Fishing in NYC
by: Andrew Lattibeaudiere '08
Fishing is a sport where you are able to share a bond with a father, son, brother, or a group friends. It’s a relaxing pastime that can be used as a way to get out to nature or clear your head. When fishing, everyone usually thinks about someone sitting on a boat in the middle of a lake, river, or even an ocean, but there are other forms of fishing that can be done off a boat such as ice fishing or on shore off a pier lake or pond.
There are various locations in New York City where you may be able to experience most categories of fishing both Saltwater and Fresh water in all five boroughs. . Our city has more than 500 miles of shoreline and inland lakes. Some of the more known locations for Saltwater are Canarsie Piers in Brooklyn, Battery Park in Manhattan, and the Throgsneckbrige in the Bronx. One common location up in the Bronx is known as City Island, where it’s very affordable to rent a boat for the day. The boats range from charter boats in which you are accompanied by a captain and crew who get you to the many known fishing spots for the best catches. There are also individualized motorboats, which can be rented for moderate prices at daily rates. These are a lot of fun cause you can go at your own pace and share a little more of a personal time with your company.
You can also purchase several types of bait from the local bait and tackle stores on the island. Some of the more preferred locations would be John’s bait & tackle shop, and Jacks bait & tackle shop .The tackle stores are a good resource to hear updated information about where the fish are and what there feeding on. Here you can purchase many kinds of bait such as bunker, clams, crabs, and squid, along with bloodworms and sand worms. These are some of the common baits in which many of the seasonal fish in our waters are most likely to look for. The most common fish found in the city’s various locations areCanarsie piers, Battery park, City Island and the east river along the FDR drive, would be Striped Bass, Blue fish, Black fish, Whiting, Cat fish, Porgies and Flounder and if your unlucky “sand sharks and horseshoe crabs which are always better to watch someone else catch.
Nonetheless, all of this is part of the enjoyment of fishing. From prearranging your fishing gear, to getting that first catch of the day or maybe not catching anything at all besides rest and relaxation which is also a great pastime of fishing. Most of the fish in New York are good for eating some are better than others and some are just great for fishing stories of the one that got away.
Some helpful fishing tips would be: 1) When getting ready to cast your rod to look through the rings towards the tip of the rod to make sure that your line has not tangled (this is known as clearing the eye). 2) Next tip would be when cutting bunker or bigger baits do not cut it so large where your hook is unable to pull through it because it is easier to set the hook within the first strike many prize fish get away do to hooks slipping out of their mouths.3) When purchasing hooks, circle hooks are the most preferred by professional anglers cause they do less harm to a fish and usually set in the mouth instead of an internal organ where it is hard to remove it and return an unwanted fish. (Helpful when fish is legally undersized). 4) For onshore casting to get a better cast make sure that the weight size is equal to the rod and line requirements many fisherman make the common mistake of rigging their rods wrong and spend more time fixing their gear then actually fishing.5) Lastly, when reeling in a fish do not jerk back the rod to hard just hard enough to set the hook because it can injure a undersized fish or damage your tackle. Fishing is a great hobby, which has grown over the years in New York City and has even become an official sport with real sportsmen competing for trophies, titles and money. There are many conservation groups that work with the Department of Environmental Protection to ensure our waterways will remain clean and safe for our fish so that we could continue to catch and eat our Prizes and make sure their will be a healthy fish supply in the years to come for our future generation of Anglers so they can have their own great stories to tell.
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