Hackensack river advice

[tunanut]

Signed up the family for the fishing derby Sunday at laurel park in secaucus. Never fished the river before. I think there are perch and stripers? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

[AndyS]

It's a small but newly built dock. The most I have seen caught in that area is White Perch. I guess a high/low rig with some sort of bait, clams ?

[tunanut]

Thanks will give it a try

[hooks40]

Think White Perch. Bring enough weight to hold in a moving tide. worms. clams...etc

[tunanut]

I’ve got Fresh water tackle, 6, 8 and 12lb test. Should I break out heavier salt tackle, 20lb test?

[AndyS]

Light line you can go with less weight. 12 lb. test is more than enough.

[FASTEDDIE29]

Yes there’s white perch. You can get them on mister twisters and small plastics. I’d watch out for Sturgeon if I were you, just sayin!!!

[tunanut]

We got there really late. Thought it ended at 4 and we got there at 3. It was ending as we got there. They had a good turnout. Had over100 white perch. Some eels, a tiny striped, some oystercatchers, and some very small snappers blues about 8 inches long. Ride was still coming in when we got there, but changed after about 40 minutes. We got no bites but people near us caught an eel, and a couple of those tiny blues. Very nice pier. We will be back in a few weeks to try again

[AndyS]

I think the Hackensack Riverkeeper had giveaways for the kids ?
Crazy mixed bag in that river !

[tunanut]

Yes they had prizes but we got there at the end We still had fun, and will go back in a few weeks when the weather changes a bit and see what we can get. We also saw some blue claws swim by with the outgoing tide. Fun to catch some, and release.

[acabtp]

We also saw some blue claws swim by with the outgoing tide. Fun to catch some, and release.
just FYI the mud all through there is pretty badly contaminated with PCBs and dioxin so blue claws are closed to fishing (there is no catch & release exemption)
https://www.state.nj.us/dep/dsr/crab-outreach/alert-english.htm

https://www.state.nj.us/dep/dsr/crab-outreach/title-red.gif

[tunanut]

Wow, I didn’t realize you weren’t even allowed to catch them for fun! We knew that nothing was safe for consumption.