Stripers, Perch, and Cats - Your Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report for Sept 27, 2025

Good morning anglers, Artificial Lure here with your Chesapeake Bay and Baltimore/DC region fishing report for Saturday, September 27, 2025.

We’re heading into a classic early fall pattern, and the Bay is buzzing with activity. Today’s tides for the central Chesapeake show a **low at 8:31 AM and a high at 2:04 PM**, so plan for solid moving water late morning into the midafternoon, always a key period for bites. **Sunrise hit at 6:56 AM and sunset will be at 6:53 PM**, so you’ve got good daylight for those chasing an after-work bite. With seasonable temps in the 60s and variable light winds expected, conditions set up nicely for both inshore and open bay action.

Striped bass are the big fall player, as usual around Baltimore and the upper Bay. Reports have been positive the last few days with consistent catches on both live spot and cut menhaden, particularly around **Love Point and the mouth of the Chester River**—both hot spots lately for schoolie and slot-limit fish. Anglers jigging soft plastics on 1 to 1.5 oz jig heads in chartreuse or BKD-style paddle tails have been seeing morning and evening flurries. The surface bite has kicked in at first light; don’t overlook a bone or bunker-pattern walk-the-dog topwater for explosive action right as low tide flips.

Elsewhere in the bay, **white perch** are stacked up on deeper structure and hard bottom near the Bay Bridge pilings and mouths of tributaries. Small bits of bloodworm or Gulp! on bottom rigs have filled plenty of coolers. The **blue catfish** bite is reliable in the upper bay and tidal Potomac—cut bait, especially fresh gizzard shad, has been the top ticket for steady action.

Looking east, the area around the **Choptank River** continues to produce solid numbers of **speckled trout and puppy drum**. According to Airial Travel and local social posts, Lynnhaven Inlet is firing for specks and flounder, with shrimp and live minnows best, and those fishing popping corks rigged with DOA shrimp are drawing aggressive strikes—don’t forget your inshore shrimp scent for an edge at dawn or dusk.

Folks heading south toward the mouth of the bay should note the end of the commercial red snapper season per National Fisherman, so red snapper are now a no-go, but you can still target the abundant **spot** and some late-season **croaker** using bloodworms and Fishbites.

If you’re heading offshore, canyon activity has slowed nearby but still seeing scattered mahi on pots and floating debris, with the bulk of yellowfin and bigeye action sitting off New Jersey and New York according to On The Water.

**Best Baits and Lures:**
- For stripers: live spot, soft plastics (BKD, Z-Man), white or chartreuse bucktails, walk-the-dog topwaters.
- For panfish: bloodworms, Fishbites, grass shrimp, Gulp! minnows.
- For inshore trout: popping cork rig, DOA shrimp, MirrOlure MR17, live shrimp or mud minnows.

**Hot Spots to Try:**
- Love Point and Sandy Point State Park for breaking stripers.
- Chester River mouth for mixed action with stripers and perch.
- Lynnhaven Inlet (Lesner Bridge area) for specks and flounder—work the grasslines and moving water pockets especially at outgoing tide.
- Tidal Potomac near National Harbor and Fort Washington for blue cats.

That wraps up today’s Chesapeake Bay and DC/Baltimore report. Thanks for tuning in to Artificial Lure. Don’t forget to subscribe for the latest in tide tips and tackle talk. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.

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