Weekend Fishing Report

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By Gene Mueller

Fine autumn fishing for blues and stripers can be yours from the lowest portions of the Chesapeake Bay to the northern parts, especially around the Chester River and other areas in Kent County waters. In Southern Maryland and the Northern Neck of Virginia, expect excellent bluefish and increasing rockfish activity along with some flounder and redfish hookups.

In tidal rivers, the boss of them all, the Potomac, shows stripers and blues from Point Lookout clear up to the Route 301 Bridge in Charles County. Most of the river markers and buoys that have protective rock piles around them also hold stripers that can be caught by small-boaters using nothing more than lipless rattle lures or, but when the fish go deep, white or chartreuse Sassy Shads pierced onto quarter-ounce or half-ounce jig hooks will work.

Fresh- and brackish-water bass fishing is solid. As always, it begins with the upper tidal Potomac, where largemouth bass of various sizes attack shallow to medium-depth crankbaits, especially if they're retrieved in an erratic stop-and-go fashion. Good smallmouth bass catches are made in the upper mountain rivers, while small lakes and reservoirs in the metropolitan area are always good for largemouth bass, catfish or crappies this time of year.

Along the oceanfronts, expect a mixed bag of red drum (redfish), bluefish, flounder and croaker, while offshore boats connect on tunas, some king mackerel and dolphinfish, as well as sharks.

Here is this week's outlook:

(Ratings key: ****=excellent fishing; ***=Good; **=Fair; *=Poor.)

AREA 1: D.C. AND VICINITY

TIDAL POTOMAC RIVER: 0-35 miles (***) — Around the Fletcher's Cove (Georgetown, off Canal Road; call 202/244-0461) you'll hook catfish, carp, and maybe even a bass or two. The fishing can be very good some days. If it's largemouth bass you're after, all the feeder creeks from the Broad to the Aquia produce. We've had our best days in the Mattawoman and Chicamuxen in recent days. In saltier water, down around the mouth and slowly heading upstream to Tall Timbers, you'll catch a mix of stripers and bluefish. For some, it's mostly bluefish. The river from St. Clements Island to St. George's Island has active rockfish for trollers and lure casters, said the Tackle Box's Ken Lamb. Bluefish can be hooked as far north as the Route 301 Bridge, while rockfish have been at Swan Point just before the sun rises and as it sets.

WICOMICO RIVER: 55 miles (**) — White perch and catfish are taken inside the river, with rockfish and a few snapper blues hanging around outside the mouth where bucktail or spoon trollers connect some days

MATTAWOMAN CREEK: 40 miles (***) — The slow stop-and-go retrieval of medium-diving crankbaits has been super-effective along flooded shorelines where grasses, open water pockets and some wood are seen. If that doesn't produce, start throwing spinnerbaits or slowly work a 4-inch finesse worm along the marsh bank ledges up and down the creek. You'll score.