompano trips are from 8am-2pm at a rate of $350.00(1-2 anglers)

Guided Mr. Ted Taylor this morning in Destin, FL. Ted wanted to learn a bit about shallow water redfishing and figure out what works and what doesn’t work. We were met with cool but pretty nice conditions. We stuck redfish immediately with 4-5 nice fish off the first mudflat. Scooted over to another location with lots of mullet and bait. Lots and lots of redfish inside these schools and they were  easy to catch. Poled another shallow area and grabbed a few more tailing fish and then called it a morning. All fish caught on 1/4 Johnson Gold Spoons and 5″ Gulp Jerkshads in camo. All fish released. In Destin tomorrow and Sunday morning at Bass Pro Shops Spring Classic and may hit some of those fish before showtime.

Today I had a great meeting with Jeff Cope and Jay Geeding from Wal-Mart Headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. Both gentlemen are Category Managers for Pure Fishing(Berkley, Penn, etc.) and asked me to assist in providing customers with a better saltwater selection and improving the overall direction of the fishing department in many stores. Started the morning at the Gulf Breeze Wal-Mart and I hope I offered some creative and thoughtful ideas to improve the saltwater choices in the fishing department. I thought I had a pretty firm grasp on the fishing industry but, like with fishing, there’s always much more to learn and I did. Well, this is where the productivity ended. After our meeting, we decided to jump on my boat and go stick a few redfish and trout. We weren’t too excited about the temps, wind, water clarity and bright blue skies but they insisted that I knew what I was doing and they just wanted to get out on the water. That’s exactly what we did. I honestly can’t remember the last time I(or clients) didn’t catch a single fish in ANY conditions!! The timing was classic as these guys aren’t exactly the company you want to have a below average trip with! Fished for two hours, got 3 decent bites and saw a handful of redfish but incredibly, they just wouldn’t pick up the bait. Did the earth counter-rotate today? Oh well, I know where not to go for tomorrow’s and Saturday’s trips.

The 2010 Bass Pro Shops Spring Classic in Destin will take place February 27-March 13, 2010. Both weekends, I will be at the Bass Pro Shops reel counter assisting anglers and Bass Pro employees with Pure Fishing reels, rods, Gulp! baits, superlines, fluorocarbon, etc. We also have some Redfish University seminars planned. Here’s a list of the Pure Fishing promotions we will be offering during the Spring Classic. Thanks, Eric Holstman

First weekend: Reel Trade-in (Abu Garcia, Pflueger, Penn and Mitchell reels) February 26 thru March 3  Bring in a reel that you no longer use, and for donating the old reel, you will receive a coupon towards the purchase of a new reel. The discount is scaled depending on the value of the new reel you purchase. See a fishing associate for more details.

 HOT DEALS –

ABU GARCIA

·                         Any REVO reel over $169 get a FREE pair of Wiley-X glasses ($126.00 value)

·                         Any reel from $89.99 to $139.99 get a $10 mail-in rebate – (C4, Revo S, Kalex 6000, Soron reels)

PFLUEGER

·                         Any reel over $79.95 gets an Oster Deep Fryer ($59.95 value) – this is a BASS PRO exclusive!!! ….FILET’UM & FRY’UM … make the wife happy with a gift!!!

·                         Any reel between $39 & $79.95 get a FREE T-Shirt

 UGLY STIK

·                         Get a FREE T-Shirt with a rod or combo

MITCHELL

·                         Buy any reel over $34.99 get a Coleman Lantern (this is a really cool lantern – no batteries needed you can hand crank it to charge it!!!!! Great for camping, bad weather, fishing the bank or in a boat…it will always work

BERKLEY –

·                         Buy 2 of anything and get a rebate – so if you see a customer with Gulp Alive at $19.99 get them to buy a spool of line or a bag of bait so they get $7 back!!

·                         NOTE this is a great promotion and with Bass Pro doing 20% off you can give our customers a BIG rebate deal …makes our baits CHEAP!!!

ALSO –Bass Pro Exclusives: Swim Baits 2”, 3”, 4”, 5” and 6” pre rigged (these are in little trays so the bait will swim right with no bent tails!) they also have 12” worms, 8” Lizards and 7” Shaky worms that are an exclusive in these BIG BAGS!! - - - Plus if you are in some stores they have exclusive colors of the FLICKER SHADS …really great colors!!!

