Category: Fishing NYC

As temperatures drop in NYC during the winter, many fish species head south for the season. This can lead to a decrease in your fishing options until spring returns, but there are still options. You can plan an ice fishing trip in freshwater, or take a boat fishing trip into Jamaica Bay, Rockaway Beach, and off the New Jersey coast to fish for bottom feeders, potentially catching ling, cod, and blackfish.

But few fish are as fun to catch as striped bass, and if you know where to look, you can make stripers the foundation of your wintertime fishing in New York. Alternatively, if you are coming into the area for a trip, winter fishing in the area is an excellent activity for your vacation.

How to Hook Striped Bass in NYC During the Winter

Stripers are the perfect winter fish because of their migratory habits. During the summer, these fish prefer colder waters up north off the coast of New England. Striped bass move south for the winter, making them plentiful off the coast of NYC and NJ during the early winter and early spring. You will most often find them in bays and estuaries where the water is warmer.

There are also holdovers, or bass that stay in local waters so long as they do not freeze. They live in the bays around NYC.

Hooking a striper is not generally hard, especially in winter when food is scarce. But they fight back when caught and reeling them in can be a challenge. Early winter stripers can be especially large at more than 50 pounds, although later season fish may be slightly smaller.

To make the most of your fishing trip for stripers during the winter time, you will need to:

• Find the Right Spot – This will depend on whether you are catching migratory stripers or holdovers. Bays, estuaries, and the mouths of rivers are popular places for striped bass during the winter, and they will often feed around bridges or reefs. Because food is scarce during the winter, bass will more often be out in the open hunting instead of hiding.
• Look for Baitfish – Stripers will go wherever food is. While you are out, look for baitfish or hovering seagulls that are eating baitfish. In almost every case, striped bass will be there eating the baitfish as well.
• Use the Right Fishing Gear – A strong line with a metal filament or lead core is useful when stripers fight back. Jigs, plugs, and umbrella rigs are some of the best tackle for striped bass, and many fishermen will also use a high-low rig when schoolie bass are around. For live bait, eels, squid, clams, porgies, and herring will all work depending on the area.

While anglers can catch stripers from shores or docks during the spring and summer, striped bass fishing from a boat makes it easier to get to the locations where bass are overwintering. Marilyn Jean Fishing runs daily fishing trips for striped bass with options for half day and evening trips. Our trips get you to the best locations around NYC for stripers, and provide the bait you need to catch them.

The other advantage to winter fishing aboard one of our boats is comfort. With heating and lighting, you do not need to endure hours of the cold and dark to hook stripers in NYC. Check out our calendar to schedule your winter striped bass trip with Marilyn Jean Fishing.

Bottom fishing involves dropping your lure to the ocean floor or the bottom of another body of water. With this method, you will catch the fish that dwell in the rocks and other structures beneath the water. It is a relatively simple yet effective way to fish in NYC that can catch you a variety of tasty fish.

When you are bottom fishing in the waters around NYC, you still have dozens of possibilities for fishing style, techniques, bait and tackle, and fish species. But getting the right location where fish are numerous is generally the first step.

Best Bottom Fishing Spots Near New York

Structures, either organic or manmade on ocean floors or lake beds, provide the ideal hiding spots for fish like ling, cod, and blackfish, as well as the prey fish they eat. Sinking a line with enough weight to hold it at the bottom of the water can attract any of these fish.

Bottom fishing works for both freshwater and saltwater fish, but the type of water will often also determine the types of structures you are looking for. Around NYC and off the NJ coast, some of the most desirable spots for bottom fishing are:

• Bridge Pilings – NYC has dozens of bridges in the waters around the city. The pylons that form their bases often host numerous fish.
• Wrecks – The coasts of NY and NJ have always been busy shipping lanes, and hundreds of ships have gone down over the years. Those wrecks provide great hiding spaces for fish.
• Reefs – The Department of Environmental Conservation has built 12 artificial reefs in nearby bodies of water to give fish additional habitats, and many are open for fishing.
• Piers – Like bridges, the piling foundations for piers can hide fish along the length of the pier, giving you easier access to deep water spots while on land.
• Rocky Banks – Near to shore, rocky banks have hiding spots for fish that come closer to the surface. Wintertime will often bring fish into these warmer waters, but certain species will be near the banks all year.

You can access some of these places from the shore, but the best way to get to the bottom fishing spots near NYC is by boat. An NYC fishing trip can get you to the best offshore and nearshore bottom fishing spots. With Marilyn Jean Fishing, we also have up-to-date information on local species and which locations are yielding a good catch.

For those wanting to bottom fish in the top spots around NYC with an experienced team and a comfortable boat, book a trip with us today.

Colder weather is coming in NYC, but the fishing season is ongoing. Blackfish is a favorite. This fish, also known as tautog, has a mild flavor and firm texture that holds up well. It is also easy to prepare and cook if you are new to fresh fish.

