Fishing Secrets
NY Harbor Fluke Grounds — a private working reference for fluke fishing around Upper and Lower New York Bay.
Today's Fishing Recommendation
Uses the fishing grounds and drift lines already on this page, live NOAA current/tide predictions, and NWS marine weather.
The recommendation will use specific clock times and tell you which drift or depth to try first.
Live data NOAA
Today’s Tide & Current
Next 48 hours — tide and current detail
NY Harbor Fluke Grounds
This page is a working reference for fluke fishing around Upper and Lower New York Bay, concentrating on areas having the same characteristics that make Bay Ridge Flats and the Rockaway-area flats productive:
- relatively shallow water
- sand or mud bottom
- nearby deeper channels
- contour changes
- tidal current
- bait being swept across or off the flats
- opportunities to drift from shallow water toward deeper edges
The basic principle is that moving water is generally more important than simply whether the tide is high or low. For fluke, the objective is usually to find a controlled drift across productive bottom and depth changes rather than simply drifting featureless flat bottom.
Tide and Current Strategy
Moving water is the key
Fishing is generally better when there is meaningful tidal current than during dead slack water. Both incoming/flood and outgoing/ebb current can produce fish.
Why outgoing water can be particularly good
An outgoing tide/current can pull baitfish, crabs and other forage from shallow areas toward channel edges and deeper water. Fluke can position themselves along those transitions and allow the current to bring food toward them.
Bay Ridge Flats preference
Preferred window: late flood → slack → first 2–3 hours of established ebb current.
This is a fishing strategy, not a guarantee.
Tide is not the same thing as current
High tide does not mean the current immediately starts running out.
Water level and current are related but are not synchronized. In New York Harbor there can be a substantial delay between high/low water and slack current or current reversal.
Therefore, use NOAA current predictions rather than simply looking at a high/low tide table when planning fluke drifts.
Drift speed
Experience-based fishing guidelines — not navigational standards.
At the fast end, consider wind against current, heavier weight, a sea anchor or other drift control, or moving to an area with less current.
Nearby Fluke Grounds
These are reference waypoints for broad fishing areas, not exact locations where fish are guaranteed to be located. Each marks a general area to begin working; the fishing is in the contours around it, not at the point itself.
| Area | Degrees & Decimal Minutes | Decimal Degrees | Fishing Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bay Ridge Flats | Primary reference area. Work the flat toward Bay Ridge / Anchorage Channel edges. | ||
| Gowanus Flats | Northern continuation of the Bay Ridge Flats area. Excellent flat-to-channel concept. | ||
| Jersey Flats | Much shallower in places — Coast Pilot 2 gives a least depth of 5 feet. Concentrate on contour edges and use caution. | ||
| Gravesend Bay | Combination of shallow water, deeper edges and channel structure. | ||
| Coney Island Flats / Norton Point | Reference point for the Coney Island / Norton Point fishing area. | ||
| Rockaway Flats NOAA station position | The same flat/edge/channel idea as Bay Ridge, on the Queens side: shallow sand with the Rockaway Inlet channel and deeper Lower Bay water close by, and current sweeping bait off the edges. Note that Rockaway Flats is an angler’s name, not a charted feature — this position is NOAA current-survey station NYH1904, 1 nm SW of the Rockaway Inlet jetty, used as an area reference. Coast Pilot 2 warns of a shifting sandbar about 0.6 nm SE of the breakwater light and current near Rockaway Point reaching about 2.2 kt. | ||
| Romer Shoal | Shallow shoal surrounded by substantially deeper water, between Ambrose and Swash Channels and marked by Romer Shoal Light. Work edges carefully. | ||
| Flynns Knoll | Particularly interesting shallow-knoll / channel combination, between Swash, Sandy Hook and Chapel Hill Channels. | ||
| Great Kills Harbor Area | Look primarily around the outside/entrance and surrounding contours rather than deep inside the harbor. | ||
| Prince’s Bay | Productive Raritan Bay-type shallow/edge fishing geography. |
Table scrolls sideways on a phone so the coordinate columns stay readable.
Coordinate status and verification notes
Every degrees-and-decimal-minutes value above was checked against its decimal-degrees twin; all nine agree to within one metre, so there are no conversion errors in this table.
