Lower Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report, October 2 Update:
The Lower Bay is showing plenty of signs that fall has arrived, with cooling water bringing increased activity from speckled trout, striped bass, bluefish, and a variety of bottom species. Speckled trout numbers are particularly notable right now, although most remain on the small side, while the bluefish fishery is hanging on even as the Spanish mackerel appear to have moved on. With clean water, strong currents, and plenty of bait in the tributaries, there is a lot happening down south.
The influx of small speckled trout appears to have weathered the storm and recent catches indicate they’re now even more plentiful. The Tackle Box says anglers in the lower Potomac tributaries were catching them in big numbers, even dozens at a time. The vast majority we’re hearing about have been in the 10” to 12” range, but anglers report constant action on small paddletails and on bottom rigs baited with bloodworm, Fishbites bloodworm, or shrimp cast along the shorelines of the creeks and rivers. Similar reports are coming in from the Rappahannock, where many anglers are reporting dozens of small speckled trout on recent outings. There seems to be a few more keepers in the Virginia tributaries, and we saw some reports of anglers who boxed between one and five keepers, though they had to sort through a bunch of dinks to get there. Rockfish are also more active around docks, creek mouths, and grass beds now that water temperatures are slowly dropping, so Virginia anglers should be able to find some slot-sized fish once the season opens for them on October fourth.
Bottom fishing over oyster bars and live bottom in the lower tribs remains strong and even picked up steam after the storm passed last weekend, with the Tackle Box reporting big spot, keeper croaker, and even some keeper-sized weakfish in the mix early this week in the lower Potomac. Bloodworms on bottom rigs are doing the trick. They also said bluefish remained plentiful, but Spanish mackerel appear to have disappeared for good in this zone of the Bay with the change in the weather. The charter fleet trolling between Point Lookout and the Target Ship had reports of plentiful bluefish in the five-to-10-pound range this week. These bigger blues should be around for a few more weeks, willing to hit spoons or surgical eels on the troll.
Contributor Eric Packard checked in after a morning fishing around Point Lookout after the weather cleared up this week. He found water temperatures around 68 degrees with clean water and strong currents. He caught six striped bass, four speckled trout (the largest was 20”), one puppy drum, two lizardfish, and a puffer fish. Packard said that the fish were caught between the channel leading to the boat ramp and the rocks out by the lighthouse using half ounce Hardhead Custom Baits Shad Head jigs with various soft plastics. Reports Editor Dillon Waters made it down to the lower Potomac near Smith Creek this week for an afternoon of fishing. He and another angler started out fishing over a grass bed in four feet of water where they found a bunch of small speckled trout. They caught around a dozen specks in the 11” to 13” range and one 16” bluefish. The fish were hitting shrimp soft plastics fished under a popping cork. They then ran to a creek mouth where the outgoing tide had a strong rip coming out of the creek. There they found rockfish, white perch, and small specks waiting to ambush bait. Popping corks and topwater lures were getting hit within a few twitches of the rod tip. Most of the stripers were under slot, but they did catch two slot fish and two overs slot fish up to 26”.