Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report – August 1st, 2025

Happy reopening day of rockfish season! We will update you all on the first week back from the closure in next week’s report. Blue catfish are starting to show themselves a bit more than they had been earlier this summer, with areas like Pooles Island, the Patapsco River, and channel edges in the main stem of the Bay producing good numbers of fish. Plenty of channel cats and white cats are mixed in as well. Fresh cut fish is the best option for bait, whether it’s alewife or spot. Use a fishfinder rig or a catfish float rig for the best presentation. It still is a generally slow summer for white perch fishing, but anglers are still finding fish, including a 14.1 incher that took home the prize for Longest Fish at the 10^th Annual White Perch open! Sabiki rigs tipped with peeler crab, soft crab, grass shrimp, or bloodworms are doing well both around structure and open water. For those that prefer lures, Perch Hounders and small jigs in bright colors are producing fish. Hot areas include the Bay Bridge pilings, Chester, and Magothy Rivers. Croaker and spot are still readily taking sabiki rigs tipped with Fishbites, bloodworms, or razor clams along shoals and over bottom structure.

Happy reopening day of rockfish season! We will update you all on the first week back from the closure in next week’s report. Speckled trout fishing is unusually slow in the Middle Bay, with many reports of anglers drawing blanks. The best way to target these fish is early in the morning on a moving tide, using paddletails, popping cork rigs, and diving plugs– that is, if you can find them. Start looking in areas like Chesapeake Beach, James Island, and the Choptank River. There are whispers of a few bull reds being caught as far north of the Choptank, so keep an eye on the migration of these fish further up the Bay. Target them using side scan or binoculars to spot the schools, and cast large paddletails in the 7 inch range. Bluefish are still exploding at the surface from the Choptank south, and anglers would do best to keep an eye out for birds to find the fish. Metal jigs with heavy bite leaders are where you want to be tackle-wise. There are plenty of spot and croaker to be caught in nearly all areas of the Middle Bay while using sabiki rigs or small Gulp jigs. Perch fishing is still tough, although some reports have come in from the West and South Rivers from anglers using soft crab or peeler crab on sabiki rigs.

Happy reopening day of rockfish season! We will update you all on the first week back from the closure in next week’s report. The speckled trout bite is hot in the Lower Bay right now, with areas like the mouth of the Potomac and Patuxent Rivers producing fish. 3 inch paddletails in white or pink were hot lures. Look to target shoreline structure, submerged grass, and hard bottom on a moving tide. Bottom fishing is also excellent in the Lower Bay right now, with anglers catching mixed bags of spot, croaker, white perch, and even some baby black sea bass. Fishbites, bloodworms, or razor clams on sabiki rigs is the best way to get these bottom dwellers biting. The talk of the town right now down south is the bluefish bite, which has been nothing short of epic. Look along the channel edges for birds and breaking fish, and cast metal jigs on heavy bite leaders into the school. Reports of red drum and cobia in the vicinity of the Target Ships are increasing as well, with anglers catching cobia while chunking alewife and catching red drum by finding schools on the surface and casting large paddletails at them.

 Blue catfish continue to bite more as summer has gone on and can be found in good numbers in the upper reaches of rivers like the Potomac and Susquehanna. Eel, cut alewife, and cut sunfish on fishfinder rigs or catfish float rigs are great options. Smallmouth bass are also present in the same areas, and the hot weather makes it an excellent time of year to wade-fish. Snakehead in Blackwater and on the Potomac are active and biting topwater frogs and weedless chatterbaits. Fry balls are still around, so fish will be on them as well as tucked up into grasses. Largemouth bass are in their typical summer patterns, with fishing being slow during midday and picking up during low light hours. Sunfish are readily available and eager to bite in nearly all of our ponds, rivers, and lakes.

The surf bite has picked up from last week, with anglers catching red drum, kingfish, flounder, sharks, and rays. Inshore wrecks and reefs are producing flounder and seabass on Gulp, squid, and metal jigs. Some tuna are still being found in the canyons, but the bite has slowed down significantly from earlier this summer. Plenty of billfish are being caught from the Baltimore Canyon north. On the lobster pots, mahi are present but not as thick as we’d have hoped for by now. Out in the deep, tilefish are plentiful and eager to bite.

Crabbing is hot! Razor clams are the top bait in pots right now, and chicken necks in pull traps and on hand lines are performing well. Trotliners are using a mix of both. Areas to target include the Choptank, South, Magothy, Chester, and Severn rivers.