It was a good day in, and near, Raritan Bay for those seeking both fluke and striped bass. That was especially the case for Capt. John Kolias on his Reel Fun from Twin Lights Marina in Highlands. He had a very tough day of fluking on Monday for the Caputo party despite running all over -- even to the Rockaways. Yet, the same spots produced plenty of fluke today. There were lots of shorts and enough keepers to satisfy the Brandli party. They had hot action in Ambrose Channel, especially with snapper blues as bait. Kolias said they could have limited the four-man party if the fleet hadn't moved in in him. Capt. Stan Zagleski also did very well with his Elaine B from twin Lights, but he moved out to the ocean. Dominick Marcantonio of East Hanover won the pool with a 6 7/16-pound fluke. The Golden Eagle from Belmar reported a good catch of 12-to-15-pound blues on both bait and jigs. I joined Chuck Many of Annandale, along with surf pro Chris Buchta of Toms River, on Ty Man from Gateway Marina in Highlands. Buchta only needed one cast net throw on peanut bunkers and another on adults to load the live well, but we never did much drifting live baits. Chunking produced most of our releases, as we ended up at 11 stripers (about half shorts) up to a 26-pounder by Buchta. Gene Graman of Middletown was also chunking for stripers from his That's It out of Twin Lights with Joe Greco of Fort Myers, Fl. (formerly of Edison), and they each chunked two bass up to a 32-incher. Bluefish were a problem for us, and they ranged from 2 pounds up to one of about 8 pounds. Surprisingly, for the first rime in many trips, we never caught a single dogfish. The only unusual catch was my 19 1/2-inch fluke on a live bunker at anchor. Not a great day by Many's standards, but pretty good for late August! Allen Riley of South Plainfield tried the Monmouth Beach surf and did nothing on lures in a large surf -- though there was no weed problem there. The worst of the swell from the offshore hurricane is due Wednesday afternoon, and there are even small craft warnings for the swell posted at that time. Of course, that won't be a problem n the bay -- if it's a problem anywhere except  inlets on an outgoing tide.