You probably won’t tweet about it, but Brooklyn is packed with parks, fields, piers, and promenades for good-old-fashioned summer fun. Whether you want to spend a lazy afternoon casting fishing lines or a few hours throwing a frisbee with friends — or if you’re more the type to just go fly a kite — the borough is big and it can accommodate your recreational whims. Here’s your guide to all the best spots for the season.
FISHING
Canarsie Pier
Anglers have been hooked on this year-round park for three centuries. Be warned, though—the spot heats up in the summer, and finding a place to set up with your rod and tackle box can border on impossible.
[1 Aviation Road, at the end of Rockaway Parkway and near the entrance to the Shore Parkway in Canarsie, (718) 338–3799].
69th Street/American Veterans Memorial Pier
Fishers can admire the Manhattan skyline, the Statue of Liberty, and the Verrazano Bridge while waiting for a bite at this Bay Ridge jetty. Residents just ask—firmly—that you please pick up after yourself.
(At the corner Shore Road and Bay Ridge Avenue in Bay Ridge).
Gerritsen Avenue
At the tip of Brooklyn’s own seaside village of Gerritsen Beach, piscators pull fluke and horseshoe crabs and even rare sheepshead out of the waters of Sheepshead Bay.
(End of Gerritsen Avenue, past Lois Avenue in Gerritsen Beach).
Steeplechase Pier
Another all-time fisherman’s favorite, this Coney Island dock is a hot spot for tuna and stripers, not whitefish.
(Off the Boardwalk between Kensington Walk and West 19th Street in Coney Island).
Prospect Park Lake
One for the freshwater fishers out there, the lake has the largest concentration of largemouth bass in the state—but be ready to throw them back in: park rules require catch-and-release.
(In Prospect Park).
BASEBALL
Dyker Beach Park
Best known for its golf course, this South Brooklyn greenspace boasts 13 little league fields, including the Ben Vitale fields, which got lighting for night games last year.
(Along 14th Avenue in Bensonhurst).
Marine Park
The park on the marshes contains 22 diamonds of different sizes and surfaces—not to mention cricket fields, for all you Limeys out there.
(Along Gerritsen Avenue in Gerritsen Beach).
Canarsie Park
These 13 fields on either side of Paedergat Basin remain beloved by the community for their history, even though some of the overlapping outfields are a little rough.
(Along Bergen Avenue in Bergen Beach and Seaview Avenue in Canarsie).
Red Hook Recreation Area
More famous for its food vendors, the Red Hook Recreation Area’s nine baseball diamonds have seen their popularity increase over the past few years.
(Along Bay Street in Red Hook).
Prospect Park Parade Ground
Once a training area for Civil War troops, the Parade Ground now hosts General Doubleday’s brainchild on 10 different fields.
(Along Caton Avenue in Flatbush).
FRISBEE
Prospect Park Ballfields
These fields have become a popular location for pick-up games of Ultimate Frisbee, a sport that has more in common with football and rugby than the leisurely disc-toss you knew growing up.
(In Prospect Park).
Mount Prospect Park
Don’t worry—there’s still a place where you can still throw a frisbee the old-fashioned way: quieter, lesser known Mount Prospect Park, between Brooklyn Central Library and the Brooklyn Museum. It’s also home to the second highest point in Brooklyn and some impressive views.
(Along Eastern Parkway in Prospect Heights).
McCarren Park
The grass is worn thin in spots, sure, and you have to watch out for wayward soccer balls, but McCarren’s pastures remain a magnet for frisbee enthusiasts across the borough—leading to some epic cultural collisions.
(Along Lorimer Street in Williamsburg).
KITE-FLYING
Shore Parkway
The strong breezes along the promenade under the Belt Parkway have made it a favorite of aerial enthusiasts.
(Between 20th Avenue and Bay 19th Street in Bath Beach).
Brooklyn Bridge Park
This increasingly hot greenspace now has its own kite club, the DUMBO Kite Flying Society. Check it out at www.galapagosartspace.com/kids.html.
(Between Atlantic Avenue and Joralemon Street in DUMBO).
Plumb Beach
However you spell it, this isolated spot on the Rockaway Inlet is the perfect place to throw kites and caution to the wind.
(Off Exit Nine on the Belt Parkway in Gerritsen Beach).
Reach reporter Will Bredderman at (718) 260–4507 or e-mail him at wbredderman@cnglocal.com. https://twitter.com/#!/WillBredderman
