Early Summer Hustle on the Hudson - Stripers, Blues & More

Hudson River anglers, this is Artificial Lure with your June 22, 2025, fishing report for New York City and the surrounding Hudson waters. Today, we’re looking at a classic early summer setup—sunrise hit at 5:24 AM, and sunset will be at 8:30 PM. First light was crisp and clear, but NOAA’s morning briefing indicated a humid trend with temperatures climbing into the low 80s. Expect a light southwest breeze topping out around 8 knots by midday—good news for drift fishing and those who like a little ripple on the water. If you’re planning your tide windows, the high tide rolled in just after dawn, with the outgoing tide peaking mid-morning—a proven window for active feeding, especially for stripers and bluefish pushing into the brackish reaches near the city. Fish activity is picking up with summer in full swing. According to On The Water’s latest Striper Migration Report, the big bass that came upriver during the spring spawn are wrapping up and starting their way downstream, but resident fish and holdovers are still taking lures with aggression. Bunker schools (menhaden) are thick in pockets near the George Washington Bridge and further up toward Yonkers, drawing in both striped bass and bluefish. Topwater action has been hot in the early mornings, with stripers up to 25 pounds reported this week by local guides working popping plugs and shallow-diving metal lips at slack tide. Croton Point is a hot spot right now, especially for bluefish, which are staging and slamming anything flashy moved quickly through the water. According to the Hudson River Estuary Program, June often brings the occasional big Atlantic sturgeon up the river for spawning—a 6-foot, 220-pounder was tagged and released last week during a survey just north of the city, though sturgeon are strictly catch-and-release and must be handled with care. Bait and lure selection is a tale of the tides this week. For stripers and blues, if you’re targeting the marina mouths or the rocky stretches of the West Side, you can’t go wrong with bunker chunks on a fish-finder rig or live eels after dark. For lure slingers, try yellow or chartreuse topwater walkers and swimbaits mimicking juvenile herring or peanut bunker. For those targeting bass species, smallmouth and largemouth are active around submerged structure, especially near Pier 84 and Inwood Hill Park. Finesse soft plastics in green pumpkin and natural shad colors rigged weedless are producing solid bags. Other productive spots for the weekend include Riverbank State Park, where early risers are pulling schoolie bass on bucktails, and the stretches near Spuyten Duyvil, which fish well on an outgoing tide for both stripers and the odd weakfish mixed in with bluefish. That’s the pulse from the river today. Thanks for tuning in to the Hudson River fishing report—be sure to subscribe so you never miss an update. This has been a Quiet Please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai. This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.