Though some stripers have been caught trolling and by casting jigs in Raritan Bay, those fish have been slow to turn onto the bunkers which have been abundant there for weeks. Capt. Joe Massa has been among the frustrated anglers who had been live-baiting without reward -- but that changed Sunday afternoon. Massa had just returned that morning from New Orleans, where he had a fine redfish trip in the marshes near Venice on Saturday. Since the wind had dropped out by the time his plane landed, Massa decided to give Raritan Bay another try. I joined him on My III Sons from Morgan Marina around 1 p.m. to try jigging bass in the bay. There was none of the gannet action that was common two weeks ago, and fish marks were scattered. Massa lost a probable keeper at the surface while casting a small shad jig, and later released a 29-incher that hit a 9-inch Tsunami Halographic Eel.  I only had one bump before Massa reluctantly decided to troll stretch plugs among the scattered marks. I broke the ice with a small bass, but there were no other hits even when we got into much better marks. Though the sun was getting low, Massa couldn't resist trying live bunkers. With little time left, he was only able to cast net four bunkers which we rushed back to the marks in the middle of the bay. To my great surprise, I had a hit right away that resulted in a 35-inch release. On the next drift, we both had run-offs. I hooked another 35-inch, but that one was a fatter female which pushed a digital scale to 21 pounds before the release. Massa released a similar bass on the next drift before we headed in after proving our point with three bass and a couple of other hits on just four bunkers. It's likely that Raritan Bay anglers will be able to rely on bunkers as the prime bait from now on. Though I only speculated in yesterday's blog  that stripers would bite in the ocean on Sunday, it turned out that I published my blog before an additional report from Bob Matthews at Fisherman's Den in Belmar Marina.  He noted that Capt. Steve Spinelli had good blackfishing Saturday with the Big Mohawk -- but they also jigged 15 keeper stripers. The Golden Eagle chased the bass Sunday, and did release some shorts while jigging two legal linesiders up to 20 pounds. It's a start! Unfortunately, the Golden Eagle will not be fishing Monday due to a forecast of winds up to 30 knots.