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				“Jamaica Bay, NY” Unique Urban Angling Eastern Fly Fishing magazine By Phil H. Shook It is that magical hour just after dawn on an estuary alive with predatory stirrings. Three of us are alone in our thoughts on one of the most unique angling environments in North America. Looking to the northeast across Brooklyn's low-lying shores I can see the Manhattan skyline resting quietly on a Sunday morning. To the east, a jet rises off the runway at JFK Airport, On a windless summer morning, Capt. Bryan Goulart guides his 21-foot Maritime along Rockaway Inlet into the heart of New York's Jamaica Bay. Our dreamlike mood is broken when we spot the surface boils of feeding fish just ahead of the boat. It's time to grab a fly rod and get down to business. Goulart positions the boat and bluefish -3- to 5-pounders-eat our poppers like chocolates. It's an exciting start to a day of fly fishing on New York's Jamaica Bay, perhaps the ultimate urban angling experience. Before the day is over we will hunt weakfish near creek mouths where osprey make their nests, battle blues that go airborne with our flies hanging from their toothy jaws, and spot cast to wide-bodied stripers making massive boils around our boat. The Setting Jamaica Bay is located just around the corner from the Verrazano Narrows entryway to New York Harbor. Bounded on the west by Rockaway Inlet and to the east by JFK. Airport, it is a natural draw for game fish on their migratory treks up and down the northeast coast. The bay's 9,100 acres of marsh islands, channels, deep holes, brackish ponds and inlets attract a mid-April through November hatch of shrimp and forage fish that in turn provide a moveable feast for striped bass, bluefish spotted weakfish and false albacore. In addition to its emergence as an exceptional fishery over the last decade, Jamaica Bay has served as a wildlife refuge since 1972 when it became part of the 26,000-acre Gateway National Recreation Area that extends through three New York City boroughs and into northern New Jersey. Located only 12 miles from Manhattan's high-rise canyons, Jamaica Bay is often ignored by anglers searching for adventure on more distant shores. Woodcocks and terrapins are among the diverse wildlife that have thrived around the estuary since measures were taken in the 1960s to curb industrial pollution and excessive development. In addition to regular visits by weakfish, striped bass and bluefish, the bay is home to a large tern colony and is a stopping off point for migratory waterfowl including Canada geese, snow geese, northern pintail and ruddy ducks. A host of wading birds including snowy egrets, blue herons, American oystercatchers and yellow-crowned night herons add color to its marshes and shorelines. There are a number of highly skilled flyfishing guides on Jamaica Bay and several marinas that provide access to prime shorelines. Alan Evelyn, an avid New York flyfisher active in conservation initiatives on the bay, notes that there is walk-in wadefishing access and places to launch kayaks near prime shorelines and flats at the refuge. He says anglers arriving via Cross Bay Blvd. should make a left turn (east) after coming over the cross Bay Bridge into the refuge where one can access the estuary from a parking lot. By walking east under the railroad bridge, anglers have access to prime wadefishing and kayaking along the channels, flats and marsh islands. Visitors to the refuge also can rent skiffs on Broad Creek Channel. A Variety of Options On Jamaica Bay flyfishers enjoy a variety of options in a fishing season that gets going in mid-April and sometimes extends, in years with mild winters, as late as December. The action kicks off around mid-April with the migration of grass shrimp out of the marshes attracting schoolie stripers in the 20- to 33-inch range. From mid- to late-April, the sand eels become active followed by the arrival of Atlantic menhaden, which draw larger stripers into the estuary. May is the month when northern weakfish begin showing up in the bay. In recent seasons, anglers have landed weaks in the 8- to 10-lb. class around the estuary's creek mouths and channel drop offs. The beautifully marked weakfish can be elusive targets for flyfishers but the spring months present some great opportunities on Jamaica Bay. Last spring veteran flyfishing guide Frank Crescitelli says he caught only two on Jamaica Bay but they were fish to remember. One weighed 10 pounds and the other 11 pounds. "They were so big I thought they were stripers when they first hit, they were 36- and 38-inch fish." The spring months also offer a chance for flyfishers using dense, fast sinking flylines to drop large bunker patterns down to stripers holding under menhaden schools at depths of 20 feet and more in the deep holes off Jamaica Bay's Grass Hassock Channel. "A lot of guys overlook those big schools of menhaden because they think there are no fish under them ," Crescitelli says. "So we put on 450 grain lines and a big bunker fly and fish them real slow and real deep." Fishing last spring with Capt. John McMurray, three of us used intermediate and fast sinking lines to draw strikes from a number of stripers while drifting along a channel drop-off. McMurray had us switch from bulky streamers to weighted Clousers. His advice to let the fly drop to the bottom and then give it a sharp strip to make it hop in the strike zone paid off with several deep water hookups. In late