Many anglers in the middle Chesapeake Bay region are likely to tell you that the 2024 fall striped bass season has been, shall we say, less than stellar. Far less. The boats that are connecting with good fish are putting many miles in to locate them. That has been the gameplay these past several weeks. Rocktober for naught. It’s been a grind. Are the schooling stripers pulling a disappearing act?
In the rivers, it’s been a fish here, a fish there. We’re just not seeing the numbers that we’re accustomed to this time of year. Perhaps things will pick up in November. Interestingly, on two recent trips in the Severn River, I marked a good amount of baitfish in several of my go-to fishing areas. But the stripers? I didn’t mark any. Usually, we’re seeing birds swirling over feeding fish. It’s a hallmark of fall fishing. It’s made me question if the resident population of striped bass is beginning to shift their own seasonal transition and migration patterns earlier…or later…than usual. The next four to eight weeks should be telling, but by then many anglers will have shifted their sights to winter fishing for either pickerel in the rivers or big migratory bass in the main stem of the Bay.
About those two recent trips of mine. Both were simply to scratch the itch to fish one of my favorite fall river patterns—pitching small bucktails around deep-water docks for hungry stripers. In the past three seasons, I’ve pulled in very nice fat, fall stripers in the 20–27″ class doing this. It’s great fun to play them out of the cover and the casting can feel quite technical when working your lure around and under docks. The fish usually suspend around the ends of the docks, where the dropoff of depth is between the deeper water and shallow shoreline flats. They’re staged to pick off baitfish sweeping through this depth change during the tide cycles.
For this style of fishing, I’m generally using one of my “all-rounder” rod/reel combos. That is, a setup that I use for many styles of fishing. In this case a 6’6″ St. Croix Mojo Inshore spinning rod paired to a 2500 Penn Spinfisher—a light setup that has muscle. It’s loaded with 15lb braid for the mainline and a 5′ leader of 20lb Seaguar (yellow label). My bucktail of choice is a 1/2oz banana head with a 3/0 hook. Any combination of silver/chartruese/white and maybe some black and blue in there works well to imitate the peanut bunker abundant in the rivers. It’s tied to the leader with a loop knot.
Both of these trips lasted about four hours each. Both occurred in the latter part of the day—afternoon to early evening. One occurred after a full moon period. The other a quarter moon. Tide cycles were moving water during both outings. That’s what you want. I ventured to and worked through many of my favorite spots in the middle section of the Severn River and Round Bay. For all the casting and maneuvering, spot checking, and sonar side scanning, I managed just a couple stripers. They are gorgeous fish this time of year, with purples and blues showing on the shoulders as they bulk up for winter. Though I was hopeful to see more of them, I’m thankful to have the opportunity to spend the time on the water during the most beautiful time of year.
We’ll obviously be watching the ASMFC, Maryland DNR, NOAA, and other agencies as they work through the striped bass management and regulation changes for the 2025 season. We know the population numbers are low and reproduction in the Chesapeake Bay has all but bottomed out. We need actionable measures and regulations placed on the commercial sector—can’t keep regulating the recreational anglers that catch fewer and fewer fish. My 2c.
See y’all on the water again, real soon!
