Maryland’s fall rockfish season opens Tuesday, and according to Ken Lamb of St. Mary’s Tacklebox in Lexington Park, anglers barely had time to notice the August closure before the water turned red-hot with activity.
The Chesapeake Bay’s fall striped bass harvest season runs Sept. 1 through Dec. 5, with the Potomac’s fall season already underway since Aug. 21 and continuing through Dec. 31. Both fisheries share the same rules: a 19-to-24-inch slot and a one-fish daily limit.
This year’s low-key August closure was itself a change. Maryland restructured its entire 2026 striped bass calendar, closing the state to all rockfish targeting — no harvest, no catch-and-release — for the full month of August, replacing the more fragmented, harder-to-track closure periods anglers dealt with in prior years. State fisheries officials said the change protects fish during the period of highest post-release mortality while actually increasing total fishing-access days across the year. That may explain why, as Lamb put it, the closure came and went with barely a ripple in the fishing community’s attention.
Whatever the reason, the fishing itself hasn’t slowed down. Spanish mackerel remain widespread, and bluefish, bull reds, and cobia have all been surprisingly active. The bigger bluefish, in the 8-to-11-pound range, are holding below Hooper’s Island Light in the shipping channel all the way to Smith Point, with strong numbers of blues and mackerel also showing up in the Potomac from Point Lookout to St. George Island.
Cobia are being chummed up on the Middle Grounds, with live eels producing well in the chum line, while smaller cobia are hitting trolled surgical eel lures meant for bluefish. Bull reds remain the wild card — they can show up almost anywhere, blowing up mackerel rigs meant for much smaller fish in explosive feeding frenzies. Anglers targeting them intentionally are having the best luck with strong tackle and big jigs, 5/0 hooks or larger.
Bottom fishing remains excellent across the board, with spot, croaker, perch, trout, and whiting all active. Shore anglers are finding spot and croaker at the mouth of the Patuxent, while the pier at Point Lookout has produced spot, hardhead, bluefish, and even bull reds and cobia.
As the water cools heading into fall, Lamb expects stripers to become more active in the Patuxent’s shallows, particularly for lure casters working dawn and dusk on moving tides. White perch numbers are up in the creeks and rivers, with both small schooling fish and solitary lunkers holding in shallow structure. Puppy drum in the 12-to-15-inch range are mixed in with the perch and hitting hard. Favorite lures for both species include Beetle Spins, Perch Hounders, Mepps, and Betts Spins.
One more hot week is expected before temperatures and winds ease by Saturday.