May and early June, Goulart positions his clients for sightcasting to the large bluefish cruising tight to the shorelines. They often are there trying to corner bait against the bank between Ruffle Bar and The Raunt at the entrance to the bay. This is fly fishing at its most exciting and nerve-wracking, requiring well-placed casts with a streamer or popper to one of these 10- to 15-pound fish. These predators traveling in small groups are extremely wary in the shallow water. A prime area to fish in the spring and fall is the shoreline near JFK Airport along Grassy Bay where big two-pound bunker begin to congregate along the deeper channels attracting heavyweight stripers. Here, Capt. Brendan McCarthy and other local guides have adapted Florida style flats fishing approaches to pole clients within sightcasting range of cruising stripers. Under the right conditions this approach works well on a number of Jamaica Bay shorelines. Local guides can prospect a number of prime shorelines while complying with the security measures enforced since 9/11 requiring boaters to keep an appropriate distance from JFK runways. Drifting the shoreline along Pumpkin Patch channel offers excellent bluefish and striper action during the late spring and fall. Last season, fishing with Goulart, we enjoyed some explosive mid-day action with bluefish in the 5-pound class and stripers to 30 inches. On more than one occasion while fighting bluefish at the boat, we saw stripers flashing below the hooked blues as if the stripers were trying to compete with the bluefish for our flies. In August, widespread bluefish action is added to the mix as mullet join the forage fish smorgasbord around the sand bars. Early September marks the arrival of bay anchovies at the mouth of the bay, attracting false albacore within near shore casting range. And in late September, stripers begin chasing mullet along the sandbars. The fall run of stripers gets into full swing in October with "peanut bunker," juvenile menhaden, kicking off Jamaica Bay's own version of a Montauk Point blitz with bluefish and false albacore sometimes joining in the melee.An added bonus in November when the water is at its clearest is the opportunity for fly fishers to cast to sighted fish with poppers, crease flies and big Deceiver patterns. Crescitelli recalls one of those fall days when the bass were found both in the open water and up in the shallows chasing bunker. On these occasions, flyfishers first get a crack at the bigger stripers busting bait in the open water. "When they are on those peanuts, they herd them up and just shoot them out of the water," Crescitelli says. "When we started throwing flies up there, every third or fourth cast was a hookup." When the stripers stopped busting the bunker out in the open water, they relocated into the shallows and so did Crescitelli. "We just put the motor up and the wind was just right and we drifted along that flat in two and a half feet of water," he says. "You could see a fish track the fly and then turn on it and see the strike. That was a crazy day." During mild winters the fishing season on Jamaica Bay can extend into December. Goulart says the best day he ever experienced on the estuary was the first week of December on a windless 70 degree day. "We caught and released 50 plus stripers and no fish was under 33 inches," Goulart says. "I had heard that the herring were there and people were catching monster bass during that time. I have a picture of me holding about a 38-inch bass and all I have on is a light fleece jacket." Just Around the Corner In addition to the flyfishing action in Jamaica Bay, boaters have a wealth of other features within reasonable running time by boat. Around the corner where New York Harbor meets the Atlantic is Breezy Point, a favorite for light tackle anglers and flyfishers. In late summer and fall, false albacore and Atlantic bonito make appearances here along with bluefish and striped bass. In the course of the fishing day, guides will also prospect the many features inside New York Harbor and along Staten Island and New Jersey's Raritan Bay. Last season fishing with Goulart, we left a dead tide at Breezy Point and made the 30- to 40-minute run to Raritan Bay where we found a favorable tide and a group of other boats targeting a concentration of stripers in the 25-pound class. Starting in late August, Jamaica Bay guides venture "outside" along the Atlantic beachfront in search of false albacore and Atlantic bonito. Schools of surface feeding fish can pop up anywhere from Breezy Point and Rockaway Point east to East Rockaway Inlet. Last season Goulart and McMurray had a memorable August day when they encountered Atlantic bonito, skipjack tuna and baby bluefin tuna just off the Rockaway beaches. Beginning in October, anglers look for the fall cycle on and around Jamaica Bay to kick in, beginning with good shows of false albacore. "Once the albies come, you will consistently have blitzing fish," Goulart says. "With the albies, you will start getting those 5-pound bluefish again, then the bigger bluefish, then all bass all through the end of October, November and December." For flyfishers on Jamaica Bay, the only thing that distracts from the view of the Manhattan skyline is the explosive fly fishing action 40-feet away from the bow of the boat. And explosive action is common hee, in this unique, urban angling setting. Phil H. Shook is a freelance writer and photographer who lives in Larchmont, New York. Spring 2005