Thursday's trip on Tampa Bay was the last calm day before the blow, and the fish knew it. A snook came off the mangroves on a live bait, a flounder came up off the flats, and a couple of small sharks, including a bonnethead, rounded out the box before the wind arrived. A 13-year-old did a lot of the catching. That is October on the bay: a little of everything, and all of it hungry ahead of a front. Then the front hit. Saturday and Sunday the northeast wind blew 25 knots with gusts into the mid 30s and small craft advisories on the Gulf of America, so the open bay was a no-go and the smart money fished the rivers and the lee shorelines. The payoff is this week: cleaner, cooler water, bait pushed tight to structure, and fish that feed hard between fronts. Redfish are on the flats and the oyster bars, trout are back on the grass in the mornings, snook are tight to the mangroves, and the first sheepshead of the season are showing on the pilings. Spanish mackerel are still running the bait schools. The wind stays northeast and breezy through Wednesday, 15 to 20 with gusts near 30, so early in the week is a protected-water week: the rivers, the mangrove shorelines and the flats out of the wind. From Thursday it lays down, highs climb back into the mid 80s, and Halloween weekend looks like the best water of the month, light wind and a long bite window.

The Spanish mackerel showed up in force. On the 10 Oct trip out of Tampa Bay the first bait hit the water and the rod loaded before the bail was closed, and it stayed that way: fish after fish, fast, hard, and the kind of fight that makes first-timers yell. Two of the biggest came home for the table, the rest went back to keep the party going. If you have never felt a mackerel take line, this is the month to find out. Under the surface the fall pattern is setting up. Water temperatures are sliding out of the summer range, redfish are schooling on the flats and around the oyster bars, speckled trout are back on the grass in the mornings, and the first sheepshead are showing on the pilings. Nearshore, kingfish are following the bait schools down the beaches. Now the weather. The first strong cold front of October crossed Tampa Bay this weekend with a north wind and a few showers, and that is the best news in this report. It is the switch that turns on the winter bite: cooler, cleaner water, bait pushed tight to structure, and fish that feed hard between fronts. This week's calm days after the blow are the days to be on the water. Trips run 4, 5 and 6 hours, everything included, pickups around the bay. Weekend dates for late October are going fast, and the weekdays after the front are wide open.