Maryland Fishing Report – November 5

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Forecast Summary: November 5 – November 11:

Expect cool and windy conditions into the weekend with chances of rain Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. As reported by the NOAA buoys, main Bay surface water temperatures are currently in the upper 50s. River temperatures are slightly cooler and holding around the mid 50s.

Oxygen conditions throughout the main Bay and Maryland’s tributaries are suitable to the bottom. To see the latest water clarity conditions on NOAA satellite maps, check Eyes on the Bay Satellite Maps. There will be above average tidal currents into the weekend as a result of the November 5 supermoon.

Upper Chesapeake Bay

Anglers are reporting good fishing for striped bass at the Conowingo Dam pool. Power generation water releases have increased in time and volume. Smallmouth bass and large blue catfish are also part of the mix. Fishing for blue catfish is also very good at the mouths of the Susquehanna, Elk, and North East rivers. 

Striped bass are being caught in the Baltimore Harbor and Fort McHenry shorelines, rocks, and piers by casting poppers and paddletails during the morning and evening. Jigging and trolling with umbrella rigs along the channel at the mouth of the Patapsco are ways anglers are catching striped bass. The area around Pooles Island has also been a good place to jig, cast paddletails, and live-line eels. 

The main channels in the upper Bay are worth exploring while trolling umbrella rigs or tandem rigged bucktails or swimshads behind inline weights to get them down to the depths where striped bass are suspended close to the bottom. The areas near the Triple Buoys just south of Rock Hall and the channel near Sandy Point Light are good places to explore when trolling. 

White perch are found on various lumps, knolls, and shoals in the upper Bay. Fishing with grass shrimp or pieces of bloodworm on dropper rigs or bottom rigs are effective ways to fish for them. The mouths of the Patapsco and Chester rivers are also excellent places to find white perch this week.

Middle Bay

The Bay Bridge piers and rock piles continue to be a good place to check for striped bass. Casting skirted soft plastic jigs near the pier bases is always popular and an easy way to explore fishing success. Live-lining eels or small white perch is another good option. A running tide is important, and the morning and evening hours usually offer the best opportunities. Large white perch can be found holding near the rock piles; heavy but small jigs are needed to reach them. 

The water temperature in the lower Choptank River is in the mid-50s this week and the bay anchovies and small menhaden continue their exodus from the river into a gauntlet of waiting striped bass. The striped bass are lining up along main channels at the mouths of several tidal rivers and in the bay waters. The mouth of Eastern Bay, the Choptank River, and Thomas Point are just a few areas where anglers are finding striped bass. Jigging is a popular way to fish for them and a good depth finder is a very important asset. Trolling umbrella rigs is an effective way to fish along the deep edges of the channels and heavy inline weights will get them down there. At times diving sea gulls can lead the way to the action, but anglers report it is hard to keep up with them.

White perch are schooling up near the mouths of the tidal rivers over oyster beds, and some have moved out into the bay over hard bottom off Matapeake. Kent Narrows is another good place to find larger white perch this time of year. Most anglers work small jigs for them in the moving current.

Striped bass fishing has been very good this week in the lower Bay. The lower Potomac and Patuxent rivers have been standouts for anglers jigging and trolling along the edges of the channels. The 30-foot edges tend to be the sweet spot for both river channels and out in the bay. 

In the lower Potomac River, the steep edge from St. George Island past Piney Point is a good place to jig or to troll deep with tandem rigged swimshads or umbrella rigs pulled behind heavy inline weights. The lower Patuxent River near the Route 4 Bridge has been a very popular area to jig with soft plastics and cast paddletails. 

The shallower waters near promising looking shorelines with structure are a fun place to fish during the morning and evening hours. Casting soft plastic jigs and paddletails are always a fun light tackle way to fish. The Cedar Point rocks provide a good place to try. 

The large red drum have left our waters and the spot and croakers left right behind them for the mouth of the Bay. There are still a few speckled trout being caught in the shallow waters, but that fishery is wanning quickly. There are signs of promise that some large striped bass may be moving into the lower bay as sometimes occurs and providing fun catch and release fishing during late November and December.

There are plenty of white perch around, the lower Patuxent and Nanticoke rivers and Tangier Sound offer good fishing. The creeks feeding into the lower Potomac and the mouth of the St. Marys River are also offering good fishing for white perch. Anglers are reporting many of the white perch are large. Dropper rigs with shad darts or small jigs or bottom rigs baited with grass shrimp or pieces of bloodworm will do the trick.

Freshwater Fishing

The fall trout stocking program was completed the last week of October and there will not be any future trout stockings until the preseason trout stocking begins in 2026. There are still trout to be found in the put-and-take management waters and they tend to be spread out. Casting spinners, small spoons and various flies is a good way to search them out. The delayed harvest and catch and return management waters continue to hold all the trout that were stocked so they should provide plenty of fun catch and release fishing.

The water levels and flow rates in the upper Potomac received a bump from recent rain and with cooler water temperatures the fishing for smallmouth bass and walleye is reported to be good. Anglers are having good luck casting tubes, swimbaits and small crankbaits. Floating leaves and clumps of grass are present but can usually be avoided.

Largemouth bass fishing is always a popular activity, and the fall months present increased opportunities due to the cooler water temperatures causing them to feed more aggressively. The grass beds of the shallower waters are receding, and baitfish and crayfish are seeking cover in deeper waters, so largemouth bass are on patrol in transition areas. 

Crappie fishing has been excellent this fall and they are schooling up near deep structure. Fallen treetops, brush and sunken wood all fit the bill in many inland waters. At Unicorn Lake, Fishing and Boating Services staff have placed sunken leftover Christmas trees out in the lake to provide structure for crappie. The Freshwater Fisheries Division website is updated with a lot of wonderful information, including listing the various lakes by every region in the state and how best to fish there.

Crappie can also be found in the tidal waters throughout the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and one of the best places to catch them is the tidal Potomac River near the Wilson Bridge and the Fort Washington Marina. On the Eastern Shore, the upper Wicomico River in the Snow Hill area is also noted for excellent crappie fishing. 

As we move through November, fishing for chain pickerel becomes a focus for many anglers. The thick grass beds have receded, and chain pickerel will be found holding close to sunken wood. They are very active in cold water, so they provide fun fishing through the winter months in tidal and nontidal waters. They are aggressive ambush predators so anglers should consider swapping out treble hooks on their lures for inline single hooks to reduce damage to the fish.

Atlantic Ocean and Coastal Bays

The National Weather Service predicts that it is going to be very windy through the weekend, and presently there are gale warnings. It would be a good time to stay inside the inlet. Sheepshead and tautog are still being caught near the jetties, bulkheads and the Route 50 Bridge on sand fleas and pieces of crab. Striped bass are being caught during the early morning and evening hours by casting soft plastic jigs. There are flounder still inside the inlet, but cloudy water conditions will make it hard for them to see baits. 

When things calm down offshore, fishing for black sea bass should pick right where it left off from last weekend with good catches of black sea bass, tautog and large flounder. Blueline tilefish will be waiting for deep drop anglers at the canyon waters.