Bob Matthews, at Fisherman's Den in Belmar Marina,  reported a good run of blowfish has developed in Shark River. Time to load up on chicken-of-the-sea. He also noted that sea bass fishing offshore was excellent on Tuesday. At Atlantic Highlands, the Sea Hunter and the Fishermen reported even better bluefish jigging today than they've been enjoying almost every day. Bluefish also bailed out the Jim Mc Intosh charter aboard Sheri Berri from Baker's Marina on the Bay in Highlands. Capt. Hans Kaspersetz got word that the Hudson River was going to be closed to public boating at 8 a.m. due to Fleet Week. That's where striper fishing has been best, so he moved up sailing time to 5 a.m. It looked good when we got there as schools of bunker were on the surface -- but bites were few on both live baits and chunks. We ended leaving the river early to fish in the bay, where McIntosh of Toms River (a former colleague of mine at Garcia Fishing Tackle) and Ray Colon along with son and grandson Joe and Nathan McIntosh from Painted Post, N.Y. had fun wrestling with the big blues after they hit live bunker, chunks and trolled Tony Maja bunker spoons -- but no stripers broke through as we watched the naval fleet moving toward the harbor.  Capt. Vinnie Vetere fished the river later, and wasn't bothered by the Coast Guard as he did well with stripers from Katfish out of Great Kills. The Jamaica from Brielle had fine ocean jigging for blues as Wayne Schenk of Wantage won the pool with a 14-pounder. Capt. Bud McArthur ran his Splinter from Brick to the south, and managed to troll a 42-inch striper on a green Reliable bunker spoon offshore of the bait and near the three-mile state limit. It was a spawned-out bass with nothing in its stomach. Mc Arthur said he saw bunkers all along the way, but not formed into tight schools and with no signs of stripers among them. He tried drifting at the reefs on the way back, but only caught small sea bass. The only fluke were some 16-inchers in Manasquan Inlet. Vinny D'Anton of Shark River Hills was surprised in the Bradley Beach surf when a 36 1/2-pound jumbo bluefish ate his Tsunami Halographic Eel, and provided a long battle. Bluefishing continues hot in the Island Beach State Park surf, bur a few stripers are being caught in that area. Grumpy's Tackle in Seaside Park weighed a 40-inch, 17.45-pounder Wednesday on bunker, when Dave Chalmers beached a 41-inch, 22.85-pounder on clam. Terry Martuscelli weighed what must have been a very fat 34-incher that went 17.15-pounds this morning. Allen Riley of South Plainfield, plus brother Ed of Edison, and Lou Vargas of Fanwood fished the Monmouth Beach surf in shorts during the mild morning with sandworms and bunker chunks. Riley released an 18-inch striper on the worm, while the chunks produced skates, smooth dogfish, and the first couple of big sea robins.