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It was another late fall morning of striper mayhem: birds as far as the eye could see picking up rainbait chased to the surface by marauding linesiders. “I’m on!” shouted my good friend (and Reel-Time’s New York/New Jersey FishWire Correspondent) Josh Reibel. “Me too!” hollered Captain Frank Crescitelli of Fin Chaser Charters. “Get your line in there Luyen, let’s go for the triple!” The wind was down, the tide was swinging, and the sun was just starting to peak above the clear, blue horizon. I turned to cast off the port side of Crescitelli’s Aquasport, a big grin spreading its way across my face as I caught a glimpse of New York City’s Twin Towers bathed in the early orange light of dawn.
Less than an hour earlier, I had been walking across the street from my apartment to my car, sidestepping late-night revelers spilling out of bars and clubs, dodging sanitation trucks as they began their morning sorties. The prospect of setting a hook in the jaw of a fish seemed as far away as, wellÉ Montauk Point. Little did I know what I was in store for as I crossed the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and pulled into the Staten Island marina where Crescitelli’s boat was docked.
It is no secret that the past few years have witnessed a phenomenal comeback for saltwater game fish in the Northeast. But the Big Secret is undoubtedly the on-going transformation of the New York City Harbor area into a world-class saltwater sport fishery. And a secret it is, except to the small crowd of stalwarts who are in the know. Josh Reibel and I had fished for albacore and bass a few weeks earlier around Montauk where the action was terrific, but the sheer number of boats made you feel like you were participating in the invasion of Normandy. By contrast, Capt. Crescitelli and his partner, Capt. Dino Torino say that the fishing for bass, blues, albacore, and even pelagic species in the New York City Harbor area this year has been as good as, if not better than, farther east in Long Island. But the fishing pressure pales in comparison. No doubt, many New York City fishermen like myself opted this season for the three to four hour drive east when they could have been on fish within minutes of leaving their apartments – simply because they didn’t know what the Harbor had to offer.
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| Capt. Frank Crescitelli and Capt. Dino Torino Fin Chaser Charters Capt. Paul Eidman's |
Much of the improvement is due to the numerous sewage treatment plants that are now in operation throughout New York Harbor, the Hudson River, and Raritan and Jamaica Bays. Until only a few years ago, raw sewage was still being pumped into these waters, severely affecting the quality of the fishery. Public awareness and local conservation efforts by associations such as the Coastal Conservation Association, The Littoral Society, and the Recreational Fishing Alliance have also had a tremendous impact on the area. Persistent lobbying by these groups resulted in recreational and commercial limits on striped bass fishing that many credit with having saved this species from serious decline.
Of course, on-going vigilance is necessary if New York City is to continue to improve as a recreational fishery; many are now talking about changing the current twenty-eight inch minimum keeper regulation to a slot limit, which, arguably, will protect more spawners from being harvested. In the meantime, the Environmental Protection Agency has lifted any restrictions on the consumption of striped bass in the New York City area. It’s hard to believe that only a decade ago, the EPA was enforcing a complete moratorium on striped bass harvesting and consumption.
Season in New York City Harbor
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Like the Chesapeake and Maine’s Kennebec River, the Hudson River and related waterways form one of the country’s major striped bass estuaries. While the best bass fishing coincides with periods of migration, holdover bass can be found in the New York City Harbor area year-around. I have caught schoolies in Jamaica Bay in January. A favorite winter-time bass spot is actually in the East River right outside of Gracie Mansion, home of New York City’s mayor (whom I have yet to see out there with the long rod). With a little perseverance and luck, urban anglers can catch fish twelve months out of the year. 
Besides being blessed with a long season, New York City offers a wide variety of species to salty fly-rodders. In addition to the more sought-after triumvirate of bass, blues, and albacore, weakfish make a stopover sometime from July until September. Also plentiful are the fluke, or summer flounder, that are typically caught from mid-June through the fall. While fly-rodders rarely seem to target these species, Crescitelli points out that both fluke and weakfish make excellent quarry for those seeking to add a world record to their fly fishing accomplishments. “Fluke still has a vacant spot in the eight-pound tippet category, and the four-pound tippet category record is only 1.15 pounds! Weakfish has beatable weights in almost all tippet classes.” Crescitelli adds that he has a confirmation on a weakfish he submitted pending – although he knows that in the meantime, an even healthier fish has already been submitted by an angler from the area.
