Ken Lamb has worked at his family’s Lexington Park tackle shop since it opened in 1960, so he has seen a lot of October weekends. This one, he has decided, deserves a name: “The Great Fall Fishing Weekend.”
The timing helps. Monday, Oct. 12, is Columbus Day, which makes it a three-day weekend for many anglers. Lamb, vice president of The Tackle Box, writes in his weekly report that the weather is “finally clearing up,” with sunny days and light winds in the forecast through the weekend.
What’s biting
“The bottom fishing is terrific,” Lamb says, with spot and both gray and speckled trout “mixed together most everywhere.” Some croaker are still around, but he says they and the bigger spot “have started their migration to the Atlantic.” The speckled trout come with rules. In Maryland waters they must measure at least 14 inches, with a four-fish daily limit, according to DNR’s most recent fishing report. The Potomac River Fisheries Commission, which regulates the river itself, uses the same 14-inch minimum but allows 10 per person.
Bluefish are “consistent for trollers in the Bay,” mostly medium-sized, though Lamb says there are “good quantities of 7 to 10 pound bluefish still here.” The most popular trolling rig is the Captain John’s Spoonbrella. A caption on the photos with his online report notes that 52 bluefish were landed on a Sunday aboard the Kelly D. out of Solomons. Snapper bluefish are also available to bait fishermen from shore and from boats. Those smaller fish come with a catch of their own. Maryland’s 2026 bluefish rules set an 8-inch minimum and a limit of five per person for shore and private-boat anglers.
Where to find rockfish
Trollers will find rockfish in the rivers and the Bay, Lamb says, and lure casters are working the shallows for trout, rockfish and the occasional slot red drum. He names one of the most consistent spots as just south of the Potomac River Bridge, at the entrance to Upper Machodoc Creek. The creek is on the Virginia side of the river, below the Governor Harry W. Nice Memorial Bridge. Closer to home, Piney Point, Ragged Point and Kitts Point in the Potomac are producing good striper fishing, and the St. Mary’s River has “great spot, trout, and rockfish.” In the Patuxent, Lamb expects stripers to be schooled up and breaking near the Drift Inn “by the time you read this.”
Which rockfish rules apply depends on the water. Maryland’s calendar changed this spring. In the Bay and its tidal tributaries, DNR allows harvest from Sept. 1 through Dec. 5, at one fish per person per day between 19 and 24 inches. From Dec. 6 through Dec. 31 it is catch-and-release only. The Potomac River itself follows PRFC rules, with the same size and limit but a harvest season that runs Aug. 21 through Dec. 31. Maryland also requires circle hooks when targeting striped bass, as DNR noted when it announced the August closure.
Lamb’s “occasional slot red drum” are covered by a newer rule. Since Aug. 3, Maryland’s red drum slot has been 18 to 26 inches, with a limit of three per person per day. The same change lowered the Potomac’s limit from five to three, to line up the rules across Maryland, Virginia and the PRFC.
Fresh water
The rain has not slowed the freshwater bite. Crappie “love this time of year,” Lamb says, and are schooled up in St. Mary’s Lake, ready to take lures or live minnows. Largemouth bass are “feeding up for the winter” and plentiful. The lake sits inside St. Mary’s River State Park, where only electric motors are allowed, a boat ramp provides access and special trophy bass regulations apply. A 2018 DNR survey found largemouth bass “very abundant.”
The season has moved a long way since the Chronicle last relayed one of Lamb’s reports, in August 2025, when spot and bluefish were the headline catches. Now the spot are heading out, and trout, rockfish and crappie are carrying the conversation. Lamb’s report ends the way his reports usually do: “Let’s go fishing!”
