Autumn Angling on the Hudson: Stripers, Blues, and More Await Anglers

Hudson River anglers are waking up to mostly clear skies and crisp autumn air—just how locals like it for a day on the water. Sunrise is at 7:01am and sunset’s coming at 6:47pm, so there’s plenty of time between first light and last cast. The tide is coming in early this morning and will peak just after sunrise, with a slow outgoing through midday—classic Hudson rhythm. The weather is a beauty—high today around 63°F, winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph, and no clouds in sight. You can expect steady conditions, which should keep bait moving and hold fish closer to shoreline structure until the light fades. Striped bass are moving through the river now: recent catches from Keyport Bait and Tackle show resident stripers hitting bunker and live eels, especially around South Amboy and the bridges. Good numbers of bass are feeding at dawn and dusk, with some hefty fish showing up in the mix. Live bunker, especially peanut bunker, is hands-down your top bait, with soft plastics in sand eel or mullet patterns a reliable backup. Early birds are sticking live eels under piers and around pilings with solid hookups. Bluefish are prowling the river mouth and piers—most are cocktail size but there’ve been some larger choppers smashing surface plugs and poppers just outside the Battery and up toward Spuyten Duyvil, especially if you’re tossing topwater during the rising tide. Mullet-pattern soft plastics are hot, and anything that moves fast and erratic will draw strikes. Downriver, blackfish are biting well at docks and rocky spots in Brooklyn and Jersey City. Fresh green crab on a simple jighead is hard to beat if you want tautog for the cooler. The Point Pleasant Canal and the piers around Hoboken are giving up legal fish, but there’s plenty of shorts to sort through. Folks drifting sandworms in the channel are finding some weakfish, and that bite ranks as a sleeper option if you want something different. Smallmouth bass have also shown up in the northern stretches—above Yonkers and into Orange County. Reports from recent youth derbies highlight catches of smallies and an occasional largemouth. Rock bass, bluegill, and the odd walleye have been landed further upstate, mostly around submerged timber and rocky drop-offs. Best lures for today? For stripers, soft plastics in pearl or chartreuse, Storm shads, and bucktail jigs tipped with pork rind or Gulp. Swimbaits fished on the swing near the bridge pilings will draw reaction bites in the current. For bluefish, go with metal spoons, poppers, or jointed swimbaits. Blackfish like a simple crab jig, fished tight to structure on the bottom. Top spots for your Friday adventure: - The area around the Brooklyn Bridge pilings—especially just after sunrise during the incoming tide. - Spuyten Duyvil and the Harlem River mouth, where structure and current meet. - Jersey City piers for blackfish and the occasional striper at dusk. - The Battery for a mix of schoolie stripers and bluefish during mid-morning tide changes. Liv This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.