Travel - New York, NY (Hudson Pier 42)

Hot town, summer in the city ...…
or
No Rod, No Bait, No problem!

Apparently there are two places to fish in Manhattan that are free of licenses and fees and include tackle. So just get off the subway and go fish!

The summer program details for Hudson River Park can be found at:

http://www.hudsonriverpark.org/events.asp

and scrolling down to Big City Fishing on the left. I visited Pier 42 at West and Charles St in Greenwich Village. The closest subway was Christopher St/Sheridan Square on the Broadway Local (train 1), which is approximately 14 blocks east of the pier. There is another pier just a block north of the Circle Line pier and more easily accessible by the M50 bus (going west on 49^th St and get off at the end at 43^rd St; yes, it hooks down 6 blocks!), but I did the Circle Line a month before and felt that there were too many ships -- three cruise ships alone that one day -- for any good fishing.

It was a hot sunny afternoon,

with so few people that I was able to abuse the hospitality of the park for two hours, with the four attendants willing to bait my #4 hook with clams.

I had very few bites, but next time I would bring my own lures and bait. Essentially I had bait stolen a half-dozen times, caught one fish and absolutely nothing else but snags for the last hour. Once again I forgot my sunscreen.

Alongside the tent, was a filter for the day’s catch: a 12” striper, two 6” sea bass, and my porgie.

I have enclosed the Big City Fishing details below, in their entirety, as they are so in keeping with my philosophy of metro-fishing. Note that this event closes Labor Day.

Next time I will try Central Park, which allows fishing through October …

Big City Fishing

Pier 46 in Greenwich Village
Cross at Charles St.

Pier 84
Cross at W.44th St. or W.43rd St.
212.627.2020

July 4th - Labor Day:
Tuesday - Sunday, 10:30 am - 5:30 pm

Cost: free

Yes you can fish in the Hudson River and it's better than ever at Hudson River Park!

Big City Fishing gives anyone and everyone the chance to fish. It's an appropriate and fun activity for those as young as five. Big City Fishing is available to visiting schools throughout the year.

Catch-and-release
Because we practice catch-and-release fishing in Hudson River Park, all fish are returned to the river at the end of the program.

Provided
All of the necessary supplies including rods, reels and bait, as well as formal instruction. Fishing poles are provided on a first come, first served basis, with a half-hour limit when others are waiting.

Beyond fishing
Big City Fishing also provides participants with a first hand opportunity to learn about the Hudson River Estuarine Sanctuary. View plankton through microscopes, examine live specimens – caught that morning, either in traps or on someone’s line – and identify species using the Hudson River Park’s signature Fish Poster.

Recently caught
American eel, striped bass, black sea bass, bluefish, oyster toadfish, cunner, white perch, flounder, porgy, blue crabs.

Pier 46

Accessible to people with disabilities: Yes

Food Available: seasonal concession

Water Available: Yes

Restrooms: Pier 45 Comfort Station

Subway
1 at Christopher St.

Bus
M8

Nearby:
Christopher Street Fountain
Educational programs
Sunbathing
Water Taxi stop
Cafe

Pier 84

Restrooms: Pier 84 Comfort Station

Accessible to people with disabilities: Yes

Food Available: yes

Water Available: yes

Subway
A,C,E at 42nd St.

Bus
M42, M50

Nearby:
• Dynamic fountain
• Lawn with trees
• Fishing
• Sunbathing
• Summer events
• Dog Run
• Bike rental
• Water Taxi stop
• Restaurant
• Shopping

More about Pier 46
More about Pier 84

---

© 2008 Hudson River Park Trust
All rights reserved

Hudson River Park Trust
EMAIL
phone: 212-627-2020
fax: 212-627-2021

353 West St.
Pier 40, 2nd floor
New York, New York 10014

Travel - Hilton Head, SC

Everywhere a fish, fish …

Of all the outright fishing forays – Belize, Key West, Tampa – none set the record like Hilton Head. No matter what water I was fishing, I caught something. That is, every fishing day, I had to dig a hook out of something unhappy.

