Despite the gloom and doom weather forecast, Chuck Many of Annandale decided to fish for stripers today with his Ty Man from Gateway Marina in Highlands. I wasn't thrilled with the forecast that caused most party boat skippers to cancel, but Many studied weather as well as marine science at the University of Miami and usually has a good handle on what will actually happen. We had decent fishing conditions, never got rained on, and ended up catching 25 stripers. It wasn't the "throw the anchor and chunk what you want" fishing of a few weeks ago, but Many found some bass at every spot he tried. After a 35-incher on a live bunker to start, the majority of bass were shorts -- but if we were keeping fish there wouldn't have been any problem in catching a three-man limit for Many, Matt Calabria and I. We used bunkers, eels, and sandworms -- and Calabria ended up catching them on shad jigs before a strong northwest wind against the tide turned off a hot afternoon drift like the flip of a switch even though the bass were still marking. Dogfish were a problem in the morning, but only a couple were hooked in the afternoon. Calabria also boated a 1 1/4-pound croaker, and released several medium bluefish. Not bad striper fishing for August -- and on a day when everyone else seems to have stayed in port.