Southeast Fishing Guide

Most of the Chesapeake is closed to keeping striped bass, and the big migrants hold off Virginia Beach and the Outer Banks in the years they come this far south. Speckled trout and red drum hold in the deepest creeks, where a hard freeze can stun them. Inland, crappie sit on deep brush, sauger and walleye gather below the dams, and Delayed Harvest trout streams fish on the milder afternoons.

Walleye start up the plateau rivers in Tennessee and Kentucky late in the month, and yellow perch push into the upper tidal creeks of Maryland and Virginia. Sheepshead crowd onto pilings and jetties. Crappie begin staging toward the spawning flats, and the float-and-fly bite on Dale Hollow and Center Hill peaks in the coldest water.

Hickory and American shad run up the fall-line rivers, the James, the Potomac, the Roanoke and the Cape Fear among them, with white perch behind them. Largemouth move shallow on the Georgia and Carolina lakes, the crappie spawn begins in the south, and trout stocking is in full swing in the mountain states.

Striped bass reach the spawning grounds on the Roanoke at Weldon and the Bay's rivers. White bass run up the tributaries of the Tennessee and Cumberland lakes, Kentucky Lake's crappie spawn peaks, and the bass spawn moves north through Virginia and Maryland. Mayfly hatches start on the mountain trout streams.

The Chesapeake reopens to keeping striped bass, red drum and the first cobia show on the Outer Banks and in the lower Bay, and flounder spread through the sounds. Bass are post-spawn and bream are on beds. Sulfur hatches start on the South Holston and the other tailwaters, and Delayed Harvest seasons end in Georgia and South Carolina.

Cobia cruise the lower Chesapeake and the Carolina beaches, Spanish mackerel and bluefish run the surf, and speckled trout feed over the grass. Inland, bass move to summer structure, stripers go deep on Lanier and Lake Cumberland, and the tailwaters stay cold for trout while the mountain streams warm.

Heat pushes the fishing to dawn, dusk and night. Boats run from Oregon Inlet and Hatteras to the Gulf Stream for billfish, mahi and tuna. Largemouth on Kentucky Lake hold on the river ledges, and the tailwaters below deep dams are the coolest trout water in the region.

Big red drum gather near the mouth of the Chesapeake and in Pamlico Sound, flounder fishing peaks, and Spanish mackerel stay along the beaches. Mountain streams run low and clear, so fish them early with terrestrials. Inland, striped bass and bass hold deep until the water starts to cool.

The fall run begins. Mullet push down the beaches with red drum and bluefish behind them, and false albacore arrive off the North Carolina coast. Inland, shad move into the creek arms of the reservoirs and the bass follow them.

Peak fall fishing on the coast: red drum in the Outer Banks surf, false albacore at Cape Lookout, and speckled trout feeding hard in the Carolina and Georgia creeks. Tautog bite on the Chesapeake and Delaware rock. Inland, fall trout stocking resumes and the reservoirs turn over.

Striped bass work down the coast and into the lower Bay, and speckled trout fishing peaks. Delayed Harvest streams turn catch and release in Georgia, South Carolina and West Virginia. Muskellunge on the New and in the Kentucky and Tennessee lakes are at their best in cold water.

The Bay's striped bass seasons end, and tautog carry the coastal fishing on the rock. Inland, crappie move to deep brush, sauger gather below the dams, and the stocked trout streams and tailwaters carry the trout fishing through the winter.