BY BILL HALL, Eastern Shore Post, Oct. 31, 2025
Weather, particularly windy conditions, continues to limit angling access for the third consecutive week. When conditions allow, some excellent autumn fishing opportunities await the dedicated angler.
The angling highlight for the month of October has been the productive deep dropping fishery that is occurring in depths of 300 feet (for blueline tilefish) out to the even deeper waters of the offshore canyons for golden tilefish. Captains and anglers with the right vessels and knowledge of the productive tilefish locations have made some very impressive catches.
It is time for schools of striped bass to begin arriving for the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic coastal fisheries. Anglers will be cruising along the bay’s channel edges, with one eye searching the horizon for feeding flocks of birds diving over baitfish and the other eye on their sonar machine, searching for submerged tightly packed schools of the tasty gamefish.
Chincoteague
Deep dropping has provided some outstanding results for vessels venturing offshore.
Captain Steve’s Bait and Tackle weighed in some massive blueline and golden tilefish on Sunday. Jack Mariano had the largest reported tilefish, weighing in a 47-inch, 50-pound golden. Miles Smith scored with a 36-pound golden. The largest reported blueline tilefish tipped the scales at 22 pounds.
A little closer to shore, several boats reported limit catches of black sea bass on the ocean wrecks.
Flounder catches are still being made inside the inlet, with the Curtis Merritt Harbor and Mosquito Creek cited as two recent productive flounder locations. The largest reported flounder of the week weighed 5 pounds, 4 ounces and was caught by Chris Mears.
Wachapreague
Captain Lindsay Paul, aboard the Almost Persuaded, described the flounder fishing out of Wachapreague as “fair, as long as the weather is decent.”
Most of the flounder are still being caught on Berkley Gulp with a live minnow or silverside.
Captain Paul had still not heard of any reports of puppy drum catches, but he said there have been some large red drum caught and released in the surf.
Large black sea bass, along with some flounder, have been pulled from over some of the ocean wrecks.
The only reports from the offshore fishery have been good catches of blueline and golden tilefish catches while deep dropping.
Lower Shore
Jeb Brady, at Bailey’s Bait & Tackle, said that the weather has “played havoc” with the fishing over the last couple of weeks.
When anglers could safely venture out, they have been reporting a few puppy drum and speckled trout catches along the lower bayside beaches; however, they had to really work to find the fish.
Some schoolie-sized striped bass have been reported inside some of the lower bayside creeks, as well as under the lights of some local piers and docks during the evening hours. The stripers have been hitting minnow and silverside resembling soft plastic baits.
Brady described the offshore black sea bass bite as “awesome” when the weather is calm enough to allow safe access.
The writer was the first Eastern Shore resident to achieve Virginia Saltwater Master Angler status. He has been named Virginia Saltwater Angler of the Year and Virginia Saltwater Release Angler of the Year. He has won numerous Virginia Press Association awards for his columns.
