Looks like you can. From dec site:
(b) Except as provided for in subdivisions (c) and (d) of this section, the following fish, or parts thereof, provided they meet the fish health inspection requirements as contained in Part 188 of this Title, shall not be used as bait for fishing except in the waters and their tributaries up to the first barrier impassable by fish as identified in this subdivision:
(1) Alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus): Canandaigua Lake; Cannonsville Reservoir; Cayuga Lake; Cayuta Lake; Conesus Lake; Hemlock Lake; Canadice Lake; Waneta Lake; Hudson River downstream from the Federal Dam at Troy to the Battery at the southern tip of Manhattan Island; Keuka Lake; Otsego Lake; Otisco Lake; Owasco Lake; Lake Ontario; Lake Erie; Lamoka Lake; Pepacton Reservoir; Seneca Lake; St. Lawrence River; Niagara River; Mohawk River; and all waters in Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster and Westchester Counties).
(2) Rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax): Canandaigua Lake; Cayuga Lake; Cayuta Lake; Hemlock Lake; Canadice Lake; Honeoye Lake; Conesus Lake; First, Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Lakes of the Fulton Chain; Keuka Lake; Owasco Lake; Lake Champlain; Lamoka Lake; Lake Ontario; Lake Erie; Seneca Lake; Star Lake (St. Lawrence County); Waneta Lake; the St. Lawrence River; and the Niagara River.
(3) Mummichog (Fundulus heteroclitus): Hudson River downstream from the Federal Dam at Troy to the Battery at the southern tip of Manhattan Island; and all waters in Nassau and Suffolk Counties.
(4) Blueback herring (Alosa aestivalis) and Atlantic menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus): Hudson River downstream from the Federal Dam at Troy to the Battery at the southern tip of Manhattan Island; and the Mohawk River.
(5) American eel (Anguilla rostrata): Delaware River, 6 inch minimum size limit; and the Hudson River downstream from the Federal Dam at Troy to the Battery at the southern tip of Manhattan Island, between 6 and 14 inches.
