What is your recommended strategy for fishing bass on the hudson river?

Once the spawn begins, the trickier thing might be to put your line in the water and NOT catch a striper if you are on the Hudson River! The fish start making an appearance about the end of March and the fishing will be fine throughout the beginning of June. Once you find potential hot spots, you really do have a lot of choices when it comes to fishing for bass on the Hudson River. If you can locate spots where smaller bait fish such as herring tend to congregate, you will have found the spots the striper will be. Many times if you look to the inlet areas where smaller tributaries join the river, you will find prime waters for the bait fish on which the striper flourish. You can fish from a boat or from the shore, as long as you find the areas where the bait fish are present. When you are fishing from the shore, concentrate on areas in which the water is no more than five feet at low tide. These areas warm more quickly, so in early spring they are especially good areas from which to fish. The bait of choice would, of course, be small chunks of herring, or better yet, small, live herring. If you want to fish with live blood or sand worms, early in the season is the prime time for these baits, and be generous with the presentation. Cover the entire hook. Use one or even two if you need to, and leave a generous portion dangling from the hook. The biggest advantage to fishing from a boat is the ability to move around the water looking for large schools of striper or bait fish. Live eels are a good bait choice once you locate these rich areas. Just hook the eel through his lip, and let him swim around to attach the bass. If you like trolling, consider any one of a large number of lures, remembering to use things similar to the natural bait on which the striper normally feed.