Pier fishing in Manhattan

Hi Everyone,

I am looking for anyone who fishes from the Manhattan piers who might
be willing to offer me some information about the environment and
answer a few questions. I am mainly interested in Pier 34: what it's
like, what you fish for, pedestrian and handicap access, water quality
and salinity, ambient noise, etc...

I am an architecture student in Bozeman, MT. In my summer courses, we
have a project centered around Tribeca and the Hudson River Park
system. I am considering proposing a project of improvements on the
fishing side of Pier 34 out to the Holland Tunnel ventilation
building.

Any information, experiences and suggestions would be much
appreciated. In return, I can field questions about Montana river
fishing. I have not been out (fishing) much, due to school, but have
flyfished the rivers around the region quite extensively in the past.
Anyone considering fishing here soon should know we have had a very
wet spring, so most of the rivers will be blown out and muddy for a
while; but the salmonfly hatch should be on now or soon. Fish still
eat in muddy water.

Thanks in advance,

Sean

"johnny peso" wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi Everyone,

I am looking for anyone who fishes from the Manhattan piers who might
be willing to offer me some information about the environment and
answer a few questions. I am mainly interested in Pier 34: what it's
like, what you fish for, pedestrian and handicap access, water quality
and salinity, ambient noise, etc...


I haven't fished from a Manhattan pier in literally decades but I use to
catch
Bluefish at night in the summer in the teens on the Hudson River.
I've also seen bluefish and striped bass being caught at Battery Park.
Herring and Shad run up the river in the spring and in (march-April) there
is a
run of Striped Bass going north up the Hudson River, and they come back down
in late November to early December. But you will catch them here and there
throughout the summer
especially at night. In the summer the Bluefish (usually snapper blues up to
2-3 lbs max) will come
up the river as far as Yonkers. In August you;ll find small bluefish, called
snappers locally
that hit very small metal lures although most people fish for them with dead
spearing under a bobber.
Also in July and August you'll see alot of people using crab traps to catch
blue claws.
You'll also run into various, but usually small, specimens of the ocean fish
that
come in from the harbor like Blackfish, Flounder and Fluke. Around the GW
Bridge
and north in the spring and fall there are tons of White Catfish averaging
3-4 lbs that will take
any cut bait on the bottom. Also the occasonal carp, and even LM Bass that
wanders
into brackish water will get caught. There are lots of eels in the river and
it's against DEC
law to eat them. In the winter there are, or at least use to be Tomcod.
Water quality, while much better than it use to be a couple decades ago,
still isn't very pretty.
The tide going in and out tends to move alot of silt so some days the water
looks like the ocean and other
days it it can be brownish. Ambient noise? Well it's the city. On either
side of Manhattan there is the West Side
Highway or the East Side Highway so you are going to hear cars. The East
side, a,ong the East River actually has a
pedestrian walkway with a rail and you'll see people resting their rods on
the rail.
If you are in Manhattan, there are places to go outside of Manhattan, such
as City Island and Sheepshead Bay
where you can catch fishing boats. I've never been on Pier 34 but the above
should give you some idea of
what you might expect.