Last minute decisions sometimes work out well. That was the case yesterday when I decided to spend my last day in Florida fishing the Keys bridges from shore at night. It was less than a two-hour drive from my daughter Cyndi's home in Palmetto Bay (south of Miami), and something I could do on my own. However, when I arrived at Bud N' Mary's Marina in Islamorada, old friend Richard Stanczyk (retired owner of the marina) suggested we try some bonefishing from his skiff in the evening. We anchored within a quarter-mile of the marina on a shallow sand flat and cast shrimp-baited hooks in various directions, just as we had done Friday evening to catch two very mall bonefish along with such variety as bonnethead sharks and blowfish. There were no hits for some time before one of the light spinners bent in half as a fish almost dumped the small reel. Fortunately, it raced past some potential cut-off areas as I held the rod high. Bonefish usually make only one very long run, but this fish made run after run, leading us to think we might have a permit on. It took some time before I finally got a glimpse of the fish in the crystal clear waters, and determined it was a bonefish -- but a monster! Richard had no net aboard, but managed to scoop it out of the water when I steered it to him. Stanczyk has caught thousands of bonefish both here and in the Bahamas, and even guided Vic Gaspeny to his fly rod world record 14-pound, 6-ounce bonefish in 1987 -- but said this was a 15-pounder and the biggest he's ever seen. He snapped a few celll phone shots of me with the prize, and put the still-hooked bone back in the water to stay alive before he could hold it for a photo. In the old days there would have been no problem as the fish would have been brought in for weighing. However, no one keeps a bonefish or tarpon these days. As Richard lifted it in by the 20-pound leader, the leader broke and the bonefish catch of a lifetime had his release before those last shots. That wasn't all the excitement my last night in the Keys provided. Check Thursday's blog and Friday's column for more. The Tackle Box in Hazlet reported a bluefish blitz in Rairtan Bay, day and night. Those blues are runing up to 36 inches. Phil Sciortino says they're hitting bunker chunks at Keansburg, and metal and poppers at Leonardo.