 SPIDERWIRE –

·                                         If you buy a 125yd spool of Spiderwire Stealth you get $7 back — on one spool

·                                         If you buy a 300yd spool you get $10 back —– only need to buy one spool

·                                         THESE ARE HOT DEALS If you are in a Saltwater Store please look at the PENN promos that are advertised – on the new super cool Conquer reel promotion get a FREE spool of Stealth.

Guided Travis McKinley this morning over in Destin. Slow-rolled spoons in some pretty stained water. Fished some very productive areas and boated several quality redfish with some nice trout mixed in.  Found good concentrations of redfish in 1-5 feet of water and we were even able to sightfish some fish and pitch at waking fish. The water is still pretty cool and off-color but it was a good day of catching and learning. All together,we stuck 15-18 redfish in the 22-28″ range and 3 nice trout in a 4.5 hour period. All fish taken on Johnson 1/4oz. Gold Spoons(slow-rolled.) A very busy few weeks coming up, see everyone soon. Waterproof camera died, sorry for no photos. Maybe Travis will send me a few!

Guided Mr. David Wilson this morning. David wanted to grab some quick inshore angling techniques and checkout the 2009 Yamaha F225 Sport that I have for sale. Started out at first light and stuck some very nice speckled trout in the 2-4.5# range along with some 23-24″ redfish mixed in. Hit one more productive area and found a bunch of medium-sized(22-25″) redfish in shallow water. The water is still pretty stained and muddy but it makes no difference if you know where the fish are. Worm rattled work very well! Spent the rest of the morning cruising to let David get a feel for the F225. All fish caught on Gulp! Jerkshads in black with worm rattles. A great day considering the conditions and time fished.

Redfish University is pleased to announce it’s new $350.00 rate for the 2010 season. Beginning March 1, Redfish University will offer the lowest guide rates on the entire Gulf Coast. $350.00 All Day(6-7hr) guide trips in the Pensacola area. This offer is available for 1-2 anglers and will include the waters of Pensacola, Gulf Breeze, Pensacola Beach and Navarre, FL. Redfish University is the only instructional guide service on the Gulf Coast where “catching” fish is guaranteed. If you catch nothing, you pay nothing! See everyone soon. E Holstman

For the past month, anglers have rushed to take advantage of the Redfish University’s $299.99 deal before it ends. As always, weather can be a big problem this time of year. Don’t get us wrong, Redfish University is thrilled and fortunate to be busy during even the coldest winter conditions but we are very happy not to be on the water this week. With the rainy, windy and icy conditions, we’ve pushed back three Redfish U. trips this week. It’s always interesting asking, “It’s going to be brutal on the water, you’ll learn alot and catch fish, but are you sure you want to brave these elements?” I’m always game to hit it in any conditions as we’ve conquered 24 degree mornings in the last month or so but we all have our limits!  Thankfully, trips will be rescheduled in the next week or so and hopefully the weather will cooperate. Better weather makes things much easier, especially for the clients. For those that may need to reschedule because of RU’s filled dates, RU will still honor the $299.99 special if we spill into March.

On Thursday, after a great lunch with Berkley’s Kevin Benton at Aegean Breeze, I wanted to run the boat and make a few casts. Fished for 20 minutes and caught 4 quality trout including a 5# fish. Also got one 23″ redfish. Thank goodness for my sweet Yamaha Gill Team and Patagonia all-weather gear, gloves and Capilene baselayer. There are still PLENTY of redfish and trout in large schools and they are very willing to take artificials, even in the winter months. As the weather and water warms, the fishing will continue to get even better. The Fall/Winter $299.99 Special will end February 28 so book now for a super deal!! See everyone soon. Eric Holstman

Guided Dr. Roger Orth and Dr. Wayne Adkisson this morning.  Both anglers wanted to learn some shallow water redfish and trout techniques for winter and spring-time fishing. Met with very cold, strong WNW winds and very difficult water conditions due to the endless, recent rains. Concentrated on protected, shallow banks that held better water clarity. Found plenty of redfish resting in 1-3′ of water and focused on muddy blowouts to target these difficult fish. As always, a slow tap-tap retrieve and a worm rattle produced the strikes on the Gulp! 5″ Jerkshads in camo. We also stuck some quality trout in the same areas. Find the calm, less stained water and you’ll find the fish! Overall, a pretty difficult day but I believe we found the greatest concentrations of fish and most importantly, caught some very finicky wintertime redfish. All fish released except for two redfish for dinner.