I'm happy to start this report off with an announcement! I recently registered my own Internet domain name. You can probably guess what it is. Yep, it's www.barhoppr.com! The URL at ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/barhoppr will stay active, perhaps indefinitely, but please add the new URL to your "favorites" or bookmark it. It is up and running now, but may have a small bug or two.

The week started as I predicted, with a cold front passing through. This brought with it strong winds from the north/northeast into Wednesday. I started the week off with four trips booked, and thought I would be working Thanksgiving Day, but a couple of folks changed their minds at the last minute, and a fellow named Jim Notke just downright stood me up. I will never understand people who think so little of other peoples' time. Every time I don't ask for a deposit from a new customer I get it jammed you know where.

Mike Gorga and Joe D'Angelo, owners of Megcomm Productions, a video production company in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, drew the Monday after the front. We struggled getting bait, but finally found all we wanted in front of St. James Creek in about 8 feet of water. The chum brought them in quickly.

I told Mike and Joe we would likely struggle, what with the front passing and the poor tide, and struggle we did. The boys fished their hearts out, I worked hard, hitting lots of spots and throwing lots of chum, but the fish just didn't want to eat. We were on fish most of the day. I proved that on several occasions, when I would motor over the holes we'd just fished with the trolling motor only to see snook scootin' everywhere.

All was not lost, though. We DID have a great time, and we did catch some fish. Mike and Joe caught and released 4 snook to 23 inches, 8 beautiful trout, a huge flounder, a jack, and a lady. The boys were a bit taken back when I told them they couldn't keep the trout, which were all around 20 inches. They didn't know about our new trout rule!

Mike and Joe were great guys, who understood that mother nature sometimes changes the best-laid plans. We did some talking about doing a video, or perhaps a series of videos. I'll keep you posted.

The trip that was supposed to happen Tuesday didn't happen. It was probably just as well. The weather was terrible. I talked to some of the other guides who were out, and nobody was catching anything. I say one snook come in while I was there, and that was it. Everyone struggled!

The next day Jim Notke left me standing at the docks. I waited for almost two hours, and finally went fishing without him. Hey, I was in the water, ready to go. I bought a couple dozen shrimp, went and caught some shiners, and went and caught some beautiful redfish. Your loss, Jim. It was the first descent day in a week, and you missed it!

Friday, I was back in the Sound with Gene Christianson and his 13 year-old son Michael Christianson, of Macon, Georgia, and Mike's good friend Kyle Preissner, of Sarasota. We still had a breeze from the northeast, but worse, it was a holiday weekend, and I knew everyone and his granny would be out trying to catch a fish. That can be the real kiss of death to flats fishing. There are just too many folks that don't have a clue about flats fishing etiquette, and the fish just won't tolerate being run over all day long.

So, it was the same old tune. We struggled, I did a lot of chumming, to no avail, and it was a tough day on the water. But, the boys had a great time and did managed to catch 3 nice redfish, 3 snook, 2 big flounders, and a jack.

Now the weekend is here, and guess what. It's going to rain all weekend as the next front passes through. Looks like El Nino is doing it's thing, and it's going to be a wet winter.

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