This is Artificial Lure with your Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report for August 6, 2025, covering the Baltimore and D.C. corridor. We’re settling into another warm week on the Bay, but the fishing action remains steady and spirits are high on both sides of the bridge. Weather’s been cooperative—expect mostly stable skies, temps hanging in the low 80s, and just a slim chance of an evening thunderstorm. Winds are out of the east around 10 knots, laying down one-foot waves—good conditions for small craft, but keep an eye out for any pop-up showers, especially late afternoon and evening according to the National Weather Service.

First light is at 6:12am and the sun will set at 8:05pm. Take advantage of the prime bites around these times, especially for those dawn patrols—shallow water action dies off fast when the sun climbs.

Tidal movement today is key: High tide rolled in around 12:11pm, with low tide at 6:41am and again at 8:06pm. That swing offers solid fishing windows just before and after each change. The moving water makes predators more aggressive, so time your spots accordingly.

Let’s talk catches: Striped bass are still the big story up north and in city waters near the Key Bridge, around Pooles Island, and along the channel edges toward the Patapsco. Early birds have been landing schoolies and some slot fish by tossing soft plastic paddletails and fluke-style jigs at first light on the Susquehanna Flats. Live-lining spot is getting the consistent bites near Love Point rocks and Bodkin Point shoal—if you can find spot in the shallows, keep ‘em lively on a circle hook, and you’ll pull a striper. Some folks are also trolling with red and green surgical tube rigs for blues and Drone spoons plus bucktails for bass, especially around the False Channel and below Buoy 83.

On the bait-and-bottom front, blue catfish are stacked up in the Susquehanna and Elk Rivers and throughout the tidal creeks. Just about anything smelly works—cut bunker, chicken, or scented commercial bait—fish them on a bottom rig and hang on. Spot fishing is red hot in the Chester River opposite Hail Point, around the mouth of the Magothy, and the west end of the Bay Bridge. You’ll also find small croaker mixed in. Clam and bloodworm bits on a double-drop rig are tough to beat.

White perch are keeping family anglers busy under docks, piers, and near rocks in the lower stretches of rivers; grass shrimp and small chunks of peeler crab are best, but little spinnerbaits and Beetle Spins cast toward structure work during low light.

Down south toward Poplar Island and Chesapeake Beach, hard bottom spots keep producing for a mix of spot, perch, and croaker. The name of the game is finding the rough stuff, especially in 8-15 feet of water. Don’t forget a few speckled trout have been popping up for those tossing paddletails in skinny water at first and last light—major bonus if you connect.

Hot lure of the week: paddletail soft plastics in chartreuse or white, and for bass in heavy grass or pressured areas, a heavier lipless crank (like the Berkley War Pig in yellow perch pattern) has been a difference-maker according to some local tournament anglers. Sometimes a weight change or offbeat color gets those bigger bites.

Hot spots: Susquehanna Flats and dam pool for sunrise stripers; Sandy Point State Park if you want steady spot action; Pooles Island and Love Point rocks for versatile catches, and Chester River for easy access to a pile of cats, perch, and spot.

Keep tabs on the weather and tides, match your bait and approach to the target species, and most important, get out before the sun’s high for the best chances at those summer linesiders.

Thanks for tuning in! Don’t forget to subscribe for more up-to-the-minute Chesapeake Bay fishing reports and tips. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.

Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn