Fishing reports
15637 reports across all 50 states — current conditions and what's biting.
White River country: browns and smallmouth answer the fall turn
A full moon in late September lines up with the seasonal turn already showing on the water. Norfork Lake, part of the White River system near Mountain Home, hosted this week's Bassmaster Elite Qualifier, and the winning pattern by the back half of the event was to work deep channel structure with crankbaits diving past 25 feet, per B.A.S.S. News. That lines up with what Wired2Fish describes nationally for smallmouth bass this time of year: as water cools, fish slide off summer haunts onto deeper structure and feed heavily on baitfish pushed down with them. Field & Stream's fall live-bait roundup points at a similar shift for brown trout, recommending a bottom-bouncing minnow rig on a barrel swivel to keep bait in the strike zone as fish key on slower, deeper presentations.
Fall turn arrives on Smokies tailwaters as browns stage
Late September marks the turn toward fall on Tennessee's Smokies tailwaters. On dam-controlled rivers like the Hiwassee and Caney Fork, cooling air temperatures ease surface conditions ahead of any shift in generation schedule, and brown trout typically move into more consistent, aggressive feeding as they stage toward their fall spawn. Water clarity on these tailwaters tends to sharpen as summer's storm runoff tapers off, rewarding anglers who read generation timing over those fishing blind hours.
Warm Gulf water lingers as Panhandle awaits the fall turn
NOAA CO-OPS instruments are reading solidly summer-warm water across the Panhandle: 85.3°F at Pensacola (station 8729840), 82°F at Panama City (8729108), and 83.5°F at Apalachicola (8728690), all recorded before dawn today. That's typical for a Gulf Coast still riding out the tail end of summer, not the cooler wedge that usually kicks the fall bite into gear. Tonight's full moon means bigger swings on every tide this weekend, worth building a trip around rather than fighting. Sport Fishing Mag's fall roundup notes the broader Gulf pattern: as water starts to slide, fish begin shifting off summer structure toward transitional water, though the Panhandle's readings this week show that shift hasn't arrived yet. For now, conditions favor patience over a hard pivot to fall tactics.
Full Moon Tides Set the Timing on the Oregon Coast
South Beach's NOAA tide station is reading 57.7°F this morning while Astoria, inside the Columbia River entrance, runs warmer at 64.6°F — a reminder that the estuary and open coast are behaving differently as we roll into a full moon week. That extra pull is already showing in the tide tables: both stations are stacking a strong high overnight against a sharp low by mid-morning, the kind of exchange that moves bait and current hard through river-mouth structure. Posts on IFish.net Fishing Reports this week track that activity indirectly, with anglers describing brisk boat traffic and gear losses in the Buoy 10 corridor, at Nehalem, and out of Garibaldi — a sign the coast stays busy even as the calendar turns toward fall.
Flounder and blues hang tough despite wind on the Chesapeake
Chesapeake Bay water sits at 66.6°F this morning per NOAA CO-OPS station 8570283, with the tide flipping through a high near 8:06 a.m. and a low around 2:10 p.m. local time. Fluke are still delivering size on the Delaware and Maryland side: Eric Burnley's report for The Fisherman credits a 13-pound flounder to Frank Falcone aboard the Grizzly with Capt. Cary Evans out of Lewes, while Hook 'em and Cook 'em notes Capt. Bob and the Judy V mixing flounder with sea bass on the days boats could clear Indian River Inlet. Bluefish are filling in around structure too, with Smith's Bait Shop reporting blues holding at Port Mahon on cut bait and metal lures.
Shoreline stripers turn on along the Santa Cruz coast
Water along the Central Coast is holding in the low 60s — 62.8°F at Monterey (NOAA CO-OPS station 9413450) and 63.9°F at Port San Luis (NOAA CO-OPS station 9412110). Western Outdoor News — Saltwater reports shoreline striper action working the surf and nearshore water around Santa Cruz this week, with bait pushing through Monterey Bay. Tonight's full moon is stacking bigger tidal swings on top of that pattern, which is worth building a trip around rather than fishing on a fixed schedule.
Full Moon Tides Reshape SF Bay and Bodega as Stripers Show South
Both NOAA CO-OPS stations covering San Francisco Bay and Bodega Bay are reading water in the mid-50s (55.8°F at station 9418767, 55°F at 9416841), with a high tide moving through late this evening ahead of a swift ebb toward a low near dawn. That swing lands on a full moon, so expect a stronger-than-usual push between high and low water. To the south, Western Outdoor News reports Allen Bushnell finding shoreline stripers holding tight to the Santa Cruz beaches this week, working the surf line behind bait and diving birds, the same fall pattern anglers working NorCal's inshore structure should be watching for.
Fall push builds off the Northeast as Eastern Shore waters cool
Water temps read 63.1°F at Wachapreague and 67.5°F at Kiptopeke this morning per NOAA CO-OPS, the usual ocean-to-bayside split as the Eastern Shore heads into fall. Tonight's Full Moon strengthens the tidal push through the inlet, with low tide near 2:28 a.m. and the next high around 8:46 a.m. Up the coast, the fall run is only just stirring: The Fisherman (Northeast) reports striped bass feeding urgency remains muted with water temps down only slightly, while Saltwater Edge notes tautog picking up and albies taking over the oceanfront as bass rafts begin forming in Rhode Island. Closer to home, The Fisherman's Long Island forecast has bluefish and weakfish mixed into a busy bite, and its NJ/Delaware Bay report has fluke season closing out a tough, short-fish year in New Jersey this week.
Falmouth albies and Buzzards Bay stripers turn on under full moon
Water temperature held at 64.9°F this morning across both Buzzards Bay tide stations (NOAA CO-OPS 8447930 and 8447386), still comfortably warm for the fall push now underway. Falmouth Bait & Tackle reports decent bluefish along the Falmouth shore with a few false albacore in the 10-pound class, and stripers working the harbors and rivers out toward the Elizabeth Islands. At Barnstable Harbor, Sports Port has surfcasters connecting with striped bass over 30 inches as baitfish get pushed onto the beaches, alongside steady black sea bass on bottom rigs. Goose Hummock is putting albies over 12 pounds on small jigs, with plenty of stripers still holding on the Cape Cod Bay side.
Night stripers and tautog turn on in Delaware Bay as storm clears
NOAA's CO-OPS station 8537121 logged 69.3°F early Saturday morning as the Delaware Bay's south Jersey shore holds onto late-summer warmth heading into the fall shift. The Fisherman — Southern NJ reports tautog have invaded the bay, per Higbee's Bait and Tackle, taking sand fleas, green crabs and fiddlers with fish to 4 pounds coming aboard. The same regional roundup has Big Dave's Tackle noting weakfish showing for anglers drifting bait, with a soft-plastic bite building near the lighthouses. Pier 47 Marina, also cited there, describes striped bass hammering staged peanut bunker and mullet after dark in the Wildwoods back bays, with anglers scoring fish to 31 inches on paddletails, rubber shads, bucktails and Mag Darters — higher tides far outproducing low water.
Sea bass and albies turn on as nor'easter nears the Jersey Shore
Water temps at Sandy Hook are holding at 65°F under this week's full moon, and the fall transition is finally showing in the reports. New Jersey's fluke season closed Friday, per The Fisherman — New Jersey edition, but Capt Ron's Atlantic Highlands NJ and Blue Chip Sportfishing both describe sea bass action as excellent, with full-boat limits and quality fish on the rail. False albacore and bonito are still thick along the beachfront, per Fishermans HQ LBI's live-peanut-bunker bite and Grumpys Tackle's 'Bonito, Albies' report, with OTW Northern New Jersey confirming albies have joined bonito on the reefs. Bluefish are turning on too: The Fisherman — Central NJ has Surf City Bait and Tackle throwing metal into slammers, and The Fisherman — NJ/DE Surf has Riptide Bait and Tackle putting tailor-to-chopper blues on mullet and bunker chunks.
Fall run builds at Sandy Hook as fluke season closes out
Water at NOAA CO-OPS station 8531680 read 64.4°F as of 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, still holding a late-summer edge as the fall transition gets underway around Raritan Bay and Sandy Hook. New Jersey's fluke season closed Friday, September 25, per The Fisherman — New Jersey edition's NJ/DE Bay Region forecast, and Capt Ron's Atlantic Highlands NJ made the most of the final stretch, reporting a hot last day with shorts, keepers, and quality sea bass mixed in after a slower midweek bite. Grumpys Tackle (NJ) says the blues are in, and OTW Northern New Jersey's latest report backs that up, noting lingering bluefish and false albacore working the beaches even as a nor'easter slowed the pace of the early fall run. The Fisherman — Northern NJ's boat reports echo it: Golden Eagle Fishing found slammer bluefish, false albacore, and big sea bass mixing into the chum slick before the storm, while captains on the Ol' Salty II and Miss Belmar Princess are watching for striped bass to push into northern waters as October nears.
Delaware River smallmouth and crappie ease into a fall pattern
Smallmouth bass fishing on the Delaware River near Riegelsville has picked up as river levels improved following last week's rain, according to this week's Fisherman NJ/DE Freshwater report from Dave's Sport Shop in Doylestown, which also described lakes across lower Bucks County as 'on the verge of turning' for fall. Crappie fishing has already made that shift per Smith's Bait Shop, with anglers pulling stringers of good-sized fish on twisters fished under floats as water cools. The same regional report frames smallmouth bass as steadily improving through September, with walleye expected to start mixing into catches once October arrives.
Albie Fever Takes Hold Across Long Island Sound
Water temps sit in the mid-60s across Long Island Sound — 64.4°F to 66.4°F at the three NOAA CO-OPS stations along the Connecticut coast — and local shops say the fall run has arrived. Per The Fisherman — Connecticut, J&B Tackle reports albies "everywhere from Black Point to Fishers Island," with anglers working epoxy jigs and tins hard at Avery Point, Sarah's Ledge, Ocean Beach, Harkness, Seaside and Niantic Bay. AW Marina echoes the push, calling it "albie fever" as customers clean out the epoxy-jig bins. Striped bass are feeding heavily on bait but not yet blitzing, per J&B Tackle, while bluefish — from snappers to gators — stay very active throughout the Sound. Tartan II's bottom-fishing trips continue producing large black sea bass, and Black Hawk's final fluke trip of the season came in below expectations as that fishery winds down.
Redfish and Speckled Trout Settle Into a Fall Pattern in Mississippi Sound
Water in Mississippi Sound is still running summer-warm: NOAA CO-OPS station 8747437 read 83.8°F this morning and station 8741533 read 85.5°F. MS DMR confirms the 2026-2027 oyster season opens at legal sunrise on October 1, with harvest running until the 12 p.m. check-out and Sundays closed, a sign the Sound is turning toward its cooler-season calendar even as the water itself hasn't caught up. Redfish and speckled trout remain the two species carrying inshore action along this stretch of the Gulf. Salt Strong's fall tackle rundown this week points anglers toward bigger paddletails for redfish and trout as the seasonal lure switch takes hold, and Sport Fishing Mag's report on nearby Calcasieu Estuary notes speckled trout still feeding hard in Gulf Coast estuaries through the transition. With the Sound still sitting in the mid-80s, both species should still be holding summer patterns rather than pushing hard into fall structure.
Full moon tides set the stage for an Outer Banks fall shift
NOAA CO-OPS readings this morning show 76.6 F at station 8658163 and 72.1 F at station 8656483, both still solidly warm for the Outer Banks in late September. Fisherman's Post (NC) reports from Hatteras Jack in the Rodanthe area that surf bottom fishing has stayed productive, with anglers also finding sight-casting opportunities along the beach. Tonight's full moon is pushing a stronger tidal swing than a typical week, with station 8658163 calling for high water near 7:25 a.m. and low near 1:51 p.m. Eastern.
Full moon tides build as fall striper run stacks up north of the Bay
Water at the Chesapeake's mouth is holding in the low-to-mid 70s: 72.3°F at NOAA CO-OPS station 8638610 and 73.6°F at station 8637689 as of this morning, still on the warm side for late September in the lower Bay. This week's full moon is stacking up bigger tidal swings than usual, with low tide near 3:10 a.m. and the next high building through mid-morning at both stations. Farther up the coast, The Fisherman's Long Island forecast and OTW Surfcasting both describe the fall run finally gaining traction behind a nor'easter, with striped bass, bluefish, weakfish and fluke mixing into pushes of bait, the leading edge of the migration that eventually works its way down into the Bay.
Snook push north as Gulf Coast flips into fall transition
Water on the upper Texas coast is still summer-warm, with CO-OPS stations near Galveston and Corpus Christi reading 86-90°F overnight into this morning, but the fall shift several writers have flagged is underway. Texas Fish & Game's look at the "Mystery of Upper Coast Snook" notes the species isn't confined to the Lower Laguna Madre and shows up well north of it, and Sport Fishing Mag's fall-transition piece has snook feeding up before pushing toward winter holding water, with swimbaits like Z-Man's Mulletron or a Diezel MinnowZ drawing strikes. Salt Strong's rundown of trusted fall lures backs that up, pairing bigger paddletails for redfish alongside snook as the seasonal switch flips.
Panhandle Gulf holds summer warmth under this week's full moon
Water temperatures across the Panhandle's stretch from Destin to Pensacola are still running summer-warm heading into the last week of September, with NOAA CO-OPS stations reading between 82°F and 85.6°F. That's a modest gradient across the coast but nothing close to the fall drop yet. Tonight's low tide at the Pensacola-area station is due around 6:43 p.m. local, falling under a full moon, which means bigger-than-normal tidal swings and stronger current through the passes and bayous over the next several nights. With water still this warm, the Gulf side hasn't tipped into its cooler-water fall pattern, and the moon phase is doing more to move current right now than the calendar is.
Full-Moon Tides Set the Pace on the Oregon Coast
NOAA CO-OPS station 9435380 read 57°F this morning while station 9439040, also monitoring the Oregon Coast, came in noticeably warmer at 63.7°F, a reminder that water temperature here still swings hard by location and exposure this late in September. Today's full moon is amplifying the tide cycle, with the next high at station 9435380 predicted for 12:24 p.m. local and at station 9439040 around 1:26 p.m.
Late-season fluke and blues keep Chesapeake Bay busy before nor'easter
Bay water held at 68.2°F Friday afternoon per our NOAA tide-station reading, still warm enough to keep bluefish and fluke moving before the real fall cool-down arrives. Per The Fisherman — DE/MD/Chesapeake, Smith's Bait Shop reports bluefish taking cut bait and metal lures out of Port Mahon, with flounder mixing in on live minnows and bucktails tipped with Gulp! crawfish. Hook 'em and Cook 'em had a mixed flounder-and-sea-bass day at Indian River Inlet and boxed 11 bluefish for one party, though wind scrubbed several trips the week of September 20. That wind is the bigger story: The Fisherman (Northeast) reports a nor'easter working through the wider Mid-Atlantic this week, and it's the main factor deciding what's fishable through the weekend.
Striped bass show along Santa Cruz shoreline as Central Coast cools
NOAA CO-OPS station 9413450 read 62.1°F this morning and station 9412110 read 63.5°F, both holding in the low-to-mid 60s that mark the Central Coast's shift into fall. Western Outdoor News — Saltwater reports shoreline striped bass activity picking up around Santa Cruz, with fish following bait pushed tight to the beach. Under this week's full moon, tidal swings are running stronger than normal, which tends to sharpen that kind of shoreline feeding.
Striped bass move shallow as big tides push into SF Bay and Bodega
Water temperatures logged this morning span a wide range across the region, 39.4°F at NOAA CO-OPS station 9418767 and 54.1°F at station 9416841, reflecting how sharply water character can shift along this stretch of Northern California coast heading into fall. South along the coast in Santa Cruz, Allen Bushnell's report for Western Outdoor News — Saltwater flagged striped bass working tight to the beach alongside big seabass, with fish following bait and diving birds close to shore.
Georgia anglers get a free fishing day as fall transition arrives
Coastal water temperatures are holding at 79.3°F off the Georgia coast per NOAA CO-OPS station 8670870, still sitting in the classic late-September summer-to-fall crossover. The Georgia Wildlife Blog flags tomorrow, September 26, as National Hunting and Fishing Day and a statewide free fishing day, a good nudge to get someone new out on the water this weekend. Saltwater Sportsman reports the South Atlantic's 14-day fall red snapper season is back on for Georgia, Florida and South Carolina anglers under a newly approved exempted fishing permit, a rare win after the shortened seasons of recent years. GA Sea Grant is also funding new University of Georgia research into how warming waters are affecting striped bass in the state's estuaries, a sign of how closely coastal temperature trends are being tracked. Inshore, Salt Strong's fall lure guide has anglers sizing up to bigger paddletails and swimbaits for redfish as forage grows through autumn.