UTERThe best time to fish Chesapeake Bay is fall. In October, stripers and bluefish break on bait under the birds all over the middle bay, and November brings the best speckled trout fishing of the year in the lower-bay rivers. Late spring and summer are the other peak, with big black drum and bull reds at the mouth in May and cobia around Cape Charles and the Bridge-Tunnel from June through August. Winter is tautog, released stripers and white perch.
This guide covers Chesapeake Bay from the Susquehanna Flats to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. It's 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 Bridge-Tunnel's pilings and islands at the mouth. Salinity climbs from fresh at the Flats to ocean at Cape Henry, so the upper and lower bay fish like different places. The months come from the Chesapeake page of Fish Scouter's season calendar.
Chesapeake Bay fishing calendar at a glance
| Month | Headline | Top targets |
|---|---|---|
| January | Released stripers deep; tog on the Bridge-Tunnel | Tautog, striper, specks, bluefin tuna |
| February | Coldest water: tog, perch and released stripers | Tautog, white perch, striper |
| March | White perch run up the rivers | White perch, striper, tautog |
| April | Striper spawn; first big drum at the mouth | Striper, black drum, redfish, croaker |
| May | Drum, croaker and fluke arrive | Black drum, striper, croaker, fluke, sea bass |
| June | Cobia month at the mouth | Cobia, striper, fluke, croaker, spot |
| July | Spanish, cobia and specks in the grass | Cobia, Spanish, specks, sheepshead |
| August | Reds, specks and cobia carry the month | Redfish, specks, cobia, fluke, tripletail |
| September | Breaking fish return; jumbo croakers | Striper, redfish, bluefish, croaker, false albacore |
| October | Birds working everywhere; the speck bite starts | Striper, specks, puppy drum, spot, weakfish |
| November | Best speck fishing of the year | Specks, striper, tautog, yellowfin |
| December | Big ocean stripers back at the mouth | Striper, tautog, specks, bluefin tuna |
Winter: December to February
December
The big ocean stripers come back to the lower bay and the Bridge-Tunnel on their way south. Tautog are on the Bridge-Tunnel islands, and speckled trout hold in the Elizabeth River. Off Virginia Beach, winter bluefin tuna show up. White perch go deep in the tributaries for the winter. Maryland has returned to catch-and-release for stripers in December in recent seasons, so check the dates.
January
Released stripers hold around the warm-water discharges and the deep channel edges, so fish slow soft plastics. Tog sit tight to the Bridge-Tunnel islands, the Cell and the lower-bay wrecks, and eat blue crab and fiddlers dropped right against the structure. Specks hold in the Elizabeth River's warmer water and the deep creek bends. Federal ocean water beyond three miles off Virginia is closed to stripers.
After a cold front: a shallow bay cools fast. Fish slide off the flats to the deep channel edges and the warm-water discharges at the power plants. Two calm days later, the shallows come back on an afternoon tide.
February
The coldest water of the year. Fish tog on the lower-bay wrecks on calm days, and white perch deep in the tributaries. Slow jigs work for stripers where it's legal to target them.
Spring: March to May
March
The white perch spawning run goes up the tidal rivers: the Choptank, the Patuxent and the Nanticoke. Use shad darts and grass shrimp. Prespawn stripers push up the bay, and Maryland closes its spawning rivers and the Susquehanna Flats to striper targeting in spring, so learn the Maryland DNR maps before you fish.
April
Stripers spawn in the Choptank, Nanticoke, Patuxent, Potomac and the upper bay. In 2026, Maryland made its main bay catch-and-release in April while the spawning reaches stayed closed. At the mouth, big black drum and bull reds start on the Eastern Shore shoals, and the first big bluefish and croakers arrive. Virginia closed recreational speckled trout from April through June in 2026 after cold-stun kills, so check VMRC.
May
Post-spawn stripers drop down the bay toward the ocean, and Maryland's harvest season has opened in May (check the year's size and bag rule). Troll umbrella rigs and chunk the channel edges. Big black drum feed on the shoals off Cape Charles, so fish clams and crab on the bottom. Hardhead croakers bite bloodworms and squid on the channel edges from the Rappahannock to the Choptank. Summer flounder (fluke) arrive, so drift Gulp and minnows on the lower-bay channel edges and the Bridge-Tunnel islands. Black sea bass sit on the Bridge-Tunnel rubble, and gray trout (weakfish) show on the lower-bay edges. Weakfish stocks are low, so keep few.