But inshore action around New York City is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. An even greater secret that those in the know have kept close to their vests is the access New York City Harbor provides to fantastic offshore action. At its peak around the last week in August, fly-rodders can get good shots at dolphin, sharks, and even schoolie bluefin tuna and bonito – as little as twenty miles outside the Harbor. As Crescitelli puts it, “I know it sounds too good to be true. It is too good to be true – too good, that is, for action like this so close to the City to be this much of a secret!”
Fishing Tactics
The sheer volume of bait in the New York City Harbor area also influences fly-rod tactics. Crescitelli and Torino have been experimenting with an underwater video camera, and claim that there is direct evidence that if a bait does not appear injured, or try to make a quick getaway when approached, game fish will often break off the chase. Vary your retrieve. Try three or four strips and then stop; do it again; then mix some quicker strips into the routine.
Although the New York City Harbor area remains a relatively undiscovered sport fishery, it is obviously subject to heavy traffic from commercial and recreational craft. As a result, some local experts pay more attention to planning their excursions around the time of day than the tides. The four hours before sunset and the four hours after sunrise seem to offer the best fishing. Of course, this is not to entirely discount the importance of the tides. Crescitelli believes that optimal fishing is experienced during the outgoing tide in the bay and the Hudson River, and the incoming tide on the Ocean, especially when the albacore are running.
Where to Fish
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A perennial favorite spot for local fishermen is Breezy Point, part of the Gateway National Recreational Area, at the western-most tip of the Far Rockaways. Anglers can choose to fish the bay side between the jetty and the parking lot, the ocean side, or the jetty itself. Even when the birds are working out of casting range, fish can often be found tight against the rocks or churning bait in the rip that extends past the jetty’s tip. This year, according to Capt. Crescetelli, the little tunny were up so tight against the jetty that fishermen on foot actually had an advantage over their boat-bound brethren. The opportunity to try and land a Fat Albert on a fly from shore should be enough to make any self-respecting angler skip work and camp out with the Breezy Point hardcores in September. 
Staten Island’s Gateway National Park and the recently reopened Fort Wadsworth Park are also good bets. The latter offers terrific holding water from the rocky bulkhead to the deep drop-off between the shore and the first stanchion of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. When the tide is moving, the area under the bridge can be particularly productive. Unfortunately, this stretch is Federal property, and for no apparent reason, it is technically off-limits. Just remember as you’re hauling in that big fish and the Feds show up that you have a rod – and they have a gun.
But angling from a boat still offers maximum fish-chasing flexibility. Angling success often requires trying a variety of spots, hitting open water as well as the nooks and crannies, and prospecting from Long Branch, New Jersey to Jones Beach, New York. As you might surmise, New York City traffic is not exactly conducive to this sort of spot-hopping. Anglers can rent a boat from one of the many area marinas, but be advised that the waters around New York City Harbor can be somewhat treacherous if you don’t know what you are doing. Hiring a charter is a sound investment if you are serious about catching fish.
Fishing New York City-Style
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Crescitelli and Torino report that most half-day charters will result in six to ten fish. This past season’s high score was forty(!) fish from a single angler. While the apparent boom in the population of game fish around New York City has generally meant a concomitant rise in the number of “shorts” boated, New York City fly-rodders report catching fish approaching twenty pounds with some regularity. And given the number of bigger fish that are consistently taken by live-liners and trollers, the opportunity to catch a trophy on a fly in full view of thousands of working stiffs watching from their office windows is a very real one.
Remarkably, there are very few guides that specialize in fly fishing in the New York City Harbor area, which is one of the reasons Crescitelli and Torino decided to go into business. “We were getting incredibly consistent results fishing for fun, we couldn’t believe no one else was really doing this professionally.” If the fishing around New York City continues to be as good as it has the past few seasons, Crescitelli and Torino will undoubtedly find a lot more company out there on the water.
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