The Bayliner Trophy T24 CC Takes on New York Harbor

Twelve Hours, Five Species, One Boat

Some boats get tested on a calm lake on a Tuesday morning. The Bayliner Trophy T24 CC got tested against the Hudson River meeting the Atlantic, a summer heatwave, and twelve straight hours of fishing with Kevin Falvey — Editor-in-Chief of Boating Magazine and author of Falvey's Guide to Fishing Long Island — running the show. The result was less a product demo and more a day-long stress test through some of the most storied (and unpredictable) water on the East Coast, with the Statue of Liberty, the Verrazzano Narrows, and Coney Island's amusement park serving as the backdrop.

First Stop: Where the Hudson Meets the Atlantic

The day started at the confluence of the Hudson River and the open Atlantic, right where tidal current, harbor chop, and a punishing heatwave collided. Falvey worked the channel edge with topwater plugs and deep jigs, hunting striped bass and bluefish near the Statue of Liberty. The fish stayed quiet on this stretch, but the boat didn't miss a beat — three anglers had room to cast, jig, and move around the cockpit without tangling lines or elbows, confirming the T24 CC's broad cockpit layout does exactly what it's designed to do even before a single fish hits the deck.

The Narrows Deliver: Fluke on the Bottom

South of the Verrazzano Narrows, in roughly 80 feet of water, the T24 CC settled into a different rhythm entirely: patient bottom fishing for fluke, or summer flounder, over a stretch of water known to hold them. The switch from active casting to precise bottom work is where a boat's handling either helps or gets in the way, and the Trophy's Mercury outboard held position with the kind of quiet, controlled maneuverability that made staying on the spot look easy. The result was a solid catch of fluke, right on schedule.

Coney Island Flats: Reading the Water Pays Off

A short run brought the boat to the jetties off Coney Island Flats, where scour holes carved out near the jetty tips have a way of stacking up fish. Casting tight to structure here turned into a full-on bluefish blitz, complete with birds diving on bait from above. It's a textbook example of how habitat features — not just luck — drive where fish show up, and the T24 CC's casting platform put anglers in position to capitalize the moment the blitz broke.

Run and Gun Along the Rockaways

From there, the day shifted into "run and gun" mode along Rockaway Beach and Jacob Riis Park, where massive schools of menhaden (bunker, to locals) had moved in. Falvey used the live bunker as bait to draw in striped bass, bluefish, and cobia cruising the beachfront. This style of fishing lives and dies on two things: how fast a boat can relocate to a fresh school, and how well it keeps bait alive in the meantime. With a livewell at the transom and another beneath the leaning post, the T24 CC kept bait healthy and ready while its speed and handling supported the constant repositioning that run-and-gun fishing demands — and it paid off with predator fish in the box.

Offshore Reefs Built From Subway Cars

The final stretch of the day headed offshore to artificial reefs made from retired New York City subway cars, now serving as structure for sea bass and fluke. Drift fishing here is as much about comfort as it is about technique, since anglers spend hours standing and bracing against ocean swell. The T24 CC's thigh-high combing bolsters kept the crew stable and supported through repeated drifts, and the boat delivered several solid catches of sea bass and fluke to close out a 12-hour day that had covered nearly every fishing style on the books — jigging, bottom fishing, live baiting, and casting — without a single change of boats.

What the Day Proved About the Trophy T24 CC

By the time the sun started dropping behind the Manhattan skyline, the T24 CC had been asked to do a lot: handle rough harbor chop and open Atlantic swell, support three anglers fishing four completely different techniques, keep bait alive across multiple stops, and hold position precisely enough for bottom fishing in 80 feet of water. It did all of it in a single outing, backed by a spacious cockpit, dual live wells, a stable casting platform, and a Mercury outboard that stayed quiet and responsive from the harbor to the open ocean.

Dolphins made an appearance along the way too — a reminder that this harbor, for all its industrial backdrop and heavy boat traffic, is a genuinely healthy fishery. Between the landmarks, the conditions, and the five species that ended up on deck, it's easy to see why anglers who want to switch between fishing styles on the fly keep coming back to a center console boat built to keep up with them.