Watching strikes on popping plugs may be the most exciting thing in fishing, and you don't have to travel to exotic locations to experience those thrills. With a little bit of luck it's possible to catch stripers, blues and even tuna on poppers from our rivers, bays and surf out to canyon waters -- and fall is a prime time for that sport. Timing is everything when it comes to catching fish on poppers. While it may be possible to raise a non-feeding fish to the commotion of a popper, by far your best bet is to cast to actively feeding predators. Whereas it's usually important to "match the hatch" with other lures, feeding predators can often be attracted to the noise and splashing of a popper even when it doesn't match the size of the prey. That was the case Wednesday morning when I joined Chuck Many of Annandale for a trip up the Hudson River for stripers and weakfish in his Ty Man from Gateway Marina in Highlands.  We weren't very far up the river before scattered breaks were spotted. I was ready with a large white pencil popper that was rigged for blues with no belly treble and just a large single hook at the rear. Many said he saw some small rainfish pushed out by one of the breaking fish, and I joked that my big pencil popper was a "perfect" imitation of those tiny bait fish as blues blasted the plug on almost every cast into open waters even when they weren't showing.   Most of the choppers were in the 2 1/2-to-4-pound class, with only a few larger blues up to about 8 pounds as I released 24 in about an hour or so of steady action. There was no concentration of blues and no bird action, but they sure wanted that popper cast with my 8-foot, 8-inch Tsunami TSRWESS882M Air Wave Elite spinning rod with a Canyon 5000 reel and 30-pound braid. Many briefly tried casting a Deadly Dick which should have been a good imitation of the small bait, but got no hits on it. With just the single rear hook, it was easy for Many to grab the plug and safely unhook and release the blues in seconds with skills acquired in mating decades ago on the Cock Robin from Point Pleasant. As the current was slacking and the bite slowed, my last fish casting was a 23-inch striper that also hit the big popper. There have been a few other occasions when poppers have worked when bass and blues were feeding on tiny rainfish which couldn't be duplicated even with a fly. On the day before Sandy, Tom Morford Jr. found schools of tiny rainfish showing up as purple patches off Long Branch with birds dipping on them. Since I had a pencil popper on my rod, I cast it anyway and was amazed to watch large blues and bass fighting for it. Though I've several times hooked two blues on the same plug, I released a doubleheader of a striper and a blue on the popper for the first time that day as we got great hits from unseen bass and blues at every patch of rainfish spotted. Of course, popping plugs work best when bass or blues are blasting larger bait fish such as sand eels, mullet and peanut bunkers. Surfcasters should be getting into surface action now with movements of mullet along the surf, but conditions have been poor for that fishing so far due to the big swells on the beaches pushed in by successive offshore hurricanes. The long swell doesn't seem to have hurt bottom fishing, with porgies biting as well as before the storms and even blackfish responding in 20-to-25-foot depths. Tank Matraxia of Lyndhurst set a personal record with a 9 1/2-pound blackfish that he caught while fishing Tuesday with Capt. John Contello on Just Sayin' from Keyport. His party had good tog action despite the swell, and Matraxia also put ALS tags in eight blacks and two sea bass. That swell also wasn't a problem Sunday when I fished with Jim Peters of Manalapan on his Century 32 from Morgan Marina along with Capt. Joe Massa and Bob Correll of Bay Head.  We had started eeling in the Hudson River, where Massa caught a couple of very small stripers before we hooked four more "eel-size" bass up to 33 inches. As the current died, Peters made a fast run south to Shrewsbury Rocks where the only problem was the small sea bass eating our green crabs rather than the swell. Yet, we limited on tog up to a 6 1/2-pounder by Massa which had several fairly large stones in its stomach. I released the only grey triggerfish. Tim Dolan was upriver in the Hudson early Wednesday morning to boat a 32-inch striper before jigging some blues at East Bank on his 23 Parker from Elco Marina in Bayonne. He said there had been good casting for little tunny last week off Norton's Point, but there was no sign of them Wednesday. Joe Melillo, of Castaways Tackle in Point Pleasant said he and his son Joe hooked stripers up to 32 inches while casting shads in Point Pleasant Canal Wednesday evening. Blackfishing has been good in the canal on green crabs, though I've been taking a beating from all the tiny sea bass while fishing with sandworms. Yet, I have released quite a few tog up to a 15-incher. The Golden Eagle from Belmar had the best party boat canyon tuna trip so far on Tuesday as tuna bit for three hours. They boated 20 yellowfins up to 100 pounds plus a couple of albacore and a swordfish. Dolphins were spotted, but only a few caught. The Jamaica from Brielle had three tuna right away on Sunday's canyon trip, but then they lost several plus two swords and a mako. Capt. Howard Bogan marked tuna under the boat all night and expected a sunrise bite. Instead, the fish disappeared. He started catching dolphin, but spotted yellowfins jumping that wouldn't bite -- though Bogan said that was the best sign for the future he's seen do far. The Queen Mary from Point Pleasant mad its first Mud Hole tuna trip on Tuesday. There was lots of action, but no tuna. Jim Steel won the pool with a large skipjack, and there were lots of bonito and chub mackerel plus some little tunny.