Fall Rockfish and Blues

The rockfish are schooling up now and will hit trolled lures and jigs on the 18-to-20-foot edges. Trollers in the deeper 40 foot drop offs are using heavy (32 ounce weights) to hug the bottom and present lures to big fish.

Eric Packard jigged the rocks at Point Lookout.

Jiggers in 10 to 12 feet of water have found the stripers in the mid-day mixed with sea bass and white perch.

A group of fishermen pose with their rockfish and sea bass catch of the day.

Lure casters at the Calvert Cliffs Power outfall are catching rockfish every day, most of the day. Those seeking breaking fish up the Patuxent and Potomac are finding them on moving tides in late afternoon and early morning. Some big bluefish are mixed with the rockfish providing some exciting action.

Captain Bernie Shea had bluefish in the mix on Saturday while trolling for rockfish in the mouth of the Patuxent.

The bay water temperature remains warm standing at 56.5 degrees on Sunday, breaking the 10-year record that was 56.1 degrees in 2020. The coldest on that date was 48 degrees in 2008. The runoff from the Shenandoah that dumped as much as 15 inches of snow in the highlands last week should reduce the bay water temperature sharply. Cooling temperatures should make the fish move quickly into late fall patterns.

Plenty of rockfish for Captain Bernie Shea's parties out of Solomons.

Catfish are eager to take cut bait in the upper Potomac and Patuxent.

Trollers doing well in the Patuxent.