Spot fishing in Chesapeake Bay

In Chesapeake Bay, spot peak June–October and are around May–November, according to Fish Scouter's month-by-month season calendar. October: The fall 'yellowbelly' spot run out of the bay — bloodworms off every pier.

1. JanuaryNot here
2. FebruaryNot here
3. MarchNot here
4. AprilNot here
5. MayArriving
6. JunePeakCobia month at the mouth; stripers chunked up the bay. Sight-cast bucktails and eels to cobia on the lower-bay shoals and buoys; chum and chunk stripers on the middle-bay lumps; fluke on the Bridge-Tunnel.
7. JulyPeak
8. AugustPeak
9. SeptemberPeakBreaking fish return; bull reds and fall croakers. Stripers and blues busting bait under the birds — jig the schools. Jumbo croakers and spot on the channel edges before they leave.
10. OctoberPeakThe fall 'yellowbelly' spot run out of the bay — bloodworms off every pier.
11. NovemberLeaving
12. DecemberNot here

The biggest estuary in the country: 200 miles of brackish bay fed by the Susquehanna, Potomac, Patuxent, Choptank, Nanticoke, Rappahannock and James, with oyster bars, channel edges and lumps in the main stem, marsh islands down Tangier Sound, and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel's pilings and islands at the mouth. Salinity climbs from fresh at the Flats to ocean at Cape Henry.

• Live shrimpUnder a popping cork or free-lined, hooked under the horn on a #1 to 2/0 circle hook; on a jig head for the bottom. The universal inshore bait.
• Sand fleas (mole crabs)On a small circle hook or a pompano rig, digger-end first — the pompano and whiting bait.
• BloodwormsA piece threaded on a #2 to 2/0 hook on a hi-lo or fish-finder rig — the striper, spot, croaker and white perch bait of the Chesapeake and the surf.

• Leader20–40 lb fluorocarbon
• Hook#1–4/0
• Jig head1/8–1/2 oz
• Braid10–30 lb

Feeds in 56–86°F water, best at 62–80°F.

All about spot · The Chesapeake, the whole year