Long Island and NYC Fishing Report
- Slot to over-slot size holdover striped bass common in the western back bays.
- Bait schools, likely spearing, visible at low tide.
- Freshwater fishing picks up with bass readily taking plastic worms.
- Freshly stocked rainbow & brown trout rise for dry flies, while also attacking spinners, spoons, and bait.
Brandon Weitz from Causeway Bait and Tackle in Wantagh told me:
“The weather was hot and so was the bass fishing! I was able to hook my first bass of the year last week and get a few more really nice fish over 30 inches from the back bays! Joe bags swarters in bunker and bone color got the job done every time. Things settled down quick as the temperatures went back down to normal but the freshwater bite is still good and the trout ponds will be stocked soon to hold us over until it warms up again.”
Petey Trovato from Lindenhurst Bait and Tackle told me:
“The fishing has been on fire in both freshwater and saltwater this past week. Me and Joe Bescardi had about a dozen bass on wacky-rigged Senko worms over the weekend, but as soon as the wind picked up the bite died. In-between bites we caught some white perch and shiners using clumped up bread on baithooks. My other friend Vinny Salentino has been catching Walleye like crazy with the ned rig during the day-time.”
In the salt, Eric Jiang had over a dozen fish on Sunday from slot to over-slot size on a chicken-scratch SP minnow. I hit the bays this week with Johnny fish but we struck out on holdovers.”
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It was a busy week. Here’s what local anglers have been posting on social media:
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If you have a catch you’d like to share, DM me on Instagram @nick_onthewater.
It’s no big secret that the holdover fishing was pretty amazing during the warm weather last week & over the weekend. A quick browse on Instagram or Facebook will reveal many anglers putting their first stripers of 2024 on the board, while the die-hards who have been at it since first frost are filled with renewed enthusiasm for spring. Happy spring, by the way.
In several areas across the Western Island, anglers have been catching more slots and overslots than the schoolies, which, typically, make-up the holdover population. Fish are generally in the upper-20 to 30-inch range, and I’ve even seen a few 40-inch class fish get landed deep in the back bays. The most common lures being thrown are minnow plugs – Daiwa SP Minnows, Yo-Zuri Hydro Minnows, and Joe Baggs Swarters. Soft plastics are in the mix too, but the minnows seem to draw the most strikes.
On a recent outing, I dredged the bottom with a soft plastic and got outfished by my buddies throwing bone-colored swarters. Switching to a blurple Yo-Zuri Hydro Minnow landed me my first schoolie bass of 2024, plus two respectable slot fish within a short number of casts. The 3 fish I hooked that day were all within a single hour window of fishing, and hundreds of casts later yielded no more fish. As the colder weather settled in, repeat trips to the bays yielded only 1 fish, then no fish for a few days in a row. Those stripers haven’t gone anywhere, but their desire to feed has. While we enjoyed some upbeat, consistent fishing during that faux spring before the official arrival of spring, it’s now back to grinding through tide cycles trying to find that feeding window.
Besides holdovers, there was also a pretty noteworthy catch last week: Lorenzo Reid of the @thereidsoutdoors & @TheReidsOutdoors on YouTube caught a winter flounder while fishing with sandworms. Pretty cool!
Long Island and NYC Fishing Forecast
With wind, rain, and temperatures in the 30s overnight, the bite is sure to be impacted across both fresh & saltwater. That said, there’s still plenty of action to be had, and in some ponds trout stocking has begun, or will begin very shortly. The trout will be right at home in colder waters, and fly fishing for trout should be more exciting with the fish being more receptive to dry flies lately. Of course, in most ponds you’ll see more anglers casting spinners and spoons, or bait hooks with clumps of bread dough, worms, or other pieces of trout candy on.
If you do fish for holdovers, remember that striped bass season doesn’t begin until April 15th, and until then is strictly catch-and-release only. For that reason, you should crush the barbs on all your hooks, swap out the trebles for single hooks, (especially the rear treble, if you only replace one), and bring pliers and fish grippers with you to help with proper handling and to ensure a quick release. If you can resist the urge to take a photo of the fish, all the better; but if you’re spending over a minute trying to wrestle a barbed treble hook from its throat, you’re just increasing the chances that fish is going to turn belly-up when you return it to the water.
Now for the positive stuff: holdover fishing really isn’t that hard this time of year. It just takes patience, perseverance, and discipline. The key to holdover fishing is maintaining your confidence and sticking to your game plan, a willingness to try new things, and anticipating a skunking. Embrace the skunk. It makes those caught fish all the more sweeter.
On warm, sunny days, the stripers are likely to move into the shallow mudflats which retain heat. Look for pinch points and channels with sod banks that are likely to hold fish, and work a minnow plug or soft plastic slowly through them. I like to work minnow plugs with a drag-and-pause similar to how I’d work a jerkbait in freshwater. Everytime I drag that minnow it’ll dive a little deeper, then pause, and either float upwards, suspend, or sink depending on the lure of choice. Typically, when I start to pick up slack line for another drag is when the stripers will hit it. A strike on the pause is one of the most satisfying strikes behind topwater, in my opinion.
For soft plastics, I like to crawl the bottom, occasionally jigging it, similar to how I’d fish a senko-worm for freshwater bass. Sometimes, you might even bump a bass in the face that’s been sitting dormant on the bottom. If that happens, a rattling minnow plug or darter with an erratic retrieve might be a better option to annoy them into striking. Take note of where you found that bass, because now the key will be finding the window they’re willing to bite.
Sod banks, mud flats and back bay estuaries are where the holdovers like to hide. The good thing is that it’s easy to break these areas down because they tend to be narrow and shallow, with bass holding alongside the banks or in the deepest points of the channel. Cover water, but don’t go crazy spending hours in the same spot. Fish smarter, not harder – pick windows of tide, time, and weather to fish and stick to a game plan so you don’t go insane or get bored. When you finally hook that first holdover, you’ll be hooked yourself, and every minute spent not actively fishing will be spent thinking about the next window you’ll be gunning for, and the possibility of more or bigger bass at the end of your line.
It’s certain to be a tougher couple of days for holdover fishing with colder weather in the forecast, but you can find solace in the sweetwater; Bass, panfish, and trout are actively feeding, and you can hit up the back bays and estuaries for holdovers, then follow-up on the trout ponds for a conciliation prize if you skunk.
Warmer days are ahead as early as Tuesday next week, and the holdover bite might pick up again. Regardless, you can always find solace in the sweetwater. It won’t be long before the bait thickens up, the fish start moving more actively throughout the bays, and the fun really begins.
Go get ‘em. Tight lines.
The L.I./NYC Fishing Report is written and compiled by NYSDEC licensed kayak fishing guide, Nick Cancelliere (@nick_onthewater).