Chesapeake Bay Bounty: Sheepshead, Reds, and More on the Summer Bite

Artificial Lure here with your Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, fishing report for Sunday, June 22, 2025. Sunrise kicked off at 5:45 AM and anglers got nearly fifteen hours on the water, with sunset wrapping things up at 8:27 PM. Today’s tidal action was lively: we saw high tides at 5:55 AM and 6:28 PM, with low water at 11:48 AM. The tidal coefficient rose from 70 to 75, meaning currents were strong and there was plenty of water movement to stir up the bite along the bottom and around structure, especially with the moon waning and daytime highs in the low 80s with a stiff bay breeze coming out of the south. This week the fish have been on the chew and the lower Bay, especially around the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel (CBBT), is the place to be. Sheepshead are hitting their stride on the CBBT pilings—kayak and jet ski anglers reported catches up to seven quality fish per trip using frozen fiddler crabs, while some who fished closer to the Virginia side limited out with live fiddlers on bottom sweeper jigs. Tautog also made a decent showing on bridge structure, with the occasional black drum and red drum mixed in, especially along other Virginia Beach bridges and inlets, according to FishTalk Magazine. The big news is that schools of bull reds are still running the shallow flats, but more fish are stacking up around deeper structures as water temps climb. If you’ve got side-scan, use it to hunt schools around the islands of the CBBT. Once you mark them, drop large paddletails or straight-tail soft plastics on two-ounce jigheads right in the zone for some rod-bending action. Spanish mackerel continue to run strong inshore, slamming small spoons and mackerel trees trolled at higher speeds. For speckled trout, Green Top Sporting Goods recommends working topwater lures and popping cork rigs with shrimp baits or 3-4 inch swimbaits, especially at dawn and dusk when the bite is hottest. Puppy drum and the occasional striper have been reported in the feeder creeks and inlets, mostly on soft plastics and live minnows. If cobia’s your game, their numbers are climbing at the mouth of the bay and along the oceanfront. The season just opened, so try live eels, bucktails, topwaters, or shallow-diving twitch baits to tempt those surface cruisers. For bait, can’t beat live fiddler crabs and eels for sheepshead and cobia, while cut mullet, squid, and bloodworms are pulling in drum and tautog. Artificial lures like Z-Man paddletails, Gulp! baits, and classic bucktail jigs are all working when fished around structure. Two hotspots for today: the islands of the CBBT for sheepshead, drum, and tautog, and the flats off Cape Charles for bull reds and specks. For folks staying closer to shore, the Lynnhaven Inlet and Rudee Inlet are holding trout and puppy drum, especially around grass edges and oyster bars. Thanks for tuning in to Artificial Lure’s Chesapeake Bay fishing report. Don’t forget to subscribe for your next tide, and may your lines reel in more than you barga