Your chances of catching one are best at the Keys bridges, where tarpon are common and I rarely run into another angler fishing for them, but the striper of your dreams could also be swimming under a local bridge. Striper fishing has been spotty in Raritan Bay, but bluefish weren't an interference when I fished Sunday with Chuck Many of Annandale on his Ty Man from Gateway Marina in Highlands along with Nellie Greer of Bethlehem, Pa. as we released nine stripers in the bay and Hudson River.

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.