While there are many ways to cook up tautog, a fish chowder is one of the best ways to warm up after a long day out on the water in the cold air. This chowder recipe uses blackfish. It is a hearty dish that shows off the flavor of your freshly caught fish.

Recipe for Blackfish Chowder

Blackfish chowder will take about 1 hour to make, not including skinning and cleaning the fish. For this fish soup, you will need:

• 1 lb blackfish, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 4 slices thick cut bacon, diced
• ½ cup yellow onion
• 1 cup red potatoes, diced
• 3 cups fish broth
• 1 13 ounce can evaporated milk
• 3 tbsp butter
• ¼ cup flour
• 2 cups whole milk
• Salt and pepper to taste

You can make the fish stock yourself from the bones and fins of your catch. Simmer them with water, a carrot, onion, celery, bay leaves, and peppercorn. Alternatively, you can use ½ cup clam juice and water in place of the fish stock.

To make tautog chowder:

• Saute the bacon until crisp. When finished, remove the bacon to a plate lined with a paper towel. Discard all but 2 tbsps of bacon drippings.
• Add the onion to the pan with the bacon drippings and saute until soft.
• Put sauteed onion, potato, and fish stock in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
• Add in the fish pieces and simmer for another 10 minutes or until the fish is cooked through.
• Pour in the evaporated milk and stir to combine.
• Make a roux. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Once melted, mix in the flour, stirring continuously to keep the flour from scorching.
• Whisk the whole milk into the butter and flour. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly to break up any lumps.
• Add the roux to the chowder base and stir. Cover and let thicken for half an hour.
• Season with salt and pepper to taste and top with crumbled bacon to serve.

The chowder base also works with other fish depending on what you caught that day. You can also substitute bass and link. Regardless of what fish you use, fresh caught will always be best, particularly if you caught it yourself. Plan a fishing trip for tautog in NYC with Marilyn Jean Fishing today.

When you want to maximize the number of fish you are hooking, choosing the right time of day for your trip can have a significant impact on how fish are biting. The general answer is in the two hours after sunrise and the two hours before sunset, but these are only guidelines. In reality, the seasons, weather, moon phases, and tides will influence fish activity, as will the type of fish and method you are using.

Knowing the basic fishing times by season and species is the best place to start from when planning your next trip. Then you can consider additional factors to determine the best time to head out onto the water.

When to Fish Depending on Season

As seasons change, water temperatures will vary significantly. Changing daylight hours, water temperatures, feeding times, and spawning will cause fish to be active at different times:

• Winter – Shorter days and cooler temperatures reduce fishing hours. Mid-morning and late afternoon are generally the best time since waters are warmer. Nighttime is a possibility depending on the moon.
• Spring – Early spring has the same fishing hours as the winter, but those move closer to dawn and dusk as the weather gets warmer.
• Summer – In the summer, the best times are just after sunrise and just before sunset. Fish also tend to be more active at nighttime.
• Fall – Fishing times move a little later in the morning and earlier in the evening as the fish try to eat as much as possible to get them through the winter.

When you have seasonal weather, fishing right before it starts raining or snowing is often best, and while it is raining and snowing as long as conditions are not too severe.

When to Fish Depending on Species

Different fish are also more active at certain times. For some of the most popular fish for anglers in NYC, the best times include:

• Striped Bass – Bass have good low light vision and prefer cooler waters, so you will find them most active just after sunrise and just before sunset.
• Ling – Lingcod bite all day long, and are a good fish for nighttime fishing as well.
• Blackfish – Blackfish only feed during the daytime, and dawn and dusk are the peak of their feeding times.
• Porgies – Depending on the season, porgies will bite during both the day and nighttime.
• Cod – During the morning hours, cod will be in shallower water before moving out to deeper water at night.

Fishing for blackfish, ling, striped bass, and cod in saltwater or estuaries bring even more variables since they are far larger and not bounded like a lake or river. You have far more variables to deal with the further you get from shore.

With all these variables to consider, Marilyn Jean Fishing can make it easy to schedule fishing trips at the right time of day. We run daily fishing trips and are experts on the local conditions. We have built our schedule around the times when fish are more active to help you achieve the best possible catch. Browse our fishing schedule and book your trip now.

One of the best parts of fishing the Atlantic is that, no matter when you go, you have the chance of catching something new. Right now, on the Marilyn Jean, we’ve been catching Striped Bass at night and Blackfish during the day.

And when we say “catching,” we mean it. Check out the size of some of these bad boys:

Some of these catches have been as much as 50lbs, giving you outstanding potential for an amazing catch on our trip.

Everyone loves fishing. Here at Marilyn Jean Fishing, we want to make sure that you’re having a great experience catching fish among other, fantastic people.

Whether it’s been a while since your last visit or you were here only a short time ago, come see us again for a new and fun fishing opportunity. Spots can fill up, so book with us today using our online calendar, and let’s take you out on the water for another great fishing experience.