I apologize to those of you who anxiously await my fishing reports each week for being a week late with this report. I am usually an obsessive record keeper, but have been so engrossed in this Web business lately that I completely forgot to record my catches for the week in my Captain's Log.

The week started out with a visit to the Ft. Myers Boat Show. What a show! It's probably the biggest boat show I've attended. I wanted to see if perhaps it's something I want to participate in next year. Probably not.

One trip that I do recall fairly well was with David Johns, of Santa Barbara, California. He was in town to visit his parents Carl and Carolyn, who reside on Sanibel Island. They came along for their annual fishing trip with Dave.

Fishing can get tough this time of year, what with cold fronts coming through every few days. We had northeast wind at around 10 knots, and a really high barometer. We also had a super low tide first thing in the morning, and I figured it would be a great day for pothole fishing. This would be the first pothole fishing of the winter, and I didn't know quite what to expect. The potholes that were really productive last year were different than the year before. And the potholes that were productive two years ago were lousy. You never know until it gets here.

Well, as I recall, the reds and snook were nowhere to be found in the potholes, but there were lots of trout. We did find some snook and a red or two in a deep cut between a couple of mangrove keys once the tide started in.

Carl and Carolyn were ready to go home by around 3:30, but David had booked a full day trip and wanted to go the distance. So, we ran back to Punta Rassa ramp and dropped them off, and then returned back to the sound for some more fishing. I really wanted to get David on some serious redfish, but didn't know if they would show up on the flats or not with the wind out of the northeast. A north wind holds the tide back and won't allow it to reach it's full estimated height. It will also make a low tide much lower than forecasted. We went to see.

I had bought some shrimp that morning, to use just in case bait was tough. Sometime our shiners disappear without notice with the passing of these cold fronts. I positioned the boat on the flats where I've been killing the reds for the last four months, and began chumming. The water on the flats was less than a foot deep, and I figured I'd be able to see anything that moved, but that wasn't the case. I guess there was to much wind ripple on the water. We put our shiners out set just under our popping corks, but didn't draw any strikes. Neither did our chum. i decided to put a shrimp out under one of those corks too see if it would draw any interest, and it did. We finally caught some nice reds as the sun was disappearing below the horizon. They didn't show up in big numbers like they usually do, but some did show.

We left the flat as the water was really getting skinny, and headed home in a cloak of darkness. It was a beautiful ride home, and had been a wonderful day with some really nice folks. We all had fun even though we didn't tear 'em up like we usually do.

I had to take that new Boatmaster trailer in for a brake system checkup. The people at Boatmaster are absolutely ACES. They really bend over backward to take care of their customers, which too many businesses have forgotten, is exactly as it should be. I knew the trailer wasn't stopping as it had before the calipers had been replaced, but wasn't sure what might be the problem. I just knew it no longer felt right. Sure enough, they quickly identified the problem. Someone had gotten a little overzealous with a wrench and tightened the bolts on the surge head so that the surge couldn't work. They quickly fixed the problem, and while I was there, they installed new grease caps and serviced the lug nuts. Now, that's what I call service.

If you're a boater in need a trailer, this is the one. These are the people. Actually, most of their work is for governments, and they ship all over the country. Remember that the next time you need a trailer, no matter where you might be.

Well, the outlook for next week is not good. We have a big front coming, and it's Thanksgiving week. The front is due here this weekend, which means it will probably blow like hell out of the north for most of next week. That will, no doubt, make the fishing very tough. Then at the end of the week, we'll have all the Thanksgiving holiday traffic on the water to further complicate things. Not a good week for fishing, I'm afraid.

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