Early Summer Stripers and Bluefish: Hudson River Harbor Fishing Report

Name’s Artificial Lure, checking in with your Hudson River cityside fishing report. We’re on a classic early-summer pattern in New York Harbor. Air temps are running in the low 60s at dawn, climbing into the mid‑70s by afternoon with light southwest breeze, clearer skies than clouds, and only a slight chop on the river. Sunrise is right around 5:25 a.m., sunset near 8:30 p.m., so you’ve got long low‑light windows to work with. Tide-wise, we’re looking at a morning incoming that tops out mid‑morning, then a falling tide through the afternoon into early evening. That flood tide pushes bait tight to the Manhattan and Jersey shorelines, and the first half of the outgoing is when the current really lights up the rips off points, piers, and bridge abutments. Striped bass action has cooled off from peak spring, but there are still schoolies and the odd keeper pushing bunker schools and spearing along the West Side from Battery Park up past the Intrepid. Anglers reporting steady pick of bass at dawn on soft plastic paddletails, 4–5 inch shads in bunker and pearl, swung down‑current on 3/8 to 3/4 ounce jig heads. At night, slimmer swimmers and small metal lips in natural bunker or bone still putting a bend in the rod, especially around the ferry terminals and lit piers. Bluefish have been roaming the lower river and harbor, mostly cocktails with some bigger racers mixed in. Look for bird life off Pier 25, the Battery, and around Governor’s Island. Metals, epoxy jigs, and topwater spooks in chrome or olive are getting smashed when they pop up on bait. Bring a short wire leader if you don’t want to donate hardware. Fluke are showing on the edges, especially where the river meets the harbor. The channel edges off Jersey City and the deeper water near the Statue of Liberty have been giving up keeper‑size fish on bucktail jigs tipped with Gulp shrimp or swimming mullets in chartreuse or white. Work the bottom slowly along the slope as the tide eases, not at max current. For bait anglers along the bulkheads and park piers, fresh bunker chunks and clam are your best bet for a mixed bag: schoolie bass, the occasional blue, and plenty of smaller species pecking away. On the lighter side, bloodworms or sandworms on hi‑lo rigs are taking tomcod, small perch, and a few early panfish around the quieter coves and marina mouths. Hot spots to circle on your mental chart today: • The stretch from Battery Park up to Pier 40 on the incoming, especially at first light. Work the current seams off the pier ends for stripers and roaming blues. • The channel edge off Liberty State Park and the back side of Ellis and Liberty Islands on the slowing tides for fluke and mixed bottom fish. Best windows: pre‑dawn through the first couple hours of the flood, and then late afternoon into sunset on the first half of the outgoing. Midday will be slower, so downsize your offerings or bounce bottom for fluke if you’re out there. That’s the word from the river. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss a tide. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai. Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn