Long Island and NYC Fishing Report
- Sea bass season closes Dec. 31st but some party boats are still sailing offshore.
- Slow herring bite and empty piers contrast the previous week.
- Bays are still full of bait, and holdover fishing has been productive for some.
- Weather front turns on the freshwater bite.
Paul McCain from River Bay Outfitters in Baldwin told me:
“I’ve been stalking some ponds and finding large carp on the feed which is exciting. You probably have a good shot at landing a carp on the fly this week. Rivers and streams are in good shape despite the rain, and the Connetquot is still loaded with rainbows and brook trout of very nice size. The salt has been quiet, whether its herring, white perch, or stripers. But they’re around around for the die-hard salt angler who knows where to look and what to throw. In the case of stripers and/or white perch, that would be clousers, deceivers, light soft plastics, and jerk baits.”
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Happy holidays! I hope you had a great holiday weekend and spent quality time with your loved ones. This week is usually a quiet one, but for those who got out to fish it was both a productive week and weekend. Pickerel, largemouth, yellow perch, walleye, and quality-sized holdover stripers were in the mix from the few anglers I talked to this week. Absent on the list was herring. While herring season appeared to kick-off last week with a few initial catches reported, this week reports were much colder and many of the popular herring piers have been empty.
On Tuesday morning before work, I hit up a local pond with my ultralight spinning set up—an old Berkeley lightning rod I purchased for $20 from Campsite—with a 1500-size reel spooled with 10-pound braid and 8-pound fluorocarbon. I tied on a 1/10-ounce ned head with a TRD finesse worm hoping to entice a pressured bass to bite. Sure enough, after a few different spots and dozens of casts, I hooked a little dink bass that weighed hardly a pound. This bass was sitting on shallow flats, and so gently slurped up my jig that I first thought I snagged a tree branch before it started to fight.
Here’s what anglers have been posting on social media:
East End
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West End
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If you have a catch you’d like to share, DM me on Instagram @nick_onthewater.
Long Island and NYC Fishing Forecast
With mild weather this weekend it’ll be a great time to get out and chase holdover stripers in the back bays, or commit to the sweetwater for just about any of the freshwater species on Long Island. This past storm seems to have fired up the freshwater species and they’ve been responsive to ned rigs, jerkbaits, blade baits, and microplastics typically used to target crappie and perch. The panfish have been active as well, and a mixed bag can be had on crappie or trout magnets, spoons 1/4th ounce or less, and spinners of similar size.
In the salt, while the herring haven’t shown in great numbers yet there has been an abundance of spearing in their place. Small soft plastics or streamers on fly tackle would be great presentations for holdover stripers right now, and it would be worth carrying an extra rod rigged up with a flasher and sabiki rig just in case the herring make an appearance.
I’ll be heading out on my lunch break today with jerkbaits, hair jigs, and ned rigs to try and put a few more winter bass on the board. Admittedly, I won’t be chasing herring until I get warmer reports – it’s never been my cup of tea and I’m dedicating more of my winter fishing time to bass this year and through 2024. Though I do want to fry up some herring at some point. If you’ve been hitting up the piers lately – don’t get discouraged. Carry an outfit for targeting holdover stripers and white perch to keep you sane in the meantime.
A Quick Thank You
Thanks for tuning into the fishing report in 2023. This was my first year writing a report for OTW and I’ve enjoyed it all throughout, and I hope that you have too. Looking back, 2023 was a tremendous year for me both in terms of my success fishing and just in general for the course of my life. I’m staring down the last two years of my 20’s with optimism and enthusiasm for what’s to come. I hope your new year will be just as prosperous and exciting, and while I’ll be happily reporting on the Long Island bite all winter long, I can’t wait to start writing about the return of the stripers in Spring 2024.
Thank you for reading as always, and tight lines. Happy new year and warm wishes to you and yours. I’ll see you in 2024.
The L.I./NYC Fishing Report is written and compiled by NYSDEC licensed kayak fishing guide, Nick Cancelliere (@nick_onthewater).