It was a beautiful day on the waters today, even though a wind shift made it feel cooler in the middle of the day than early and late. I joined Nellie Greer of Bethlehem Pa. to fish with Chuck Many of Annandale on his Ty Man from Gateway Marina in Highlands. After loading up with bunkers, we drifted in the mouth of Raritan Bay to release four large stripers on live bunkers while missing others -- but not catching any of the bluefish we saw chunkers battling with. When that fishing died, Many checked the back of the bay. We did nothing there, so he ran down to Shrewsbury Rocks where he released another bass that hit his live bunker on the surface. Bryne Pieros was out there also with his crew on Daylighter from Belmar and caught several bass on top with bunkers. Many ended up running back north to anchor near Ambrose Channel, where chunking provided steady action on the ebb. We brought the release count up to 11 legal stripers, and finally had to deal with bluefish that ranged from only about 3 pounds up to my fat jumbo that pulled the Boga Grip to 15 pounds before being released.  On the way to the Rocks we came across a concentration of every ocean party boat from Brooklyn to Point Pleasant around Sandy Hook Reef. They were jigging a few blues at the time, but must have been doing much better earlier.  Bob Matthews, at Fisherman's Den in Belmar Marina, reports some big stripers up to 35 pounds were trolled to the north on bunker spoons and Stretch plugs. Many party boats will be seeking sea bass on Monday's opening day for that species. Matthews noted that there are lots of fluke in Shark River for Friday's season opener. Anglers released many today, confirming that most fluke had avoided running out of oxygen during Monday's bunker die-off there. Capt. Dave De Gennaro finally got into big bass trolling bunker spoons with his Hi-Flier out of Barnegat. He only missed four hits on the morning charter, but boated bass of 25, 30 and 35 pounds in two hours of afternoon trolling with Tony Maja bunker spoons in white and chartreuse in 60 feet, 5 to 7 miles north of Barnegat Inlet.  Then he finished up inside the inlet with light tackle casting to 3-to-4-pound blues. Check here tomorrow for contest results.