[Adrenalinerush]

In the alpine area you will catch just about everything, eels, perch, catfish, stripers. Herring are traditionally the bait of choice higher up in the river near Kingston for some really big stripers. In the area your looking to fish I would try bunker chunks, you can also fish sand or blood worms as well although they get expensive. Tide plays a factor but you have to mess around and see what tide produces for the area you are fishing. For the catfish and perch the tide really won't matter much but the stripers can be very tide sensitive. I think you will be fine with a medium weight outfit to start. If you have a 6'-7' medium action rod and a reel with 15-20 pound test that is more than enough for most of what you are going to catch. You can actually go a little lighter than that for the rod you are going to fish, 10-12 pound test if you want. You can use a fish finder rig which I think would work best but you can also used fixed weight and you will be fine. Experiment and have fun!