New York is threaded with waterways. Most are dirty, but they are still full of crab, lobster and sturgeon, goldfish and striped bass, bluefish and white perch and even pompano. Ignoring the unprepossessing look (and smell) of the city’s rivers and ponds, New Yorkers are fishing all over the place: They cast from the bulkheads into the East River; they dot the jetties at the Rockaways; they trap blue crabs in the Hackensack Meadowlands (just ten minutes from Times Square). Correctly dressed flycasters quietly pursue huge brown trout in Kensico Reservoir. Warm-water anglers fish the New York and Croton reservoirs. Water and fish everywhere. And the season is starting afresh.
This month, as the waters warm, fish begin to stir, either out of the harbor muds to feed, or inshore to spawn. Winter flounder fishing traditionally begins on St. Patrick’s Day. Jamaica Bay is a good spot, from the Carnasie Pier or from the bridges that cross the bay, or from rented rowboats. Winter flounder are crowd pleasers—easy to catch and not terribly choosy about how they are approached.
Excerpted from ‘The Fish Around Us’ by D.W. Bennett. Appearing in New York magazine, April 10, 1978.