New York

Fishing in New York

More than 7.500 lakes and ponds, and 50,000 miles of rivers and streams and hundreds of miles of coast make fishing in New York yet another fantastic experience. You can enjoy some of the world’s best fisheries of coldwater, warm-water and saltwater with enormous variety of fishes.

New York’s Popular Large Waters

Hudson River: Largemouth and smallmouth bass, striped bass, and American shad are abundantly found in the river. Around the tributary mouths and in-river structures during summer and fall, and below the Troy Dam to the NY city area in spring, you will get ample opportunities of fishing. Minnow imitation plugs or cast bait (cut or live herring) are the best.

Delaware River: You will find smallmouth bass and walleye downstream of Lordville, and brown and rainbow trout upstream of Lordville and in branches below Cannonsville and Pepacton Reservoirs. Small spinners, jigs (shad darts) and streamer flies will be best in spring for upstream-migrating American Shad.

Mohawk River: You can get tiger muskellunge in Albany and Schenectady counties and walleye and smallmouth bass can be found everywhere.

Lake Champlain: You will get a wide variety of fishes in the lake like lake trout, landlocked salmon, brown trout, smallmouth bass, yellow perch, walleye, and northern pike.

Finger Lakes: Again in this lake too, you will find a number of fishes like walleye, smallmouth bass, lake trout, rainbow and landlocked salmon.

Oneida Lake: It is the home for largemouth and smallmouth bass, walleye and perch.

Lake Ontario: Again you will get a wide variety like Pacific Salmon, lake trout, brown trout, steelhead, walleye, black bass, northern pike and panfish.

Lake Erie: You will get smallmouth bass, rainbow trout or steelhead here.

Salmon River: A 12-mile stretch is open to public for catching Chinook, coho, and steelheads. Mid-September to November and mid-March to mid-May are the best seasons.

St. Lawrence River: Smallmouth and largemouth bass, northern pike, muskellunge and walleye are major fishes, you will find here.

Niagara River: In the Upper River, you will get musky, walleye, northern pike, smallmouth and largemouth bass, especially during October and November. And in Lower River, you will get Chinook and steelheads in autumn, lake trout in winter and spring.

Warm-water Fishing Waters

Lakes of Adirondack, Finger, Northern New York, Southeastern New York, Western New York, and rivers like Adirondack, Northern New York, Southeastern New York, Western New York, and New York City Reservoirs give you excellent catches of warm-water fishes like sunfish, panfish, bass, pike and musky.

Family Friendly Waters

Fishing in New York provides some excellent features like close-to-home fishing for which you need not travel long and have every facility like bathrooms, perfect for family outings, aged and disabled angers. Some of such waters are the Hempstead Lake, South Ponds, Blydenurgh Lake (also called New Mill Pond or Stump Pond), Baisely Pond, and Prospect Park Lake in the Long Island, Chadwick Lake, and Morgan in Newburgh or Poughkeepsie, Rensselaer Lake, and Colllins Lake in Capital District, Erie Canal, and Sauquoit Creek in Utica, Onondaga Lake, and Oneida Lake in Syracuse, Susquehanna River in Binghamton, Hundred Acre Pond, Deep Pond, Round Pond, Lost Pond, and Irondequoit Creek in Rochester, Lake Kirsty, and Hyde Park in Buffalo.

Carp Fishing in New York

Carp, a tasty fish, originally belonging to Asia, was first introduced in New York waters in 1831 so as to provide another food fish. At present, it is found all over the state, and can grow quite large. It can be caught by several methods, though bow fishing is allowed only from May 15 to September 30 to a license-holder angler or an angler entitled to fish without license.

Carp Fishing Tips

For fishing carp, medium action rods of length 6’ are preferred. The longer the rod, the better is to catch a big fish. Spinning or spin casting reels having good drag and capable of holding 120 yards of 12 pounds test line are preferred the most. Hooks of size 2 to 6 and line of 8-12 pound are best. Using bobbers is a bad idea. At least avoid using large round bobbers as carp is likely to drop bait at the slightest resistance. Slip sinkers, small split shot and egg sinkers are most preferred. The most common baits used are canned corn, bread and worms.

Having read so much of interesting things about the fishing in New York, you surely must have been excited! Why not plan an outing to New York this vacation?