Bass Fishing Marine Pkwy Bridge, NYC

1. One of the most diverse fishing ecosystems in Jamaica Bay is found near the Marine Parkway Bridge. The bridge itself runs north and south, leaving the tide movement unobstructed except near the abutments of the bridge. With large eddies and whirlpool pockets on its sides, the MPB is the ideal holding spot for large predators to ambush their prey.
2. In the fall, the October full moon puts the bay eel population on the move. This occurs every year without fail. The eels look for winter bedding in the deeper and warmer holes in the bay. As they pass through the bridges, they are met by striped bass and bluefish waiting to ambush them.
   The structure beneath the surface has large outcroppings of concrete and rebar which can be hard on your terminal tackle, but the rewards can be great. Inside these holes are large predators just waiting for the bait to pass.
3. The boat anglers in our bay load up on shoestring eels. Shoestrings are smaller eels just at legal size, around the 12-inch mark. Using a 4- to 5-ounce drail with a 3-foot leader tied to a 5/0 octopus or all-round hook, the eel is hooked through one eye and the top jaw. The rig is dropped to the bottom and reeled up a turn to position the bait just off the bottom. This will help prevent snags on the rebar and cable that runs underneath the bridge. Drifts are made through the south channel abutments on both sides of the tide.
4. When fishing with eels, the bite may vary in intensity. Striped bass will sometimes slap the eel with its tail and then inhale it headfirst. Usually there is no doubt that youíve had a strike, but sometimes the strike is delicate. The bass will often inhale the eel with a soft touch and then swim off. I feel that the tide has a direct effect on the strike. The faster the current, the harder and more aggressive the strike becomes. The eel also may give a sign that something is about to happen. Many times Iíll feel the eel dance (in fear), and a few seconds later Iíll feel the hit.
5. Live bunker sometimes behave the same way. We fish live bunker with a small treble hook at the rear of the dorsal fin and a 4/0 octopus hook in the top jaw. This enables the fish to swim freely and also gives you a better hook up ratio. Some anglers will use a drail of approximately 4 ounces, but I prefer a 2-ounce egg sinker about 2 feet above the hooks. I like the rattling effect the egg sinker produces against the barrel swivel that is tied to the leader.
6. Drifting clam bellies and chunks of bunker are also a proven way of catching stripers. More popular than eeling in the daylight hours, many anglers anchor uptide of the bridge and drift the clam or chunk into the large eddies around the abutments. Fluke and bluefish are a constant by-catch while using these baits. The use of a little wire leader is advisable when using chunks under the bridge.
   Chumming with clams works well also, but not with bunker, because bunker chum attracts bluefish that push the bass deeper and out of reach of your bait. It is almost a sure thing that the blues will beat out the bass for the choice bait. If you see more blues than bass, stop chumming.
7. On the Joeyís Bud, we prefer the lazy manís fishing technique. While on the anchor we have 4 rods in the rod holders in dead-stick mode. Two rods are fished with a split shot rigged with clam. The other two are fished a little off the bottom with the head of bunker. We hook the heads with a 2/0 treble in the lips and a 5/0 octopus in the gut end. All reels are left in free spool with the clickers on. From our experience, dead-sticking works better than holding the rod in the cooler weather.
8. Itís difficult to dead-stick when drifting with eels, but we have found a technique that works. Place your rod in a holder thatís almost parallel to the water. Let the eel down to the bottom, and then reel up 3 turns. Leave the reel on free spool with the clicker on. When you hear the clicker, turn it off before taking the rod out of the holder, and give the fish line as you pick up the rod to set the hook.
   When drifting over irregular bottom depths you can dead-stick, but since you want your bait to follow the contour of the bottom as much as possible, you must constantly check to make sure youíre not too far from the bottom or not dragging on the bottom itself.
9. Deep holes and ledges hold a lot of fish in the fall, especially where the bait gets pushed around and disorientated. Look for those bait balls on your fish finder and youíll find the bass close by. Whirlpool and eddy edges also hold bass as they lay in ambush waiting for the bait to flow out of the churned up water. The old saying, ìFind a sloppy condition and theyíll be bass under itî, is true. Just look at any rip in the fall where the bait is churning and youíll find bass. Maybe not the size you want, but bass just the same.
10. It is very important that you handle the released fish in the proper manner. The less you come in contact with the fish the better. We try not to handle the fish at all if it is to be released. The hook loop method, as we call it, makes it easy for the angler to release the fish without touching it. A small piece of pencil rod bent in a loop at one end makes a nice release tool. Slide the loop down the leader and shake it at the bend of the hook, youíll find that almost every hook will dislodge easily.
11. If you have gut hooked a fish, cut the leader as close to the mouth as possible and then release the fish. Never try to pull the hook out of a gut hooked fish that you want to release. Itís better to lose a hook than kill a short fish. Itís also best to avoid contact with the fishís gills.
12. Due to the stricter bag limits and size limits on bass the past few years, the striper has bounced back, and brought us older and larger fish. We welcome back these larger fish and hope that with the right management techniques, they will be around for our children and grandchildren to enjoy. I am a believer in the theory that we have resident fish here. Resident, meaning fish that stay here all year long instead of migrating south. They winter here in the deeper holes and then spawn again in the spring.