Who could have predicted that our best bluefishing of the year would have occurred in December? The El Nino weather pattern in the Pacific tends to produce mild weather in the northeast, and that has certainly been the case this month. As a result, water temperatures have remained relatively high at 52 to 53 degrees, and the best run of sea herring in years is holding large quantities of sea herring for stripers and blues to feed on. It's a shame that most boaters have been forced by their marinas to take their boats out, as this fishing has been among the best of the year. Most party boats didn't sail today due to the rainy forecast, but last week's great fishing continued after a strange drop off on Sunday despite no change in conditions. I joined Mark Roy of Warren last Friday and Saturday for action as good as could be wished for for, his 31-foot Century out of Raritan Marina. It was all big blues on Friday, but when we started casting poppers, along with Fred Cianfrone of Bogota, it was small stripers that were attacking the large lures. I did find one over 28 inches, but most were much smaller -- before the blues took over. We stayed with the casting for great surface thrills such I'd never experienced before in December. I doubt if any of the choppers were under 10 pounds, and all were pot-bellied and spitting out the large herring that birds were also picking off the surface. We didn't bother jigging, which would have been even more effective, but not as much sport.  Though the lack of fast action Sunday was a concern, everything soon returned to normal for the few boats that got out this week. Northern surfcasters also got in on the action at Sea Bright the last two days with a mixture of mostly jumbo blues plus school stripers that were being caught Friday in a driving rain and southeast wind.  Though surfcasting along the Shore has been generally very picky, there have been some hot periods at Island Beach State Park. Offshore bottom fishing has been exceptionally good, with limits of jumbo sea bass being common, along with big porgies and the best fall run of cod in memory. Bob Matthews reports from Fisherman's Den in Belmar Marina that blackfishing has also been very good -- with limits being common for those using whitelegger crabs. Big winter flounder are abundant at the docks, but remember that the daily limit is only two.  Note: This column was submitted prior to the Star-Ledger column. See Friday's newspaper for additional information.