These are approximate fishing references, not charted feature positions. Bay Ridge Flats, Gowanus Flats, Jersey Flats, Gravesend Bay, Romer Shoal, Flynns Knoll, Great Kills and Prince’s Bay are all named and described in U.S. Coast Pilot 2, Chapter 11, but the positions here mark broad fishing areas rather than official charted points, and are labelled as such. No coordinate has been substituted for a chart feature with a similar name.
Rockaway Flats is the one entry whose name is not a charted feature. Coast Pilot 2, Chapter 11 names Rockaway Point, Rockaway Inlet, Rockaway Beach and Beach Channel, but no “Rockaway Flats” — it is an angler’s name for the shoal water southwest of Rockaway Point. Rather than invent a position, the coordinate given is NOAA’s own published location for current-survey station NYH1904, “Rockaway Inlet Jetty, 1 nm SW of” (40.533000, −73.960800), from the NOAA New York Harbor Current Survey 2017–2019. It sits in the water this style of fishing refers to and is labelled in the table as a NOAA station position, not as a charted feature. Treat it as an area anchor to start from, not a spot.
Live current for that water is available from the same station in the panel at the top of the page — pick Rockaway Inlet Jetty, 1 nm SW of. Its mean flood sets about 304°, mean ebb about 139°.
Verify charted features, depths, aids to navigation and channel limits against current NOAA ENC data before relying on any of it for navigation.
Fluke Drift Lines
Several of these drift lines are derived from actual U.S. Army Corps of Engineers biological survey transects. USACE published separate flood-start and ebb-start positions for sampling transects in these areas. For fishing purposes, the two positions are being used as convenient endpoints and the direction is reversed depending on the current.
| Area | Approx. Depth | Flood / Incoming | Ebb / Outgoing | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bay Ridge Flats — SB-3 USACE transect | 18 ft | → | → | ★★★★★ |
| Gravesend Bay Flats — LB-11 USACE transect | 22 ft | → | → | ★★★★★ |
| Gravesend Outer/Deeper Edge — LB-10 USACE transect | 30 ft | → | → | ★★★★★ |
| Flynns / West of Chapel Hill South — LB-12 USACE transect | 25 ft | → | → | ★★★★☆ |
| Flynns / East of Chapel Hill South — LB-13 USACE transect | 19 ft | → | → | ★★★★★ |
| Romer Shoal Exploratory — not USACE | ~15–20 ft vicinity | → | → | ★★★★☆ |
Romer is an exploratory fishing drift
The Romer line is not one of the USACE biological survey transects. It is an exploratory drift across a shoal ringed by major navigation channels and strong current. Treat it accordingly — short first drift, eyes on the plotter and on traffic.
Resolved — which endpoint is the flood start, and how it was decided
The open question from the first build is now settled. A drifting boat travels with the current, so the flood start has to be whichever endpoint makes the run agree with the direction the flood actually sets. Each line’s bearing was computed from its own endpoints and compared against the mean flood set NOAA publishes for the nearest current station, with the next two nearest checked as a cross-reference.
No coordinate was moved. Every endpoint is exactly where it was. What changed is the interpretation of which end you start from, and it changed on two lines only.
| Drift | Line bearing | Nearest station mean flood | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| SB-3 (Bay Ridge) | 209° (SSW) | 9° — Gowanus Bay Entrance (NYH1917), 1.0 nm | Corrected. 160° off the flood set, so the old flood run was drifting against the flood. The flood now starts at 40°39.090’N, 74°02.290’W and runs north. Bay Ridge west of (354°, 1.9 nm) and The Narrows (328°, 2.8 nm) agree. |
| LB-11 (Gravesend Flats) | 343° (NNW) | 328° — The Narrows (n03020), 1.5 nm | Confirmed as it was. 15° apart; the drift runs along the flood. |
| LB-10 (Gravesend deep edge) | 156° (SSE) | 328° — The Narrows (n03020), 1.3 nm | Corrected. 172° off the flood set — almost exactly opposite. The flood now starts at 40°35.360’N, 74°00.910’W. Bay Ridge west of and Gowanus agree. |
| LB-12 (Flynns west) | 185° (S) | 262° — Chapel Hill Ch. S End (NYH1902), 1.5 nm | Left alone deliberately. 77° off the set — the drift crosses the current rather than running along it, so current direction does not decide the start end. Every other nearby station gives the same ambiguous answer. Pick the end that keeps wind and current together and expect to crab. |
| LB-13 (Flynns east) | 172° (S) | 262° — Chapel Hill Ch. S End (NYH1902), 1.7 nm | Left alone deliberately. 90° off the set — the same crossing case as LB-12. |
| Romer (exploratory) | 293° (WNW) | 299° — Ambrose Channel (NYH1903), 1.5 nm | Confirmed as it was. 6° apart, the closest agreement of the six. |
The drift-line table above, the decimal waypoint labels and the map popups have all been brought into line with this. The A and B labels on the Romer pair still read counter-intuitively — that was always a naming quirk rather than an error, and the flood run itself was already correct.
