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...
Read MoreBig Trout, no pompano(yet) at Redfish University-March 24, 2010
Guided Mr. Bill Shan this morning. Bill is a regular client and an excellent angler. We started out looking for some big speckled trout at first light. Stuck a few good fish and once the sun got high, we headed to the beach in search of pompano. Low light, still cold meant no fish. It still needs to warm up a bit before we see big numbers of pompano. We spent a few hours looking all over the beach from the pass to six miles east. We only saw a few and ended up running into some drum which were fun on light tackle. After a few hours of that and watching the sheepshead catchers crawl around the jetty, we made a sprint for the trout flats. Low light and light wind helped us stick some big trout including Bill’s 5# acrobat that skied three times when Bill drove the hook. Slow day on the beach but a great day for the specks. All fish taken on Gulp! Jerkshads in rootbeer and pink pompano jigs. All fish released. I will be leaving for Panama City tonight to work with Berkley and Penn as our Berkley Pro Staff member on the Penn/Berkley Tour in Panama City, Destin and Port St. Joe Thurs- Saturday. Returning Saturday evening with trips on Sun-Friday. There are a few slots open in April so call ahead. See you soon. E Holstman. Please click on an image to enlarge and view...
Read MoreBeautiful but tough day at Redfish University-March 23, 2010
Guided Brian and Holly McDuff this morning. Brian and Holly are moving to Gulf Breeze very soon and wanted to learn about our inshore fishery here in Pensacola. Started out early in search of speckled trout. Found some fish and caught a few in the 2-3.5# range but the bite was painfully slow. Made our way into the upper bays in search of redfish and trout. Found some fish sitting but no takers. Very unusual in normally very productive areas. Headed south to find redfish in clear water. Immediately stuck a few oversized fish and then never found another decent concentrate of redfish. We saw a few uncooperate fish but it was all downhill from there. All fish taken on Berkley Gulp! Jerkshads rigged with Marsh Works jigheads. Holly was able to cast a spinning outfit pretty well by the end of the trip and even stuck the largest redfish on the day! Because I thought this trip was unsatisfactory, Brian and Holly will be joining me in the next month or so for a makeup trip to really show them how productive our inshore fishery can really be. Looking forward to redeeming...
Read MoreMisty morning redfish and trout at Redfish University-March 12, 2010
Guided Mr. Bill Shan this morning. Bill is an accomplished angler from the north US to the Florida Keys. Bill was interested in learning some new areas for redfish trout. Start around 800am with misty, overcast conditions. Found plenty of trout and redfish immediately. Redfish were shallow and the trout were holding on uneven bottom with potholes. Ended up with 15-20 quality trout and some nice redfish including a 26″ fish and a few in the 4-5# range. All fish taken on Berkley Gulp! Jerkshads and 3″ Shrimp. All fish released. Looking forward to our second trip early next...
Read MoreSteady Redfish and Trout at Redfish University-March 8, 2010
Guided Mr. Bo King from Houston this morning. Bo wanted to catch some redfish and trout in our area so we set off at 6:00am and got to work. Slick calm and no water movement but we immediately found both redfish and trout in different water depths. The redfish were pretty inactive again but we did stick a few but not like we stuck the trout! It was one after another on some stretches with some very nice quality fish mixed in. Split that area to let the water start coming in and explored some other areas. Most other areas were slow to dead. A few hours later we returned to areas A and B and dropped the hammer when the water started moving. Ended up with 30-35 nice speckled trout and 5-6 redfish with some other good redfish throwing the hooks. All fish caught on Berkley Gulp! Jerkshads with Marsh Works Jigheads. Please click on an image to...
Read MoreThese are the incredible companies that have made me so successful in professional tournament fishing and provide my clients at Redfish University with the world's best and latest in saltwater fishing gear. Please visit Eric Holstman's Pro Staff pages on all sponsor websites.
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