Early Summer Heat: Stripers Thinning, Blues Heating Up on the Lower Hudson

Artificial Lure here with your Hudson River and New York Harbor fishing report. We’re sitting on a warm, muggy early-summer pattern around the city. Overnight temps sat in the upper 60s to low 70s with daytime highs pushing into the upper 80s under hazy sun and some humidity. Light south to southwest breeze around 5 to 10 knots keeps the river just choppy enough to move baits without beating you up. Clouds may build late with a small chance of a shower inland, but along the river it’s mostly dry. On the lower Hudson and harbor, tides are running on the typical semi‑diurnal cycle: a pre‑dawn high followed by a mid‑morning ebb, then an afternoon flood. That first outgoing right after sunrise and the start of the evening flood are your prime windows. Slack water in the middle of the cycle has been slow; fish are turning on when the current shows some push along the edges. Sunrise is right around the early 5 o’clock hour, with sunset close to 8:30 in the evening, giving a nice, long crepuscular bite. The low‑light periods are still your best bet for quality fish, especially around structure where boat traffic is lighter. Striped bass are thinning out from the peak of the migration, but there are still schoolies and the occasional mid‑20s to low‑30‑inch fish hanging around from the George Washington Bridge down to the Battery, especially where there’s a hard current seam. Anglers chunking fresh bunker near the Jersey side piers have been picking a handful of keepers a tide when they commit to sitting on one good edge. Up by Inwood and Spuyten Duyvil, smaller bass and schoolie blues have been harassing peanut bunker on the surface during the stronger part of the tide. Bluefish action has been solid in the harbor and around the Statue of Liberty. Most are cocktail to 5‑pound class, with a few bigger choppers mixed in. Metals and small topwater plugs in the morning have produced quick flurries of fish when birds pin bait against the current lines. Fluke are settling into their summer haunts at the mouth of the Hudson and along the channel edges off Jersey and Brooklyn. Drift bucktail jigs tipped with Gulp swimming mullet or strips of squid and spearing combos in 15 to 35 feet. Shorts still dominate, but there are keeper panels if you work the drops and change up color and weight with the current. Best artificial lures today: – For stripers: 4‑ to 5‑inch soft plastics on 3/8 to 1‑ounce jigheads in white, bone, and bunker patterns; small swimming plugs and walking topwaters at first light. – For blues: tins like Kastmasters and Deadly Dicks, plus durable poppers you don’t mind getting chewed. – For fluke: bucktails from 3/4 to 1‑1/2 ounces with chartreuse or white Gulp. Best baits: fresh bunker chunks and clam for bass, spearing and squid strips for fluke, and whole or chunked bunker for blues. Fresh matters; frozen has been noticeably less productive. A couple of local hot spots worth your time: – The west‑side Manhattan shoreline from Pier 40 down toward Battery Park, working the rock edges and pier pilings on the outgoing. – The confluence around the Kill Van Kull and the mouth of the Hudson, where the mixing currents stack bait and draw both bass and blues when the tide is moving. Water clarity is typical city summer: stained with a green‑brown tint, so go a bit heavier on profile and vibration. Keep leaders in the 30–40‑pound range around the rocks and bridge abutments; there’s plenty of junk to rub you off. That’s it from Artificial Lure. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss a report. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai. Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn