Welcome to the site and Happy Birthday!
I'm not familiar with fishing NY, but I would bet there are lots of good areas with the amount of shoreline you have down there. Like Bigfish said, check around online, read some books and look into joining a club. Once you have found some spots, you'll be well prepared to catch fish with the information you get here. If you ask any questions about gear, techniques, etc... you'll get more information here than you could get on your own in a lifetime.