Hempstead Lake Fishing Guide, Nassau County, New York

• Overview

  Hempstead Lake is set in Nassau County, New York. The surface lies 7 feet up. With some 132 acres of water, there is room for a boat but no need of one. The bank runs about 2.0 miles all the way round, so one visit can cover most of it. It is the biggest water on our Nassau County list. Some 0.6 miles away sits Lakeview, the nearest settlement. After that come Rockville Centre at 1.2 miles and Malverne at 1.6 miles. A border sits close enough to be relevant to the paperwork.

• Where to Fish on Hempstead Lake

  Our records give 10 ft, so you have a figure to work from. Held water runs deepest at the wall and shallows back to the inflow. Points where the flooded channel swings in are the reliable ones. Across Nassau County, recorded fish include common carp, pumpkinseed, largemouth bass and bluegill. Protected fish appear in the records for this area, so treat the list as information, not an invitation. Hempstead Lake gives up more to patience than to distance.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Averages here run 75°F at the top of summer and 31°F at the bottom of winter. A lid forms in a hard winter only. Cover comes and goes, so treat it with suspicion rather than trust. February into May fishes hardest as the water warms. The season on Hempstead Lake follows the weather closely.

• Tackle & Baits

  It is marked public, so anyone may fish it. There is a car park half a mile from the bank. There is a jetty 150 yards off, worth knowing on a busy day. Mapping marks a fishing place roughly half a mile off. A rest area sits about half a mile from the water. Mapping records toilets within half a mile. Gates get locked out of season on water like this. A polite question at the farm gate opens more banks than anything else. McDonald Pond sits 0.3 miles off and takes the overflow. What applies at Hempstead Lake may have changed since it was mapped.