There are only three boat ramps I know of in the New York Bight. One is on Staten Island, New York, 12 miles west of Jamaica Bay. The other two are on the east side of Jamaica Bay. The one in the town of Hempstead is for Nassau County residents only. The public ramp at Beach Channel High School, in Far Rockaway, Queens, can be crowded, but it has been recently refurbished. None of the local marinas have a ramp and most charge $120 or more to lift a boat in or out of the water.

A white medium-sized popper draws strikes from large cruising bass in the shallow waters of Jamaica Bay in April and May. Watch for diving birds in Rockaway Inlet--the entrance to Jamaica Bay--for your chance at a double hook-up in Novemeber and December.

Jamaica Bay and the nearby New York Bight is a large and dynamic area but can easily be fished by boats in the 18- to 23-foot range. A boat this size covers you for the whole area, including the nearby New Jersey shore such as Sandy Hook (three miles from Rockaway Inlet) and points south such as Raritan Bay, Staten Island, and New York Harbor. Jamaica Bay is only 20 to 80 miles from the Hudson Canyon, an underwater Grand Canyon that attracts tuna, sharks, dolphin (mahi mahi), and other offshore species on their summer migrations up and down the Gulf Stream.

If that Breezy Point false albacore didn't change my mind about saltwater fly fishing, I would not have discovered this fantastic fishery, hidden in the most densely populated metropolitan area in the country. I would have missed countless sunrises; porpoises; rare birds; and sipping striped bass, schools of bluefish, and blitzing false albacore. I hope you too can experience those quiet moments when you find yourself releasing a fish, alone and undisturbed in a city of 9 million people

I use the same 8- to 10-weight rods and intermediate lines as in the spring to cut through the wind and get the fly under the surface. These lines sink quickly enough to find deeper fish by using the counting-down method. The best fly pattern this time of year is often a generic peanut bunker imitation on a 1/0 hook with dumbbell eyes, chartreuse bucktail, and white split hackles or marabou. I also use long white Deceivers when the fish are feeding on silversides, and my own McHerring when fish are feeding on herring. I tie this fly with 10 inches of Slinky Fiber on 4/0 short-shanked hooks with epoxy eyes. I hot-glue the eyes and squeeze them onto the front of the fly to make the fibers flare and push water when retrieved.
 

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