Long Beach Long Island - Winter Herring

[Johnsfolly]

I was planning on an attempted herring trip back in December to close out last year. Instead, the herring did not start showing up in the waters around NYC and Long Island until last week. Packed up the family, rods, Sabiki rigs and a cooler with ice and drove out to Brooklyn NY about a three and a half hour drive.

Saiki rig with flasher

First spot was Canarsie pier. The tide should be falling and there were three guys fishing. I walked around and there was very little evidence that herring were being caught. Very few scales on the cleaning stations was not a good sign. We discussed going to the second spot that I had targeted for this trip and drove another 40 mins to Magnolia Pier in Long Beach, Long Island. There were six guys on the pier, the cleaning tables were covered in scales and the one guy was trying to sell us herring that they caught at sunrise. All folks including the guy in the shed/tackle store said that the herring would not likely show up until after 3 pm and the best action would be between 5 and 6 pm. It was a little after noon at this time. I had the micro gear in the car and saw large numbers of silversides. We put on some pieces of silversides that we bought and did some microfishing. Livie and I both caught a few just to get some fish on the talley board for 2023.

We had a great lunch and back at the pier just after 3 pm. A few guys were still fishing.

Around 3:30 Livie got us on the board with our first Atlantic herring. This would be a lifer for all of us.

We thought that they might come on fast and furious, but no. We got hit with a biting cold wind. Sue and Livie went back to the car to warm up. I kept our spot on the rail. Around four pm the folks came pouring in and lined up the railing. Livie and Sue came back. The wind was blowing our flashers like kites and cutting our casting distances. A few herring were caught all along the pier. Lots of tangled lines and folks getting short tempers. One point of comic relief was the guy trying to sell his herring was getting everyone to give him the words for herring in multiple languages. The one guy near us had these fish down. He caught double digit numbers while the rest of us were getting a couple. Livie didn't catch another and Sue didn't catch any. I caught a couple and lost a couple. 

We left around 5:45 pm. The bite had slowed down and the cold was getting to us. Also a long drive tempered our spirits as well. I spoke with Livie today and she would be willing to give it another try now that she knows what to expect for the cold and the fishing!

[JestersHK]

Congrats on the new species! Way to tough out the cold

[Daryk Campbell Sr]

Sounds like a tough, but good time.  Glad to hear that Livie would give it another chance. 

[Johnsfolly]

40 minutes ago, JestersHK said:

Congrats on the new species! Way to tough out the cold

38 minutes ago, Daryk Campbell Sr said:

Sounds like a tough, but good time.  Glad to hear that Livie would give it another chance. 

We learned a few things and would definitely come more prepared on another trip. The guy next to us had a flasher that was a flexible plastic that would lay against the line when cast unlike the metal ones we were using that catch the wind on each cast. I have to see how we could make them ourselves. Everyone was mentioning that it's been weird this year. Typically these fish show up around mid Dec and would be really hot and heavy by now. This year they just started to show up and seem to be in more diffuse schools (at least yesterday). So instead of everyone getting bit with multiple hook-ups, most would get one of two down the line.