The instructional sessions for redfish and speckled trout at Redfish University in Pensacola, Florida just keep on coming. Redfish University continues to be the only plausible instructional guide service on the Gulf Coast for anglers seeking the best in education, location and techniques for inshore saltwater fishing. The weather has been fabulous and the redfish/speckled trout production and instruction has been even better. Both Tuesdays and Wednesdays trips were focused on a wide range of techniques, baits and locations depending on tides, weather conditions, wind speed and water clarity. During both trips, we started fast and furious to secure quick limits of speckled trout, a few redfish and even some small 2-3# stripers for the cooler and then proceeded to cover multiple areas, techniques and even some Spring-time areas a bit further south to give our clients a headstart once the warmer weather arrives. Sometimes our clients can be overwhelmed with such a plethora of information but at Redfish University, our clients receive a complimentary set of detailed and labeled GoogleEarth maps of areas targeted as well as a listing of techniques covered and equipment used such as baits, line, fluoro, rods and reels, etc. Each trip found several speckled trout and redfish in the cooler with over 50 speckled trout, a handful of over-sized redfish and a few stripers released properly. Looking forward to tomorrow’s easy bull redfish outing and then a solid schedule for next week including an instructional in Destin and S. Mobile Bay. Yep, we can do it all!! Thanks again, E...

It’s been an outstanding month for fishing and a high volume of instructional as well as regular guided trips at Redfish University. Late last week and over the long weekend, Redfish University performed some excellent redfish and speckled trout instructional guide trips here in Pensacola, Florida. The month of January has proven to be a very steady month with an average of four trips per week. Lots of bad weather days that have forced a few rescheduled trips but if this Winter is any indication of what the rest of the year will bring, we will far surpass our expectations again in 2013 and will be on track for the 300 trip mark! We had some great weather and tides over the weekend for our instructional purposes and the fish seemed to just fly into the boat. Guided some groups of pretty talented anglers, some new to the area and some that were frustrated with a sometimes difficult and inconsistent Winter fishery. Each trip yielded 30-50 speckled trout with most being quality, legal fish, a handful of redfish(inconsistent lately), a few flounder and even a few stripers in the 2-3# range. While showing curious clients some areas for stripers and small speckled trout well up river during big cold fronts, it was strange and disappointing to see so many boats far up the rivers looking for quality fish. Oh well, it’s also a great place to prospect for potential Redfish University instructional clients. WARM SHALLOW WATER. Looking forward to another nice run of Redfish University instructionals this week and teaching area anglers the secrets of Winter fishing in Pensacola. Take care, E...

My 250 h.p. Yamaha VMAX SHO Four Stroke Gets The Mornings Off I spend most of the morning on the trolling motor, but the afternoons the engine gets worked hard running and gunning By Eric Holstman Yamaha Pro Staff This is the time of the year when my engine gets a lot of use on a regular basis, but often has the mornings off. I’ll start my day around 5:30 a.m. and have my customers meet me in Pensacola, then ride with me as we trailer my boat up to Blackwater River or some of the other rivers off Pensacola Bay, which is a 20- 30 mile run. It’s a real small area, so we’ll launch the boat and not have to run very far. It’s pretty cold in the morning, so there’s no reason to make that long run by boat. From the ramp, we may only run a mile or two, and then spend the rest of the morning on the trolling motor working the shorelines for seatrout and redfish. So my 250 h.p. Yamaha VMAX SHO four stroke basically gets the morning off. Over the course of the next four hours we’ll catch 40 to 60 seatrout and six or seven redfish. This is the time of the year when some of the big bull reds push up into the river, so most mornings there will be a few of them in the mix. It’s all just a warm-up for the afternoon, because when the sun gets up, I’ll make the run back to Pensacola, put the boat in downtown, and then chase the big bull redfish in the middle of the bay. What that requires is running around looking for the birds and the bait and actual schools of redfish on the surface. Once you find the fish you want to position the boat up-wind from them, turn off the motor and trolling motor into casting range. The fish are super aggressive, so double and triple headers are the norm. The drawback is that once you hook a couple of fish and land them the school has gone down and you have to hunt for...

For professional, credible and qualified Inshore Saltwater Fishing Instruction in Pensacola, Florida, Redfish University is your only choice. During a volatile weather month like January, we’ll gladly take four trips per week at Redfish University. We’ve had a nice stretch of warm weather and overcast skies here in Pensacola which has made fishing very comfortable for the masses of Redfish University clients and has made targeting redfish and speckled trout very, very easy. Today and yesterday afternoon, we were forced to postpone two trips due to rain, high winds and very cold temperatures but the regular locals always have the luxury of rescheduling at Redfish University. Huge catches of quality speckled trout has continued with 40-60 trout per trip including some large fish in the last few days in the 4-6# range. The redfish have been all over the place in location and in size. Most fish are being taken in less than 3′ of water near small groups of mullet. These fish will range from 17-33″ with most being inside the 18-27″ range. The most popular baits are Berkley Gulp! Jerkshads in camo and Johnson 1/4oz Gold Spoons although a Sebile Bonga Minnow has taken its share in the last few days, especially in warmer conditions. The speckled trout have been consistent on Berkley Gulp! Jerkshads in camo/rootbeer rigged on a jighead or the now well known Redfish University drop-shot rig. During days with high winds, boat positioning can mean the difference between catching 70 fish and catching nothing. Because many of the fish will be found on wind-blown and side-wind banks, boat control is of the utmost importance. Providing your anglers with the optimal angles and the ability to cast with the wind 100% of the time, will insure optimal success for catching redfish and speckled trout. Yet, another one of many important techniques you will not learn elsewhere. Big things and small things will make the difference in your angling success. Two trips were catch and release and one trip took some speckled trout for a fish fry. We’re looking forward to the Redfish University Yamaha Staff Blog due out in a few days focusing on...

The week of the bass fisherman!! Redfish University ran some incredible Pensacola Fishing Charters and Instructional Charters over the last few days. The week was a bit challenging with spurts of inclimate weather but we managed to strategically pound out four great instructional trips and had to postpone one due to high winds and rain. The great thing about Redfish University instructional trips in the fact that our anglers are local(Mobile to Panama City) and can usually jump on an instructional guided trip in a moment’s notice and that was the name of the game this week. We mentioned bass anglers before; every group of anglers this week were recent transplants to the Pensacola and Destin area with all impressive backgrounds in bass fishing in the Southeast and up north. These guys just needed some areas and ideas!! For the two trips in Pensacola, we concentrated in local bayous for one trip and the other was a combination of a mid-bay and upper bay trips with several redfish and larger trout still being found areas that are typically outstanding in the Spring. For Wednesday’s and today’s Redfish U. instructional trips, we travelled to Destin, Florida to guide two new clients on Wednesday and a new client today that just purchased a new Hewes 18 Redfisher which was delightful to run today. In Destin we went shallow, very shallow. Before the sun got high on both mornings, we found the local bayous and the bayous up north to be pretty slow but as the sun rose, the very shallow flats in the 10-20″ of water came alive with redfish and large speckled trout. Some of the flats in Choct. Bay are absolutely full of redfish!! We used Johnson 1/4oz. Gold Spoons and Berkley Gulp! 5″ Jerkshads to pick them off both sight fished and blindcasted. It was a fantastic four days with some very talented and fun bass fisherman. Redfish University’s clients will be incredibly pleased with this year’s Pure Fishing(Berkley, Penn, Sebile, Spiderwire, Abu Garcia) allotment order and we’ve added some new weapons to an already terrifying arsenal. We will introduce the Penn Regiment 7’0 rod to our clients...