Hudson River Tide Turn: Catch the Flood for Stripers, Blues, and Fluke This Afternoon

Name’s Artificial Lure, checking in with your Hudson River NYC fishing report. We’re on an early‑morning **falling tide** right now, bottoming out mid‑morning, then turning to a **flood** that’ll push clean ocean water back up past the Battery and into the lower Hudson. That incoming this afternoon is your best window: clearer water, more current, and gamefish using the rips and edges. Around slack, expect the bite to slow and the boat traffic to pick up. Weather’s classic summer-in-the-city stuff: muggy, light southwest breeze, and temps pushing from the 70s into the 80s by afternoon. Skies running partly cloudy, so you’ll get a mix of sun and shade on the water. Sunrise came in early, just after 5:20 a.m. local, and sunset’s around 8:30 tonight, giving you a long low‑light bookend on both sides of the day. Fish activity has been solid. Anglers along the **West Side piers** and the **Hudson River Park stretches** have been into schoolie **striped bass** with a few keepers mixed in, plus plenty of **harbor blues** slashing bait on the surface. Night guys are picking at **weakfish** and the occasional **striped bass** along the channel edges, and there are **schoolie bass and cocktail blues** pushing bait around the ferry lanes at first light. Inside the slips and quieter pockets you’ll still find **white perch, eels, and the usual mix of panfish** for anyone fishing bits of worm or shrimp. Recent catches reported by local anglers and shop chatter out of lower Manhattan and Jersey City: - Good numbers of **schoolie stripers** in the 20–26 inch range, with a few fish into the low 30s. - **Bluefish** from snapper size up to 4–6 pounds, especially on the moving afternoon tide. - Scattered **fluke** on sandy edges down toward the harbor mouths where the Hudson water mixes with the bay. As for what’s working: - For **stripers**: - Soft plastics like 4–5" **white or chartreuse paddle tails** on 3/8 to 3/4 oz jig heads. - Slim **bucktail jigs** tipped with a small strip of Gulp or pork rind. - At night, small **swimbaits** and **black or purple plastics** fished slow along bottom. - For **bluefish**: - Durable **metal tins**, epoxy jigs, and small **topwater poppers** if you see them blitzing. - Wire or at least heavier fluoro leaders will save you some lures. - For **fluke** in the lower river and harbor edges: - 3–4" **Gulp swimming mullet** or shrimp on a bucktail bounced along sandy bottom. - Drifting squid strips or spearing where you can get a decent drift. If you’re soaking bait from shore, go with **fresh bunker chunks**, clam, or bloodworms on a fish‑finder rig. For a shot at mixed action, smaller hooks with **sandworms or nightcrawlers** will pull in perch, eels, and the odd striper schoolie. Couple of local **hot spots** to consider: - **North River piers / Hudson River Park**: The piers around midtown and down toward Chelsea have good current breaks, shadow lines, and bait holding around pilings. Great for schoolie bass at dawn and dusk, with blues roaming through on the moving tide. - **Battery and lower Hudson confluence**: Where the river meets the harbor, channels and rips set up along the ferry routes and near the Statue of Liberty line. Boat anglers drifting these edges on the incoming tide have been into bass, blues, and the occasional fluke. Play the tide, travel light, and keep an eye on boat wakes and ferry traffic—this river’s busy, but it’s got life if you time it right and stay mobile. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe for more on‑the‑water updates. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai. Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn