Maryland’s Oct. 14 report: high Bay salinity, a bluefish bite, and a puffer run

Maryland’s weekly fishing report for Oct. 14, 2026, is a warm-week snapshot before the next cool-down. Fisheries biologist Keith Lockwood compiled the report. Tidewater Ecosystem Assessment director Tom Parham’s forecast for Oct. 7–13 puts main-Bay and river-mouth surface temperatures around 70 degrees, with smaller rivers and streams in the low to mid-60s. Oxygen is adequate in most Bay bottom water. Continued dry weather has Bay salinities running higher than normal. Flows and clarity are about average, and tidal currents stay above average through Friday because of the Oct. 10 new moon.

The upper Bay is holding near 67 degrees and the middle Bay near 68. At Conowingo Dam, late-day releases have been above normal, and the pool is producing striped bass, blue catfish, and flathead catfish. Striped bass are also along the Susquehanna Flats and on the Bay Bridge, where boats are live-lining spot, small white perch, or eels at the pier bases. Chesapeake Channa fishing on tidal grass is still good, especially on sunny afternoons.

The lower Bay is the busiest saltwater note. Bluefish fishing is excellent, with trolled spoons and surge tubes working at the mouth of the Potomac, the Target Ship, and the Middle Grounds. Spot, kingfish, gray trout, speckled trout, and northern puffers are excellent around the lower Patuxent, Point Lookout, and Tangier Sound. Lockwood writes that puffers have not been this numerous since the 1960s and early 1970s. Recreational crabbing is good to excellent, with the best reports from 15 to 20 feet.

Ocean City shook off a third rainy weekend. Inside the inlet, anglers are catching striped bass and a few bluefish on soft plastics, with sheepshead and tautog still on the jetties, bridge, and dock piers. Black sea bass outside the inlet is fair to good on wrecks and reefs. Farther out, small dolphin are excellent around lobster buoys and floating debris, and deep-dropping for swordfish is producing at the canyons, with blueline and golden tilefish in the mix. Fall trout stocking is continuing; DNR posts each day’s plants that afternoon.

This is a The Gillnet news desk summary, not a reprint.

Source: Maryland DNR — Maryland Fishing Report, October 14 (Keith Lockwood and Tom Parham, Oct. 14, 2026).