Did you know that back issues (2019 & 2020 only) of River Views, the monthly newsletter of the HRFA, are available for all to enjoy on our website? Click here, or the River Views banner, to go directly there and catch up on your reading.

We start with Fund for a Better Waterfront's November 12 on-line auction announcement. That's followed by two articles on access related issues: 1) Hudson River and 2) Sandy Hook. Then an article on striped bass migration.

Our next event will be November 7 when we return to fish off the Castle Point T-Pier in Hoboken.

We share the latest post from THE HRFA's Instagram page. The That's Entertainment section covers how the Village of Piermont is prepping for anticipated sea-level rise. Under that same heading we share an article from The Fisherman magazine's update on the stripers carrying the satellite tags from Gray Fish Tag Research. If you purchased a 3R sticker to compete in the HRFA's Calcutta portion of the Catch & Release Striped Bass Derby this past Spring you contributed to fund that project. It's a VERY interesting read.

You have to see the photographs and read Carl Bruger's column for the month. He is catching some super-sized salmon up on The East Side of Lake Ontario.

What remains are the HRFA Photo Galley, Pete Musse's "From Fish to Dish" column, the HRFA calendar etc. from our Membership Chair, Arnie Ulrich, an appeal from a college student to complete the "Hudson River Angler Questionnaire" and more.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The full version of River Views is for members only. HRFA Members, if your emailed copy of River Views ends abruptly look for this quote "[Message clipped]  "View entire message" at the bottom of the page. Clicking there will open up the full issue.

You may be surprised that the recreational activity of "fishing" is not an available option on their survey. I suggest you take the survey and select "Other" and specify "Fishing" every chance you get. Fishermen are people too. Just saying. Click here to take the 5 minute survey. Lets make our voices heard. Or be closed out of one more shore line.

The False Hook area at Sandy Hook, NJ has been closed effective October 1^st, 2020 for the Army Corps of Engineers to dredge sand from that location. This closure has completely cut off surf fishing access to the northern end of Sandy Hook just as Striped Bass, False Albacore, and Bluefish exit Raritan Bay on their southerly migration.  In addition to fish leaving Raritan Bay, Striped Bass, False Albacore, and Bluefish are migrating south from the Hudson River, Long Island and New England. The unique geography and location of Sandy Hook places all of these fish close to shore and, coupled with the presence of large schools of migrating forage fish, makes the fall of the best times of the year to fish at Sandy Hook. 

This article was found and submitted by Alfred White for fellow HRFA members.

Be sure to check out the H.R.F.A. Events Calendar below for this month's member birthday notices, holidays and events.

Do you have a favorite fishing related video(s) that you would like to share with members? If so, send them to editorriverviews@thehrfa.org. PG rated only please. Okay, if you insist, maybe we can accept PG-13 too. But that's it. Okay, maybe ...

The Village of Piermont is located at the confluence of the Hudson River and Sparkill Creek presenting significant flood risk and vulnerability to sea-level rise. Hurricanes Irene and Lee, in 2011, and Superstorm Sandy, in 2012, severely damaged its waterfront homes, businesses, and marinas. To address Piermont’s coastal flood risk, DEC’s Estuary Program, Scenic Hudson, and the Consensus Building Institute (CBI) helped the Village develop a resilience action plan. Click HERE to continue reading.

If you competed in the HRFA Striped Bass Catch & Release Derby this spring and also purchased The Fisherman magazine's 3R stamp to enter the Calcutta you made a donation to our club and helped fund a satellite tagging study of striped bass conducted by Gray Tag Fish Research. The following article is an update on the migration of tagged stripers nicknamed Cora and Rona (tagged this year) and Freedom and Liberty (tagged last year).

Carl Bruger has been a writer for this newsletter educating and entertaining us who read River Views for a long time. Here is his latest gem. Perfectly timed to get you through these trying times of "social distancing" necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

2020 has been an abysmal year because of the Covid and economic chaos but this angler and others have found solace in the greatest salmon season in years! Beginning in September those “finaddicts” with acute salmon fever were able to load up on early run kings and Cohoes on the three ESLO (East Side of Lake Ontario) big rivers, The Oswego, Salmon and my “home” stream” the Black.

The problems were the masses of humanity that mobbed the shorelines to catch these fish in such limited spaces while there was an extreme drought everywhere else. That crowded pushy mayhem was no longer my style.

Secondary streams were trickles and tertiary creeks were dry gulches until the last week of September. We saw rainfall that never stopped falling at least every other day all through October. My rain gage showed nine inches and some drainages in the Tug Hill got more so the runs were on everywhere by early to mid October. As of this entry I can report landing 29 kings, one more than all of last year, and I still have a week before we head back to Jersey for the winter. 5 fillets made the freezer to eventually enter the crock and then the smoker for my annual hickory smoked salmon, but the best stories come from the folks I fished with and those ”newbies” I gave gear to and introduced to the sport of salmon fishing.

Wayne Geider and Al Miller made the trek up from Jersey in Al’s sumptuous van at the perfect time to partake of the peak run. We targeted “Heaven,” our code name for that perfection in piscatorial paradise boringly labeled Mill Creek on all the local maps. The rains had the waters running high and it was so full of fish that, as we sat to observe the fish working their way upstream two swam right by where Wayne and I were sitting on a ledge rock. We both dropped our nurple flies in front of the fish in the fast current and miraculously hooked up!

