Red welcome aboard!
Don't know ya, but your enthusiasm is refreshing....the words you wrote about Hempstead Harbor harken back to earlier days for sure.....
You said you lived in North Queens....Some thoughts.....
!. Jamaica Bay in the Spring is a world class fishery....
Most guys think of the fishery as boat related, but there are plenty of places where you can reach big bass and monster blues from the shore...
Queens, Inwood, Rockaways, Pumpkin Patch, the wall by Rockaway High....and of course, the bridges and access areas near them....Right around the 2nd week of April according to my logs....
Contact me then and I'll take ya to some places we can wade to where we can catch early spring bluefish till our arms fall off....
2. Oyster Bay has a special value to me....I go up there when I can't catch fish anywhere else and get them from the kayak in that area...but as you may know shore access on the north shore is limited, and it doesnt seem fair that LI fishermen only have a few crappy piers to fish from and all that beautiful water.
3. Point Lookout is another place that comes to mind, pier relatively close to you?
4. How about Manhattan beach and the Rockaway Inlet....some of the biggest spring fish from land are caught from that area....and fall, as well.
5. Also how about the Canarsie Pier and Breezy Point areas,,,,we have some sitemembers who fish there all the time....Brasilva is one of them, he got over 300 bass and 600 bluefish from those areas last year....
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Really liked hearing your earlier fishing memories,,,,welcome aboard and contact me anytime via PM if you need more specific intel on a bite.....