At Seaside Park, Grumpy's Tackle weighed two blues that John Walters caught on bunker of 36 inches and 14. The wind is predicted to shift to NE on Wednesday, but no more than with gusts to 20 mph.

Chuck Many of Annandale managed to find nine stripers for release on his Ty Man from Gateway Marina in Highlands today after Nellie Greer of Bethlehem, Pa. loaded the boat with bunkers in one throw of his cast net. No one seemed to be doing much in the mouth of the bay, where fishing had been good, and the only bass on a live bunker was just a 32-incher I hooked.

While the boat fishing requires a guide, casting from the sides of bridges costs only the gas you burn moving from one bridge to another and where else can you catch such great game fish that size from shore and on your own Striped bass fishing has been up-and-down both in Raritan Bay and the ocean. It was down Thursday in the back of the bay hen Jim Hutchinson and John De Bona of The Fisherman joined Johnny Bucktails on his Sea Hunter from Keyport along with Art Berkman of Pompton Plains, and I after the boat had done well with live bunkers the previous day.

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!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.

We had some interesting fishing (more about that later in the week), before I drove up to Islamorada to fish for tarpon Friday evening out of Bud Mary's Marina with old friend and retired marina owner Richard Stanczyk the pioneer of daytime swordfishing. As I was fighting that tarpon, Stanczyk noted that there must be an accident on the bridge as everything was stopped.