We refer to years and years of the FishTalk weekly fishing reports when we make this monthly fishing forecast, but it does not include the very latest in angling intel. For current reports please visit our Reports section which is updated weekly. Current reports will be published every Friday by noon and you can sign up for our email list to get an alert as they publish. BTW, it's free!
COASTAL FISHING FORECAST
October is a month of change along the coast, and let’s hope the weather allows us to enjoy changes like daytime swordfish fishing, the possibility of double-digit tuna and/or marlin, and the appearance of some fall wahoo. This month is also an excellent time for surf fishing, as a wide range of species moves in close to the beach. Bull redfish made an excellent showing last season, and by the month’s end a trickle of the first few big rockfish were showing up on the beach as well, so let’s hope 2025 brings more of the same type of action.
FRESHWATER FISHING FORECAST
As long as we don’t get a major weather event riling things up this month should provide some of the peak action of the year for freshwater anglers. Every species that swims will be in fatten-up mode as the weather cools off, and those falling temps will allow predators to move shallow and stay shallower longer as they go on the hunt.
WAY NORTH FISHING FORECAST
If you want to catch a mega-sized blue cat, this month offers the best potential in the lower reaches of the Susquehanna as well as in the northern Bay. Of course, many anglers will be focused on the striper bite. If the past is any indication the dam pool and the Flats will both be hot zones, with smallmouth bass and walleye spicing up the action below the dam. Also keep your eye on the Turkey Point area, which produced good numbers of rockfish last October.
UPPER CHESAPEAKE BAY FISHING FORECAST
Rocktober is on, people, and let’s hope that this year we don’t have to wait for Rockvember before the action really heats up. We’re expecting the mouth of the Patapsco, the Hodges area, and Love Point to all become potential hotspots this month. But don’t forget that at this time last year many anglers also found success in a completely different way: by targeting snakeheads and pickerel in the Western Shore creeks.
MIDDLE BAY FORECAST
Will it be Rocktober, or October and then Rockvember? We don’t know as of yet, but many will recall that last year October was a great time to try white perch fishing. Note that the best striper action during the month took place in the last hour of daylight, when fish did turn on in multiple locations including Eastern Bay and Chesapeake Beach even though anglers fishing the same areas earlier in the day had trouble getting bites.
LOWER BAY FORECAST
Hopefully the big redfish, slot reds, and speckled trout will hang around a bit longer, and in 2024 this was still a good month for targeting those species from the Potomac River south. Monster bluefish are also likely to be on a tear, considering that they’ve been in the area and last year when October rolled around there were some major-league choppers busting water. And, of course, we’ll all be waiting to see just how the rockfish action cranks up—Virginia waters open up on the fourth of the month.
TANGIER, POCOMOKE, AND LOWER SHORE FORECAST
It’s time for prime fall action in the shallows, people. Specks, reds, and stripers should all come into prime form this month, and we can expect surface-busting explosions on topwater to extend beyond the sunrise then crank up again prior to sunset. Some holdout bull reds could still be around, too, and last October they were still being caught right up to mid-month.
WAY SOUTH AND VA FORECAST
This is a red-hot time of year at the mouth of the Bay, but get your angling action in now because October will almost certainly be your last shot at the migratory species that don’t appreciate the cold. The bull reds and sheepshead currently swimming around the CBBT may disappear before the month is out, but there’s a flip side to this coin, too: this is usually when tautog pick up the pace. Have you got your crab baits yet?!?
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