Maryland’s recreational striped bass fishery shuts down entirely for the next month, as a statewide closure that took effect Aug. 1 bars anglers from targeting the state fish anywhere in the Chesapeake Bay or its tidal tributaries — even for catch-and-release — through Aug. 31.
The closure, which the Department of Natural Resources shifted to cover the entire month of August under revised 2026 regulations, is designed to protect striped bass during the point in summer when hot water and air temperatures make the fish most likely to die after being caught and released, even when handled carefully. It’s part of a broader restructuring of Maryland’s striped bass season this year that also brought back catch-and-release fishing in April for the first time since 2019, consolidating what had previously been separate spring and midsummer closures into a single continuous August shutdown.
The stakes behind the closure have grown in recent years. Maryland’s annual young-of-year survey, which tracks how many juvenile striped bass are born and survive each summer in the Chesapeake, recorded an index of just 4.0 in 2025 — an improvement over 2024’s index of 2.0, but still far below the survey’s long-term average of 11.0. It marked the seventh consecutive year of below-average spawning success for the species in Maryland waters, which account for the large majority of the coastwide striped bass population. DNR officials have pointed to warmer, drier winters and reduced spring water flow as key factors behind the prolonged slump, even as management measures over the past decade have kept the population of spawning-age adults relatively healthy.
“Management actions taken over the last decade have resulted in a healthy population of spawning-age striped bass,” Lynn Fegley, director of DNR’s Fishing and Boating Services, said when the 2025 survey results were released last fall. “However, continued low numbers of striped bass entering the population is a threat to this progress as there are fewer juveniles growing into spawning adults.”
Recreational fishing plays a measurable role in overall striped bass mortality in the bay. According to the most recent coastwide stock assessment, published in 2022, so-called recreational dead discards — fish that die after being caught and released — accounted for 21% of all fishing-related striped bass deaths in the Chesapeake, behind recreational harvest at 44% and commercial harvest at 31%, with commercial dead discards making up the remaining 4%. The August closure targets that release-mortality figure directly, since summer heat sharply raises the odds that even a carefully released fish won’t survive.
DNR has layered several other conservation measures onto the fishery in recent years. Anglers have been required to use circle hooks rather than traditional J-hooks when live-lining for striped bass since 2019, a rule intended to reduce deep-hooking injuries that improve a released fish’s chance of survival, with additional circle-hook requirements phased in for bait fishing more broadly since 2018. Outside the August closure, the department also maintains a Striped Bass Summer Fishing Advisory Forecast that flags “red flag” days — typically when air temperatures top 95 degrees — when anglers are urged to avoid targeting striped bass even though it remains technically legal.
For anglers looking to fish during the closure, DNR is steering attention toward two invasive species that carry no bag or size limits: blue catfish, which have proliferated in Chesapeake Bay tributaries including the Potomac and Patuxent rivers that run through Southern Maryland, and northern snakehead, sometimes marketed under the state’s rebranded name Chesapeake Channa. Harvesting both species is considered beneficial to the bay’s broader ecosystem, since neither is native and both compete with and prey on native fish.
The closure carries economic weight for Southern Maryland’s charter fishing industry, which relies heavily on striped bass trips during the summer months. Charter captains and tackle shops in Calvert, Charles and St. Mary’s counties have adjusted in recent years by marketing catfish, snakehead and other August-open species to clients during the closure period.
The Chesapeake Bay’s recreational striped bass fishery is scheduled to reopen Sept. 1 and remain open through Dec. 5, when anglers may again keep one striped bass per person per day measuring between 19 and 24 inches. The Potomac River’s mainstem fishery, managed separately by the bi-state Potomac River Fisheries Commission, follows its own schedule and reopens Aug. 21.
Maryland anglers can purchase required fishing licenses online through MD Outdoors, at DNR service centers, or through licensed sport license agent retailers. Revenue from license sales, fishing tackle, boats and marine fuel purchases helps fund the department’s fish and wildlife conservation programs.
