(Above) OTW reader Mark Anaya shared this photo of a giant striped bass that he caught while fishing live bunker from his kayak just outside of NYC this past week.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year. It ain’t Christmas, but it might as well be as far as the Long Island/NYC fishing community is concerned.
Striped bass have invaded the beaches in numbers, and there is some size to them. There has been a consistent bite for surfcasters throwing swimming plugs around Rockaway and the West End, while a bit further East, bucktails and jigs are getting the job done. Deciding what to throw and whether or not a bite comes will ultimately be decided by the angler’s ability to match the hatch. While that doesn’t always matter during the fall run, it’s a big difference maker. Casting low profile swimming plugs where there are adult and even peanut bunker is more likely to yield a bite; when sand eels and silversides are present, bucktails, diamond jigs and resin jigs will catch better than a swimming plugs. This is a great example of why it pays off to explore the beach and survey the surf for signs of life before making that first cast.
Of course, there are times when the stripers are blitzing heavily on baitfish, and regardless of the size or type of bait, if you throw a pencil popper into the fray it’s just bound to get bit.
When I wasn’t prying the vast, sandy shores of Jones Beach or Robert Moses, I enjoyed the night bite on Jamaica Bay or the North Shore. The North Shore holds some great fishing this time of year, even in the back bays. Jigging soft plastics, bucktails and throwing smaller swimming plugs often led to some decent fishing. Last year around this time of the season, my buddy Sean and I worked the North Shore nearly every night. Some nights we did well on schoolies, and other nights we’d land a couple slot fish here and there.
Stripers aren’t the only fish biting well in the bays right now though. Oddly enough, on October 23rd last year my friend Greg and I were fishing behind Jones Beach and catching lots of fluke on soft plastics. They were out of season and all of them were shorts, but some of the fish were up to 17-inches. We saw several weakfish caught, and we even caught a massive northern puffer, which was kept for the table since Greg didn’t believe we could eat them.
Fishing close to us, but hugging the nearby bridges were tautog fishermen. They dropped jigs as close to pilings as possible, and did pretty well with keeper tog as far as I could tell. A few nice fish came over the rail, and they even caught a decent striper nosing around for crabs. There’s plenty of fun out front on the beaches, but don’t overlook the back bays for a change of pace when the beach bite gets tough.
Hickory shad also flood the bays around this time of year, and if you have a 7-foot rod and a diamond jig, they are some good fun (although it gets old after some time, knowing all the fish are going to be roughly the same size). However, typically when there are hickory shad on the surface, there are bass beneath them; the bass are just tricky to fool.
Although I do most of my fishing from a kayak or waders, there are times when I want to be on a boat with a bunch of like-minded strangers, making new friends and catching some different species. When that time rolls around for you, look no further than the local charters between Brooklyn and Babylon.
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Looking for Tim Regan’s Eastern Long Island Fishing Report? Click here to read about the bite around Suffolk County and the Forks!
From the Boats
Gypsea Charters in Howard Beach, Queens reports:
“Bass fishing remains very good with tons of bait in the area. On the blackfish front, we had a couple of slower days and a couple of really good days. We anticipate it to only get better as the temperatures drop. This recent cold spell definitely had them snapping the last two days, with fish to 8 pounds. We will continue blackfishing daily by reservation only, call or text (516)659-3814 for info and availability.”
Rockfish Charters in Brooklyn reports:
“There are loads of bass, both jumbo size and slot size mixed in here and to the west. We have been mainly bunker school fishing. Dropping baits to the sea floor below the bunker schools is yielding the best results.” Call/text Captain Rich (347)661-4501 to book a trip.
Karen Ann Charters in Jamaica Bay reports:
“Jamaica Bay continues to see great action during the witching hours around dawn and dusk; it’s been mostly schoolies with slots few and far between. However, most of my recent trips have actually been deep in Raritan Bay to South Amboy. The fishing has been ridiculously crazy, with an average of around 30 cow bass per trip.”
Sound Bound Charters in New Rochelle and Mamaroneck reports some unbelievable porgy fishing in the Long Island Sound, with limits or near-limits of jumbo scup for several anglers on board recent trips. They are also running charters for tautog up in Rhode Island, so you can get in on some of the stellar blackfish action.
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Want to get in on the bite? Find an OTW-approved Charter Fishing Captain around Long Island or NYC!
Point Lookout’s Super Hawk reports:
“The weather is looking great for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. These last couple of trips have seen some of the best fishing of the year! Jumbo sea bass and porgies are a regular occurrence. We are sailing daily from 5:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. for porgies, sea bass and more! Reservations are required for all trips and are made over the phone with a credit card.”
For anglers looking to meet friends or family halfway to the East End, Captree State Park is a great place to do so.
Captree’s Laura Lee reports:
“Wednesday’s 7 a.m. local boat had 13 anglers. They caught 320 blackfish and 14 sea bass. Later, the 1 p.m. trip caught 370 Blackfish, and the 6 p.m. trip caught 16 Striped Bass, releasing 3 oversize up to 38 pounds.
Tuesday’s 7 a.m. local caught 374 blackfish up to 6.4 pounds., 14 sea bass, 2 weakfish, 1 fluke, 1 triggerfish and 2 toadfish. At 1 p.m. the local trip caught 285 blackfish, 4 sea bass and 1 striper. Then the 6 p.m. trip kept 6 slot size stripers and released 6 oversize stripers to 32 pounds.”
From the Shops
Jacks Bait and Tackle in City Island, The Bronx reports:
“The porgy bite is still going strong in the Western Sound on worms and small jigs, which makes for some light tackle fun. We’re starting to see more bass around with lots of shore guys throwing eels and chunking bunker, but there’s also a crowd doing well with metal lips and swimming plugs. The bass bite should continue to pick up as the temperatures drop. Blackfishing is off to a strong start in the Sound, and there is plenty of short action with the keepers to keep rods bent all day. Stop in for any bait you need!”
Brandon at Causeway Bait and Tackle in Wantagh reports:
“Tautog opener on the south shore has been really good. Lots of the local bridges and piers are holding plenty of keepers and shorts, with some nice fishing coming off the local boats as well. The bass bite on the beach is just insane right now. I saw 40 to 50 fish landed the other day around sunset, all in the slot range, and landed around 8 fish myself. The smaller fish were around 30-inches. It’s great to see a healthy body of fish on the beaches, hopefully the bite will last. There were signs of sand eels showing up so get those diamond jig ready. The jetties are a great place to start, and then working down the beaches proves to be productive. Stop in to the shop for jigs and plugs and get in on the action.”
Bay Park Fishing Station in Oceanside reports:
“Capt. Matt, Chris (the portside punisher), and Matt Diamond, hit rockaway reef Saturday for opening day blackfish. The blackfish bite was not great, but in additon to a handful of keeper tog the crew also caught these 2 jumbo Black drum, estimated at 70- to 80-pounds. Both Drum were safely released boat side. The crew then set up on bunker schools for for bass in the 35- to 45-pound range on live bunker. A great day to be out on the water.”
River Bay Outfitters in Baldwin reports:
“We did a Captree trip recently and had a bunch of hickory shad. They are all over the back bays in numbers which is a blast on the fly or with a light spinning rod. I went east this week in search of albies but to no avail; the wind made fishing very tough. So I fished the bay side of the North Fork in the Peconic area and caught 3 stripers around a choke point in the fast moving tide. The fish were pretty good size around low slot or mid-20 inch range, and there were several other anglers also catching on plugs.
In freshwater, the rivers are in good shape on the Island and just north of NYC now that there’s some more water flowing. Trout fishing has improved as a result. In Connecticut, the Farmington river has been productive, but back on Long Island, the trout stocking has begun. It started last week at Hempstead Lake and will continue over the course of the month.”
Freeport Bait and Tackle reports:
“Jones Beach is holding a lot of bass along the entire stretch. They’re hitting darters and needlefish, Yo Zuri mag darters and other swimming plugs along with bucktails. Some keeper size bass are in the mix and the bite isn’t sunrise or sunset, it is all day. Tog fishing is off to a great start too, and we are flying through crabs and jigs. We have seen some nice size keepers so far this year; off to a much better start than last year. Albies are further out and the party boats are finding them, while other fish like hickory shad are inside the inlets. We have Green and Asian crabs in stock but call ahead to reserve yours because they’re going fast. We also have all the swimming plugs like Mag Darters and JoeBaggs Swarters which have both been hot on the beaches recently.”
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Looking for Tim Regan’s Eastern Long Island Fishing Report? Click here to read about the bite around Suffolk County and the Forks!
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Want to get in on the bite? Find an OTW-approved Charter Fishing Captain around Long Island or NYC!
Western Long Island/NYC Fishing Forecast
Striped bass should continue to bite on the open beaches, especially if the menhaden stick around in numbers. If not, we have a few other reliable baitfish species to lean on, like sand eels. When sand eels hit the beaches during the late fall, diamond jigs are king, and a teaser 12-inches above the jig can’t hurt.
Tautog fishing will likely continue to pick up, although as the season progresses, the fish will move deeper. There’s no real migration timeline for us to track them like we do stripers and blues, but if they’re not biting in your usual haunts, fish ten to twenty feet deeper and see if that changes anything. Make sure to keep a surplus of crabs wherever you decide to target blackfish because they require lots of re-baiting hooks, moreso than most other species (with the exception of bluefish).
Albies are taking their sweet time arriving on the South Shore. But as is the case with stripers, the albies are more likely to push close to the beaches if there’s an influx of sand eels or other small “rain” bait like silversides.
If you can’t find the stripers during daylight, hit a local bass pond and do some freshwater fishing to alleviate the pain. Then go back out at night and fish the backwaters, boulder fields or inlets for a better chance at some bass action.
Wherever you find yourself on the water this week, be safe, respect each other, respect the fish and fish hard.
Cheers to the Fall Run. Catch you next week!