The first trip was with Outside Hilton Head in a kayak – a first in itself. Not only did I catch the first redfish (of three) I caught the biggest fish– a three-foot bonnethead shark (Think hammerhead that has had its hammer cut off badly with dull shears.)

The simplest trips of all, casting into the sea from the beach, resulted in at minimum foot-long dogfish, and once, a very small cobia.

Oddly the least successful was a party boat, which was way over-crowded with 40-50 people. Have had more sitting room in a bus. The other discouraging part is, sure, the captain knows where the fish are, the wreck/artificial reef/structure is, but so does everyone else. It got quite crowded at the marker, to the extent that my boat was the worst positioned of the lot. We seemed to catch the typical table scraps [panfish if it were fresh water, but most species had to be a minimum of 12” for keepers.] I caught one spade fish, and three very small sea bass. As for fight, imagine 8-oz of lead weight sinkers and catching a 6-oz fish. Not a lot of play.

The most interesting part of the party boat was my experiment. I rigged a circle hook and a piece of artificial stinkbait to my rig. Besides it costing me way too many tangles, the artificial was out-catching the cut squid and shrimp by 2:1.[See Thoughts – It Works!] I also learned that a Palomar knot will not hold on 50lb test monofilament. The crew seemed to prefer the clinch – without improvement.

And that is what I used on the beach: the artificial squid. Absolutely fascinating. Technology rules!

Travel - Bruges (Brugge)

Picture Perfect

It seems there is one in every family. At Christmas one relative would firmly believe that presents should be educational, historical It might well be a coloring book on the outside, but inside were pages to be cut out and assembled into a medieval town with bell tower. It might possibly even be Bruges/Brugge – a medieval town complete with a moat around the walled city.

For a city warning the traveler of 400 years of slow degeneration, it is in remarkably good shape. It is currently its own Epcot caricature, with lace shops, chocolates, carbonade, moules et frites, and Belgian beers. Since les Belges figure anything can be fermented, beer should really be called alcoholic beverage, as it might have only one or two of the “original” ingredients in the millennia old recipe. The Belgians were probably the most vocal about having the German Reinheitsgebot law of purity of 1516 declared unlawful in the EU.

Well, I did all this – the chocolate museum, the brewery tour with complimentary doppel, the canal boat – but I did not fish. According to the tourist office (notorious for young ladies who would not know a rod from a scrod) I was told that fishing is done northeast of the town beyond the moat. One is supposed to see people fishing (see arrow in NE corner of map).

I feel utterly helpless: in a city and I have no idea if one needs a license (probably), what lures to use, what fish I might be expected to catch. Bummer. At least it was educational, historical … drinking my way through five to seven classes of beer. Hmmm. Researching the beers would have been a good backup plan …

Travel - Santiago / Vinha del Mar

Pisco Sours

June 23 2007

I am so glad every country has a national drink. Brazil has Caipirinhas, Argentina has mate (OK, non-alcoholic), and Chile has the pisco sour. It keeps ordering in bars so simple; everyone is having one – or a beer. Like checking out all the top Mai Tais in Honolulu, we kept hopping from one place to another, rating them as we went.

We were staying in the Providencia district of Santiago, which was the closest one of the cities one could call charming.

While a river flows right through Santiago, it is apparently so polluted nothing can survive in it, but they are working on it as part of a three/four year plan.

The weather (again, it is now officially winter) was diabolical. Had one lovely morning, after a heavy rain, so the pollution cloud was almost gone, giving a majestic view of the mountains. The one day I was looking forward to fishing, was a cold, windy day, all day. Had hoped to take the cable cars/trams in Valparaiso, but it was just too cold and damp. Vinha del Mar had beach, surf, sea lions, but not enough clear weather to try for sea bass. Closest I came to one was with a fork. Lunch was superb, as the rain pelted down on the windows. It is June and I am trying to warm up by a fire in this castle-like restaurant. On the way back to Santiago, it started to snow – an event our guide could not remember ever happening. So much for global warming in South America. He said it was probably El Nina.