The Fishing AI recomputes this on every request from live NOAA data rather than trusting the table, so if NOAA ever revises a station’s mean set the recommendation follows automatically. Where a line crosses the set it will say so rather than assert a start endpoint it cannot justify.
Station means are as published by NOAA CO-OPS and were re-verified against the live API on 23 August 2026. Note that Chapel Hill Channel South End sits about 1.5 nm from the Flynns lines and is oriented along a channel, which is part of why those two stay ambiguous.
Drift Waypoints — Decimal Coordinates
Tap any coordinate to copy it in lat, lon form, ready to paste into a plotter or phone.
Decimal coordinates for drift waypoints
| Waypoint | Decimal Coordinates |
|---|---|
| Bay Ridge Ebb Start | |
| Bay Ridge Flood Start | |
| Gravesend Flats Flood Start | |
| Gravesend Flats Ebb Start | |
| Gravesend Deep Ebb Start | |
| Gravesend Deep Flood Start | |
| Flynns West Flood Start | |
| Flynns West Ebb Start | |
| Flynns East Flood Start | |
| Flynns East Ebb Start | |
| Romer A | |
| Romer B |
Note on the Romer pair: in the drift-line table above, the flood run starts at Romer B (40.513667, −74.005000) and finishes at Romer A (40.515833, −74.011667) — the A/B labels do not run in the same order as the flood column. Names left exactly as curated; just don’t let the letters fool you on the water.
All twelve waypoints were checked against the degrees-and-decimal-minutes values in the drift-line table and agree to within one metre.
Interactive Map
Fishing reference only — not for navigation. The basemap is a general geographic basemap and shows no charted depths, aids to navigation or channel limits. Verify everything against current NOAA ENC data.
Where I Would Start
1. Bay Ridge Flats / Gowanus Flats
This remains the baseline fishing area. Look for the transition between approximately 8–20 foot flat water and substantially deeper channel water. Fish late flood → slack → first part of ebb.
Watch actual drift direction rather than assuming the boat will move exactly north/south based solely on the tide table.
2. Gravesend Bay
Particularly attractive because there are two complementary drifts: approximately 22-foot flats, and an approximately 30-foot outer/deeper edge.
A good progression is Gravesend Flats → deeper Gravesend edge → deeper water if the fish are not shallow. This makes it easy to determine whether the fluke are holding shallow or beginning to transition deeper.
3. Flynns / Chapel Hill
This may be one of the most interesting areas. There is approximately:
- 19-foot non-channel bottom on one side
- 25-foot non-channel bottom on the other
- deeper channel water between and around them
That creates the exact flat / edge / channel combination being targeted.
4. Romer Shoal
Treat Romer differently. The shoal is surrounded by significant navigation channels and strong currents. Make the first drift short.
Watch: actual boat track · current vector · commercial traffic · channel boundaries · depth · charted aids to navigation.
Do not blindly follow a fishing waypoint or drift line. Strong ebb currents around Ambrose/Swash can set a vessel toward Romer Shoal.
Seasonal Adjustment
General strategy rather than a fixed rule.
Earlier in the fluke season, spend more time investigating the shallower portions of flats. As summer progresses toward late August and September, increasingly investigate:
- edges of the flats
- 20–30 foot water
- drops and depressions
- channel edges
- transitions into 30–40+ foot water
Current Fluke Regulations
This page covers both New York and New Jersey waters. Regulations are deliberately not baked in as permanent content — always open the official state page before you keep a fish.