Summer: June to August
June
Cobia month at the mouth. Sight-cast bucktails and eels to cobia on the surface around Cape Charles, the Bridge-Tunnel and the lower-bay buoys, or chum on the shoals. Virginia has opened its cobia season in mid-June in recent years, so check VMRC. Resident stripers school on the middle-bay lumps and channel edges. Chum and chunk Love Point, the Bay Bridge pilings and the Diamonds, and throw topwater on the rocky shorelines at dawn. Fluke are on the Bridge-Tunnel, and northern kingfish (called whiting here) bite bloodworms in the Virginia Beach surf.
July
Spanish mackerel feed on the lower-bay tide rips up to Point Lookout, so troll Clark spoons fast. Specks bite topwater at dawn in the grass at Mobjack Bay and Tangier Sound. Sheepshead sit on the Bridge-Tunnel pilings and islands, so fish fiddlers and clam tight to the concrete. White perch are on every shoreline point and oyster bar. Fish stripers at dawn.
August
Maryland closed all striper targeting in the bay and its tidal tributaries for August in 2026, to spare fish in hot water. Plan on other species. Bull reds school in the middle bay into Maryland, and puppy drum and specks feed in the lower-bay grass at Mobjack, Lynnhaven and Tangier. Tripletail float under the crab-pot buoys, and big fluke sit on the Bridge-Tunnel pilings. Offshore, white marlin and mahi work the Norfolk Canyon.
Fall: September to November
September
Breaking fish return. Stripers and blues bust bait under the birds, so jig the schools. Jumbo croakers and spot fill the channel edges before they leave the bay. False albacore show off Virginia Beach and around the Chesapeake Light Tower, so throw small metal fast. Bigger sea bass move out to the ocean wrecks.
October
The fall bay. Birds work breaking stripers across the middle bay, so jig the schools or troll bucktails along the 20 to 30 foot edges. Drift the lower-bay grass and creeks for specks and puppy drum. The "yellowbelly" spot run comes out of the bay, so fish bloodworms off every pier. Fall weakfish sit on the Cell and in the deep lower-bay holes. Cobia leave with the first cool fronts.
November
The best speck fishing of the year, in the Piankatank, the Lynnhaven and the Elizabeth. Fish suspending baits and soft plastics. Stripers fatten on menhaden along the channel edges. The fall tog bite starts on the Bridge-Tunnel and the Chesapeake Light Tower wrecks. Offshore, the fall yellowfin run is on the canyon edges.
Tides in Chesapeake Bay
The bay has two tides a day, but they're small: about a foot in the upper bay and up to three at the mouth. The tide also runs hours later at the head of the bay than at the Bridge-Tunnel, so the Sewells Point tide is no use at Annapolis. On many days, the wind moves more water in and out than the moon does.
- Channel edges and lumps: the moving water, either direction, for stripers and croakers.
- Bridge-Tunnel: the tide change and the first of the run, for tog, sheepshead and fluke.
- Lower-bay grass: the early flood at dawn, for specks and puppy drum.
- Wind: a steady blow can hold water in or push it out for days, so check the wind before the tide table.
Baits that work in Chesapeake Bay
- Menhaden (bunker), chunked or live: stripers, bull reds, cobia and blues.
- Bloodworms: croaker, spot and northern kingfish.
- Soft plastics and bucktails: stripers, specks and fluke.
- Peeler and blue crab, clams: tog, black drum and bull reds.
- Fiddler crabs: tog and sheepshead on the Bridge-Tunnel.
- Clark spoons: Spanish on the lower-bay rips.
- Grass shrimp and shad darts: white perch in the rivers.
Rules
Two states share the bay. Maryland DNR manages the upper bay and its rivers, and the Virginia Marine Resources Commission manages the lower bay, with the Potomac River Fisheries Commission on the Potomac. Striped bass, speckled trout, cobia and red drum rules have all changed recently, sometimes in the middle of a season. Read the current rules at Maryland DNR and VMRC before you keep a fish or target stripers.
Know the day, not just the month
In a bay where the tide runs hours apart from one end to the other and the wind can overrule both, a monthly calendar only goes so far. We built Fish Scouter to finish the job, and we think it's the best fishing app for the Chesapeake. It combines this season calendar with the NOAA tide for the station nearest your spot, the wind, the live water temperature from the nearest reporting sensor and the seven-day outlook, and ranks every species for the spot you're on, each hour, with the reasons in plain words. See our striped bass migration guide and the speckled trout vs. weakfish guide, or try Fish Scouter free.