Travel - Buenos Aires

Paris of the Americas

June 15, 2007

Los Portenos: A city settled by Italians, speaks Spanish, wishes it were French, trades in English. As I learned from my Belize trip, always have a backup plan. This time it was to learn to tango. Booked the tour trip to the Tigre Delta with the idea of having a chance to fish, only to be told that the water had such a high mineral content – not polluted, just not … livable. The delta itself is a mass of islands, with 1-3 houses on each, approximately 3500, so it could pass as Venice of South America.

Just to keep it simple, stayed at the Mansion Dandi Royal in San Telmo district, because it had a tango studio downstairs. While Argentina is said to be cheap, with three pesos to the dollar, it adds up. Tango shoes were $100; street shoes won’t work. Passed on the hat, vest, pants … If a waiter volunteers wine, be aware that a bottle of Rutini will hit you for $50. Cabs and subway are best ways to get around. While there are lakes/ponds in the city, one is not, apparently, allowed to fish. Of course, every time I came across water, I had left my tackle at the hotel (well, it gets heavy.)

After one of our tango classes, we were invited to one of the dozens of melongas that may be open any given night – at 11pm. It is a dance hall at which the men sit to one side and the women on another (unless, of course, you are in a group as we were). A man invites a woman to dance and if she accepts, the implicit promise is that he will love her passionately – for three minutes. When the music stops they might just separate as if nothing happened. The tango is extremely macho: the man leads, and if his partner trips or cannot follow, it is his fault; so not a good idea to try a melonga unless you are very, very good. And if you think the double haul in a stiff wind is difficult, try doing it with your feet. The man has basically two controls. To go forward, he virtually falls on his partner, who is pushing or holding him up as she falls backwards. He has a hand behind her back with which he pulls her toward him or pushes her to the left, so she does a quarter turn. The left hand is held below the shoulder and does not serve any leading purpose (as it might, say, in the foxtrot.)

While you can buy DVDs there (at the hotel), you might want to get some practice in beforehand. Met two women from New York, who had been taking lessons for five years and this was their pilgrimage. Oh, they also spoke fluent Spanish, so it was much later in the week that we discovered they were, in fact, American.

So drink the beer, the awesome coffee, eat the empanadas, and pronounce BBQ as “paRISH-a” – even if it is spelled parilla. Despite what you may have heard, stick to filet when ordering beef at restaurants. All the other beef we had was tasty, but tough, gristly, and fatty.

Travel - Rio de Janeiro / Niteroi

And I probably won't fly down to Rio,
But then again, I just might.
-- Michael Nesmith

June 13 2007

When we discussed going to South America, I was hesitant about Rio. Everything I had read from Travel magazines, books, articles, websites/tripadvisor, said Rio was a very dangerous city. I could cover myself for theft as best I could, but anything more serious was a real problem. Even tourists being mugged on the climb up Corcovado. I really did not want to travel alone, with no one to watch my back.

The weather was clear, in the low 80’s, too chilly for the cariocas to be on the beach, but in June, it was really only a week away from the winter solstice. So no lovely Ipanema girls in dental floss, but also muggers were out of season. Stayed on the edge of Ipanema and Leblon (right on the canal separating the two), away from the more touristy Copacabana. Discovered this is a residential neighborhood, that goes back at least seven blocks from the beach, with no sign of favelas, the Rio slums – which turn out to be high on hillsides in the near jungle, because that is the topography from which the immigrants came. Tijuca is the largest city “park” in the world. Sort of Disney does the Amazon rainforest.

I did not look forward to fishing on my own, but thought of Anderson Cooper, and said, hey, I’m a reporter, this goes with the territory. I took a cab to the far/eastern end of Copacabana, and with my knapsack of tackle and rod, hiked up to the park where there is a rocky outlook. Seemed most people there were couples watching the sunset. There were perhaps three other groups fishing on some devilishly smooth and slippery rocks. I watched for awhile to see how they fished and with what. One guy was running a clinic in how to catch sardines, or baitfish for night out in a boat. The surf was heavy and I snagged virtually every weighted lure I had. I finally gave up when it became so dark I could not thread the line through a lure. Dark and shadowy, I made my way back, almost lost in the maze of trails and boulders. Just walked very fast and straight ahead, back to a cab stand.

The next day we were off to the old capital of Niteroi, which is almost Hampton-y. Gated here, gated there … Found one beach, again with a high, slippery outcrop of rock and a good ten meters above the crashing waves. Unfortunately, was not prepared, as I rarely carry more than 50 yards of line; so no casts beyond the surf. Showed our guide all the stuff I carry; he was very impressed with braid, some of the lures and variety of hooks. But not a nibble. Wrong time of day, bad surf, wrong moon phase … supposedly can catch small fish here …

Somewhere I had read that in seeing Sugarloaf and Corcovado, one should do one in the morning and the other at sunset. We had visited Sugarloaf the day before and now rushed back to Corcovado to catch the cable up to the top before sunset. Made a believer of our guide, who had never done this before. As the sun sinks over Sugarloaf (and some ugly radio towers), the lights from Copacabana (on one side) and the Bay (and its 17km bridge) come up. Curiously the almost Christmas-y lighting effect came from the favelas in the hills …

Must do:

Caipirinhas at the Copacabana Palace Hotel, outside by the pool, with a plate of canapés

Marius Seafood Restaurant

Travel - Paris

Pêcheurs sans Frontières

September 23, 2006

One probably doesn’t think of going to fish in the Seine, while in Paris, anymore than one would think of attending ballet in Saudi Arabia, but this is my job: to fish the capitals of the world and report on them. Somebody has to do it, for all the non-Green, Red establishment demagogue ignorance that lays waste to the fragile ecosystem we call Earth …

Besides asking a policewoman, if one was permitted to fish the Seine and her reply that it was non permis/interdit/defendu, I saw only one person fishing along the banks. Everyone else was either reading, smooching, on cell phones, on iPods, snoozing ... I could not believe the photo op that was totally ignored: hauling a fish from the Seine late afternoon with the Eiffel tower in the distance. Tous ces gens la sont fous!

Travel - Tokyo

Shurakuen?!

One thing I detest are people who are just plain unhelpful. I tried to find a place to fish in Tokyo and after three hours, at least two tour guides, and a cab driver later, I stumbled on a place that sounds like the one in the Time Asia article, but who knows? It sure doesn't show up in Google ...

So I will tell you EXACTLY how to find such a place.

• Go to the Ichigaya stop on the Keio line (If you are staying in Shinjuku, it is the third stop east)
  
• On exiting, make sure the Starbucks (... yes) is over your right shoulder
• Go down the first set of steps on your right on the right side of the road.
• Walk slightly downhill and over the bridge.

You should see posters that remind you of an aquarium or pet store.

That's it!

The lady behind the booth speaks only Japanese apparently and shows you a sign for 870 ¥ (yen) -- less than $10 US (at 108 yen to the dollar). You are given a 3-foot stick with some pink mono attached, which you unwind from the stick to a very thin bobber and #6 hook. She gives you a margarine cup with a gray ball the size of a small orange inside. There may be 10-15 others sitting on milk crates fishing



It turns out that the ball is bait and is to be torn off in small pieces and pressed onto the hook. Then toss the lot into a pond (must be 4-5 self-contained pools).

I tried this for about 20 minutes (of my allotted hour) and saw one fellow was doing better than most; so I got up and motioned if I could watch him. He did one better. He took my "rod", adjusted the bobber to the right depth, and fiddled with a tiny collar-like weight. Then he showed me where to toss it all. One key input: it seems you are encouraged to chum; so throw a small handful of the gray bait over the place where the bobber is.


He quietly left with his stash (about 6-7 12"” carp), but then came back and sat by me, as a silent coach, appropriately tossing in more chum as needed. There were three of us fishing the pond, but I caught not just one, which gave me quite a run around the pool, but another just as my time was almost up. I bowed and thanked him. The 30-Second Fisherman was not skunked that day!

It was the highlight of three days in Tokyo ... that and having a drink at the top of the Park Hyatt (Lost in Translation?)

Travel - Belize

Permit Alley!
Fish the Grand Slam!

The purpose of visiting Belize was to see if it was a place to retire to. I can see myself fishing everyday, just not all day; also the idea of fishing on the flats, in wheelchair if it ever came to that, was a step up from having the expense of a boat.

With nothing more than Belize websites (including the forums), Rough Guide and Lonely Planet to go by, I sketched a plan of seeing Belize City, one of the Northern Cayes (Ambergris, San Pedro, Caye Caulker), Palencia, and to get a quick idea of the jungle, the Belize Zoo.

Unfortunately, I had only the period January 1-5 available. Unfortunately, because January 1 was a Sunday, making the 2nd ANOTHER holiday Monday; the city was effectively closed. According to one of the guide books, the Zoo would be closed; a taxi driver promised he would not charge us if it was closed, but I balked at the $100 fare for the 45 minute ride, thinking I might be able to take the bus later in the week.

On a whim, I decided to go to Caye Caulker or San Pedro. Decisions, decisions. Went with Caye Caulker. Paid the $20BZ ($10US) for the water taxi. Had totally forgotten what a boat ride was like once outside the reef on open water with a 30-knot breeze. Took about 10 minutes to get used to the bouncing, but thought it was going to be the longest 45 minutes I have endured.

On Caye Caulker, the guide books recommended 3 dive centers – more than any other place – so my objective was to see if I could finish my PADI certification. Lot of walking, missing the one center that seemed to be able to meet my schedule. I can say nothing but good about Belize Diving Services. I had my certificate by 5p the next day – after 2 60-foot dives off Turneffe Atoll.

Now I am supposed to be writing about fishing. So my choice was now to try to fly to Placencia – or stay on Caye Caulker, and herein the lesson lies. First, not all fishing places are worth fishing. The week was averaging 20-30 knot breezes, which, I was told, is not good for permit fishing; worse, Palencia could be experiencing the same weather. Second, whatever a fisherman may say about what he has caught or seen caught, it really doesn’t count unless he can rub your nose in it to smell it. So to be told the Split was a good place to fish was a load of rubbish; it now is a channel between North & South Caye, with speed boats running through it, people swimming off it, and wind.

Someone was catching fish though. I walked to the Back Dock and found a lovely lady sitting on the dock, with a hand-line and cut bait. Every now and again she would pull up a fish and throw it away. Uh, bonefish.

Third lesson: if you think bonefish on the flats is sport, how is it a woman, pulling these things in like crappy, could find it a total nuisance? Only one passerby wanted to take one back to roast.

Fourth lesson: despite what a website might say or recommend for lures, ALWAYS take as much small stuff. I drew a complete boo-boo by bringing the 3-5” Rapalas, only to hear that bonefish and permit don’t hit on anything bigger than a #4 hook; in other words, I should have brought jig heads with plastic bodies. The closest I came was a bonefish chasing my Husky Jerk, but thinking better of it.

The good news was I was finally PADI certified; the bad news was I had lost all sense of reality in my dream of permit fishing – or, hey, second best, might be bonefish then tarpon. Almost any piece of advice in a strange world sounds worth thinking about, maybe even trying – unless it is about fishing. How could the BEST place to catch every major sportfish draw a dud? We are talking about a 12-month season here, not a couple of months (yes, tarpon are migratory but not quite so much here). I am so embarrassed.

Oh, and it rained ALL day on Wednesday. Full tropical wet rain. No Palencia, not even the zoo.

Lessons to be carried on a card in my wallet:

1. All advice is worth taking once – unless it is from another fisherman; or unless it is an unhappy fisherman (“We were catching jacks, but we can catch those all the time in Nagadoches …”)
2. Go with instincts in putting together a lure kit, especially variety; nothing is too small
3. Reality and a dream are but a gust of wind apart
4. Always have a backup objective (phew on PADI!)