New York
Summer flounder (fluke)
Minimum size: 19″ (May 4 – Aug 1) · 19.5″ (Aug 2 – Oct 15)
Possession limit: 3 fish per day
Season: May 4 – Oct 15
Retrieved from NYSDEC on 22 Aug 2026. NYSDEC is the authority; this snapshot is not.
NYSDEC regulations →New Jersey
Summer flounder (fluke)
NJDEP Fish & Wildlife publishes the current size, bag limit and season dates on its Marine Seasons & Regulations page. Those figures are deliberately not reproduced here — the NJDEP site could not be read reliably by machine, and a wrong number on this page is worse than no number.
Open the official page before keeping fish in NJ waters — including Raritan Bay and the Sandy Hook side.
NJDEP regulations →Sources
NOAA
- U.S. Coast Pilot 2 — Chapter 11 (edition dated 16 AUG 2026). Descriptive and navigation information for Bay Ridge Flats, Gowanus Flats, Jersey Flats, Bay Ridge Channel, Red Hook Channel, Gravesend, Romer Shoal, Flynns Knoll, Ambrose Channel, Swash Channel and the surrounding harbor geography. The link points at the current published edition rather than a stored copy.
- NOAA Electronic Navigational Charts (ENC). The authority for charted features, aids to navigation, depths, channel boundaries and shoaling. Curated fishing waypoints on this page are not auto-adjusted when a chart changes; a discrepancy is flagged for review instead.
- NOAA CO-OPS — New York & New Jersey Operational Forecast System (NYOFS). Model nowcast and forecast guidance for harbor locations including Bay Ridge Channel, The Narrows, Fort Wadsworth, Sandy Hook, South Amboy and The Battery. NYOFS distributes gridded output through THREDDS/NetCDF rather than a browser-friendly API, so this page links to the NYOFS station pages and takes its numeric values from the CO-OPS API instead.
- NOAA CO-OPS Data Retrieval API. Machine-readable tide predictions and current predictions — slack, maximum flood, maximum ebb, speed and set. This is the live source for the panel at the top of the page.
- NOAA station 8517942 — Fort Hamilton, The Narrows, NY (40.6083, −74.0350). Default tide reference for the Bay Ridge / Gravesend area. Alternates offered: 8518750 The Battery, 8531680 Sandy Hook.
- Current prediction stations used: ACT3621 Bay Ridge, west of · n03020 The Narrows (NY/NJ Harbor PORTS) · NYH1917 Gowanus Bay Entrance · NYH1903 Ambrose Channel · NYH1902 Chapel Hill Channel, South End · NYH1904 Rockaway Inlet Jetty, 1 nm SW of. The NYH19xx stations come from the NOAA New York Harbor Current Survey 2017–2019.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
- USACE New York District — Aquatic Biological Survey, 2009 report and the 2010 report, part of the NY & NJ Harbor Program’s biological and physical monitoring. Source of the SB-3, LB-10, LB-11, LB-12 and LB-13 sampling transects.
- Interpretation note. Those USACE transects were converted into potential fishing drift lines here. USACE did not label them “fluke drifts” and published no recreational fishing guidance of any kind.
- USACE New York District — controlling depth reports and channel surveys. Use the current reports when describing federally maintained channels. A depth listed years ago should not be assumed current.
Regulations
What refreshes on its own, and what does not
Retrieved live, every time the page loads: tide predictions, current predictions, slack / maximum flood / maximum ebb times, current speed and set — all from the NOAA CO-OPS API, with the station named and the retrieval time stamped.
Never changed automatically: fishing area reference waypoints, USACE-derived drift endpoints, priority ratings, and fishing strategy. These are curated. If an authoritative NOAA chart or USACE survey ever appears to conflict materially with one of them, the conflict gets flagged for review — as in the drift-direction review notes above — rather than quietly rewriting the coordinates.
Fishing and Navigation Disclaimer
The coordinates, drift lines, depths and fishing recommendations on this page are personal fishing references and are not intended for navigation. Shoaling, dredging, currents, aids to navigation, channel boundaries and depths can change. Always use current NOAA charts/ENC data, current USCG navigation information, onboard navigation equipment and prudent seamanship when operating the vessel. Never follow a fishing drift line blindly into a navigation channel, shoal, obstruction or vessel traffic.