NYC Harbor Fishing Report: Hot Bite for Stripers, Blues, and Fluke - Quiet Please Podcast

Artificial Lure here, bringing you your September 20th, 2025 Hudson River and NYC Harbor fishing report. Sunrise came at 6:39 AM with sunset lined up for 6:58 PM, giving us about 12 hours of daylight to chase a bite. Weather’s shaping up to be prime for autumn anglers—clouds breaking for some sun, high around 76°F, with SSE winds at 5–10 mph. Tides today start with a low around dawn, flooding mid-morning and peaking by late afternoon, which should set the fish up for a solid feeding window. Here’s what’s hot on the water: Lower Harbor—from Battery Park down to the Verrazano—the bite is on fire. Jamaica Bay’s alive with bait, especially **massive schools of peanut bunker**, attracting everything from striped bass to bluefish and weakfish. Nighttime has produced the biggest stripers, particularly for those launching live eels. Brooklyn’s shorelines and the Coney Island piers have joined the party—big bluefish, quality fluke, and linesiders are stacking up. If you’re fishing after dark, expect the action to peak. Upstream in the Upper Harbor, East River rips are loaded—you’ll find **ten-pound “gator” blues** and stripers in the 20-pound class, but you have to work the deeper water during tidal swings. North of the George Washington Bridge, Hudson’s bite is more scattered. The Bronx shore is your best bet, especially around Pelham Bay and Hunts Point, where structure is king—recent catches include keeper bass and flounder for those grinding it out. Recent catches across the region: - **Striped bass:** mostly schoolies, but some trophy twenty-pounders landed at night on live eels. - **Bluefish:** consistent gators, especially in the harbor and East River, mainly on topwater plugs and bucktail jigs. - **Weakfish:** mixed in with the blues and stripers, especially where bait is thick in Jamaica Bay. - **Fluke:** still a few quality fish being caught on the Brooklyn side but winding down. - **Flounder:** showing up around boulder fields and jetties uptown and in the Bronx. The arsenal that’s producing: - **Peanut bunker**—if you can snag them, chunk or live line for bass, blues, and weakfish. - **Live eels**—essential for big stripers at night. - **Topwater plugs and bucktail jigs**—best for bluefish, go with white or chartreuse. - **White Deceiver flies**—effective for fly-rodders targeting both stripers and blues. - For bottom action, classic clam or bloodworm baits pull in flounder and drum. Hot spots right now: - **Jamaica Bay:** Bait-rich, all species present, night sessions for big striped bass. - **East River rip lines:** For blues and heavy bass during tidal swings. - **Pelham Bay Park shoreline:** Reliable structure for stripers and flounder, especially as the tide floods. - **Coney Island piers:** Producing after sunset, especially for blues and the season’s last fluke. As Captain Tony notes, stable weather and cooling water should keep the bait condensed and the fish aggressive. Expect the bite to ramp up even further in the coming week This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.