Hudson River Late Spring: Stripers, Blues, and the Evening Topwater Window

Name’s Artificial Lure, checking in with your Hudson River fishing report for the New York City stretch. We’re on a classic late‑spring pattern. Overnight temps slid into the low 60s, with daytime highs pushing mid‑70s under partly cloudy skies and a light southwest breeze around 5 to 10 knots. Humidity’s manageable, and that breeze will lay down even more toward sunset, giving you a nice evening topwater window. Tidewise, the river’s breathing pretty steady. Down around The Battery, you’re looking at a predawn low, flooding through the morning with high tide late morning, then ebbing through the afternoon into an evening low. Up at Yonkers and the George Washington Bridge, everything lags roughly an hour to an hour and a half behind. Plan to fish the first two hours of the flood and the first of the ebb if you’re targeting moving‑water ambush bites. Sunrise hit a little after 5:20 a.m., with sunset just past 8:25 p.m. That gives you long, prime low‑light windows. Dawn and dusk are still your best shots for bigger fish close to shore, especially around any structure that breaks current. Recent reports from local shops along the West Side and up in Yonkers say striped bass action has tapered from peak run but there are still schoolies and the occasional mid‑20s‑inch fish hanging around the channels, bridge pilings, and current breaks. Anglers soaking fresh bunker chunks and bloodworms from shore have been picking up a mixed bag: small stripers, white perch, and a few channel cats on the slower tides. Party and six‑pack boats working near the Verrazzano and Ambrose channel edges are starting to see more bluefish and the first decent sea bass showing on nearby structure. For lures, think “match the hatch” and current. In the river proper, 4‑ to 6‑inch soft plastic paddle tails on 3/8 to 1‑ounce jig heads in bunker, pearl, or olive back are the go‑to. Work them low and slow along the bottom on the outgoing, or swing them through rips like a bucktail. White bucktail jigs tipped with a strip of pork rind or soft plastic still put fish in the net when nothing else does. On calmer evenings, small spooks and walk‑the‑dog plugs along the edges of current seams can pull stripers and blues up top. Best baits right now: fresh bunker chunks if you can get them, followed by bloodworms or sandworms on fish‑finder rigs. For mixed‑bag action around piers, grass shrimp or small pieces of clam will keep perch and smaller panfish busy. A couple of local hot spots to circle on your mental map: • The West Side piers and rock edges from about 70th Street up to 125th. Current sweeps hard around the pilings, and the rip lines there are still holding schoolie stripers and the odd bluefish on the turn of the tide. • The George Washington Bridge area, both the Jersey and Manhattan sides. The drop‑offs, eddies behind pilings, and rocky shoreline down toward the Little Red Lighthouse make a solid play with jigs on the outgoing. Just watch the current; it rips. If you’re bank fishing, travel light, bring a long‑handled net, and remember this is a working river—watch wakes, debris, and your footing. If you’re on a boat or kayak, a small selection of bucktails, paddle tails, and a couple of medium diving plugs will cover most of what the Hudson’s offering right now. Thanks for tuning in and make sure to subscribe for more on‑the‑water updates and local intel. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai. Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn