Full moon tides build as fall striper run stacks up north of the Bay

What's next

Full moon tides produce the month's strongest water movement, and with lows near 3:10-3:21 a.m. and highs building past 9:20 a.m. at both Bay-mouth stations, the fastest current windows this week fall in the pre-dawn and mid-morning hours, worth planning around near Bay-mouth structure.

Water in the low 70s should hold for a few more days before nightly cooling starts pulling it down toward October, which typically accelerates the fall striper push south. As that Northeast push described by The Fisherman and OTW Surfcasting continues down the coast over the next couple of weeks, expect striped bass, bluefish, weakfish and fluke to start showing at the Bay mouth.

Context

Low-70s water at the Bay mouth in late September is normal for this stretch of the Chesapeake, not an early or late read. The Bay mouth is historically one of the later stops on the coastal striper migration, with meaningful numbers usually arriving after the run has already built through the Northeast and mid-Atlantic. A full moon this time of year reliably drives stronger tidal exchange, and the pattern developing farther up the coast this week is the seasonal setup local anglers typically watch before their own fall run gets underway.