My fish got off soon after, but Wayne masterfully battled his mouth hooked hen king of well over twenty plus pounds into my net. Geider merely added to his expanding legend on Mill Creek because a few years ago under perfect conditions he limited out in under an hour with three mouth hooked Chinooks in under an hour! Find me any other guys over 80 who can do stuff like that! Al Miller was a salmon “newbie” who went home with trophy fish each day because he fought the kings he hooked perfectly to net. For a man who had never fished for salmon before you could tell that he used his salt water skills to beat the salmon as he skillfully played the fish in the rapids and landed exactly what he came north for! Those two HRFA men went home with a stuffed cooler and it sure wasn’t ice.

We have met many folks who want to learn to salmon fish and so far this year I have given out 7 salmon rods and reels to veterans, wounded warriors, soldiers, kids and first responders (a new category).

The two best stories are about Cynthia plus Jake and Hanna. Cynthia, an African/American woman in her thirties drove up to us in the parking lot and had the guts to ask to learn to fish from three octogenarians. To make the story short, I equipped her with my late son Pete’s old waders and boots because she was not small and put a rod and reel in her hands that she had never held before. I let her practice fighting salmon on my rod so she could feel their strength and learn how to turn the reel handle, fight the fish, hold the rod up high, pump and crank to gain when the fish tired, etc. The lost fish got her ready for the big test. Fifteen minutes after she started casting her own rod with the nurple and one split shot she hooked a 22 pound female right at the tip of the jaw and landed the fish after a 10 minute battle, easing it like a pro right into my net! We are now friends for life and my wife is “friending” her on the computer.

Jake, a fort Drum soldier, was fishing with a broken tipped rod using a center pin drift rig he read about from Oregon! I suggested he head back to my car were I presented him with a new salmon rod and reel plus the basic nurple and split shot presentation technique. He hooked a monstrous hen in the tail that jumped several times and Cynthia got some on film. After he landed the monster of over forty inches I told him it should be released because it was foul hooked and he was a great sport and after a quick picture eased the Graff Zeppelin of a fish back into the water so she could spawn. I gave him a 22 pound fish that I had legally caught earlier so he could bring home a catch to prove to his wife what he had done. The next day Hanna, the spouse, was there asking me if I could teach her to fish so I ran back to the car and gave out that 7 th rod.

  Currently there is $34.00 HRFA free dollars sitting in the jar for the next HRFA Meeting, whenever that will be.  

 There are no new HRFA members this month. Don't forget Thre are plenty of school Stripers back in our local Hackensack and Passaic Rivers. The go to lure is the Storm Wild Eye.

HRFA Membership Information

For those people who join(ed) the HRFA in October (or later) of a given year, their new or renewal membership also is covered for the following new year. There is also a generous grace period for those who are unable to update their membership in January, however paying your dues late puts a strain on the records maintenance and consequently the ability of the executive board’s planning of activities and events.

If you have any questions, suggestions, or want to help (time, skills, or financially) on any particular club projects or events, feel free to email me, Arnie Ulrich (kavester@aol.com) or call me at 1-201-304-4691.

Have a photograph and/or fishing story you would like to share with the club? If so, we'd love to hear from you. After all, no one wants to see the same members over and over again. Email it to editorriverviews@thehrfa.org and we will do our very best to squeeze it into an upcoming issue of River Views.

On Sunday October 11 the HRFA had its first intra-club surf day "derby" & beach BBQ. Meeting together by the fishermen's walkway on IBSP were members Dan & Eileen Harrison, Pete & Michele Musse, Sandy & Dee Federico, Mona Mak and Joe Albanese. Dan Blakely and Tim Burden made brief cameo appearances as well.

Early morning Joe Albanese caught the one and only fish of the event. It was a 14" fluke that hit a small 1/2 oz. Acme Kastmaster in the wash. Joe won a Tsunami Trophy Series surf rod. Everyone who attended selected items donated to the club by Past HRFA President Rick Englesbe. Thanks Rick!

It was a beautiful weather day early in the morning. Luckily, we moved up the start of the BBQ as the weather was rapidly getting worse. Gusts up to 35mph from the NE ended the day earlier than hoped. Joe stayed until 3 PM catching another undersized and out-of-season fluke before calling it a day. This one hit a bigger 2 oz. Kastmaster.

No one took a photo Oct 11. So, we share this one taken by Joe Albanese the following weekend. This predator fluke hit a Mag Darter, intended for stripers, that is almost 1/3 its size.

Scott Havner was filling his live well with super-delicious walleye and crappies for the dinner table.

Recipe No. 1

By Wayne Geider

Currently, due to the CV19 pandemic, there are no planned outings.

Just call Youth Angler Program Chair Wayne Geider at

Due to the restrictions imposed on our lives by the CV19 pandemic our plans are on hold. We hope and pray that in the Spring of 2021 volunteers may start working to refurbish Riverkeeper to her former days of glory when she was the world's first and only riverkeeper vessel. To offer your time and talents contact Dan Harrison at dharrison@cdtresources.com.

The HRFA hosts an annual fishing contest which runs from January through December and is open to all HRFA members. You have 30 days from the day you catch a fish to send in your entries. So, the deadline for submissions is January. As a member of the HRFA you and your immediate family are eligible to enter fish in any of our categories. Various divisions are available for prizes presented at our Annual Awards Dinner in March of the following year. Website updated daily. River Views newsletter updates below are done around the first the month. * indicates a new club record.