Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report: Tide Hunting, Bluefish Blitzes, and Seasonal Shifts

Artificial Lure checking in with your Chesapeake Bay, Baltimore and D.C. area fishing report for Wednesday, September 24, 2025.

**Tides are the name of the game today.** According to Tide-Forecast.com, we’ve got a **high tide at 3:34 AM and 3:57 PM, with lows at 9:58 AM and 10:36 PM.** Plan your casts near those turning points—stripers cruise the flats on incoming, while perch and spot pile up at creek mouths on the drop. **Sunrise is 6:53 AM, sunset at 6:57 PM.** The early light bite will be prime, with a gentle outgoing tide just after dawn.

**Weather’s shifting toward fall pattern.** This morning is calm, with a light north breeze picking up later and temps hovering in the upper 60s to low 70s. Cloud cover renders bait more confident—expect fish to prowl shallow into mid-morning. Dress in light layers, and bring rain gear, as midday clouds could thicken and drop a shower by afternoon.

**Fishing’s been firing up as water cools down.** This week, anglers around the Key Bridge, Hart-Miller Island, and the mouth of the Magothy have put keeper **striped bass** in the box most mornings and evenings. Fish between 19" and 24" are common, with some bigger cows reported on deeper channel edges just outside the Baltimore Harbor. **White perch** are hanging thick around rip-rap and bulkheads, taking grass shrimp and soft plastics. **Spot** and the last flurries of **croaker** action are running hot near the Severn River Bridge and Sandy Point—small pieces of bloodworm or Fishbites on bottom rigs are still producing.

**Bluefish blitzes** are moving up the Bay, with blues averaging 2–4 pounds busting bait off Point Lookout and popping up on the Western Shore from Thomas Point down to Chesapeake Beach. Gotcha plugs, silver spoons, and soft plastics retrieved quickly have been deadly. Light tackle anglers at the mouth of the Patapsco are also tangling with late-summer **Spanish mackerel**—a fast-cranked gold spoon will get hammered.

**Best baits and lures right now:**
- Paddle-tail swimbaits in chartreuse or white, rigged on 1/2 oz jig heads for stripers and bluefish.
- Topwater poppers at sunrise—especially in calm backwaters for explosive striper strikes.
- Bloodworms and fresh-cut spot for bottom dwellers like perch, spot, and the occasional catfish.
- Metal jigs and flashy spoons for Spanish mackerel and bluefish.

**Hot spots this week:**
- **Francis Scott Key Bridge pilings:** Stripers hunting bait on both tides.
- **Sandy Point shoals:** Perch, spot, and croaker loaded up; try drifting soft baits or a hi-lo rig tipped with bloodworm.
- **Poplar Island drop-off:** Jig deep for larger stripers at tide change.
- **Solomons lump and Thomas Point:** Cast into breaking fish schools if you see terns diving—blues and macs are gorging under the birds.

Overall, action is heating up as summer fish fatten for fall migration. Expect striper action to intensify in the next few weeks as water temps keep dropping and bait floods the shallows. If chasing a mix, keep a rod ready for fast-moving schools—September is all about mobility and matching your retrieval to the mood of the fish.

Thanks for tuning in to your Chesapeake Bay fishing rundown—don’t forget to subscribe for more local angling insight and up-to-the-cast updates. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.

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This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI