After last week’s ugly stretch of heat, humidity and wind, calmer conditions are bringing on strong fishing across Southern Maryland, according to this week’s report from Ken Lamb of the St. Mary’s Tacklebox.
Bottom fishing remains “over the top good” in the Patuxent River, Lamb reports, with spot, croaker, sea trout and white perch all readily taking bait. Water temperatures remain high enough that Lamb expects the bite to hold up well into October.
Spanish mackerel numbers have thinned out somewhat in the bay, but good catches are still available where they’re mixing with bluefish, which remain plentiful in all sizes. Smaller “snapper” blues are concentrated farther north and along the beaches. Anglers at the rocks and pier at Point Lookout have reported catching full limits of bluefish — five fish per person per day under Maryland’s 2026 private-angler bag limit.
Rockfish are active in the shallows of local rivers, taking lures cast in the morning and evening, with good reports of fish hitting surface lures near the Solomons bridge. The shallows of the St. Mary’s River remain solid rockfish territory, while trollers working deeper drop-off edges should still find keepers for dinner. Big bluefish in the 6-to-10-pound range are cruising the bay’s shipping channel, mostly below Hooper’s Island, and taking trolled surgical eel lures and spoons. Bull redfish remain schooled up and breaking on the surface, though Lamb notes they continue to be unpredictable.
Cobia season closes Sept. 20 in both Maryland and Virginia this year, after Virginia regulators extended their traditional Sept. 15 closing date to match Maryland’s. Last weekend’s big cobia fishing contest on the bay was largely rained and blown out, forcing most boaters to cancel — as Lamb put it, there’s always next year.
Freshwater anglers are also seeing strong results, with excellent fishing reported in the upper Patuxent and Potomac rivers and in St. Mary’s Lake, where bass, crappie and bream are all running big.
