This photo taken by Jersey photographer Dave Neilson has been making the rounds on various media sites as THE winter storm photo from the other day. I'm not a surfer, and that may be fun, but it looks like something that would snap my ankles in two when I hit the bottom. Needless to say the bomb cyclone surf was huge with 15-18 foot waves reported along the shore. Some say these were the biggest swells to hit the Jersey Shore in decades, if not in history. No doubt it will take a few days to clean up.
Out west we had out own water to deal with. Yes, the storms come and go, but it takes a day or two of a dwell time fo the rivers to crest. Yesterday the Delaware did just that coming in over 113,000 cfs.
A look at the below chart from June 29, 2023 shows a river running a low 3,000 cfs and then bump up to 20,000 cfs before starting to drop like a stone. If you fish a river that has the USGS Water Data
available then you know how valuable that information is. It's like, "Fish or not fish" depending on the numbers. Ands making the rounds out here was this offer to help recover this boat that was making it's way down the Delaware. Property owners along the Delaware had docks and they keep their boats tied
up but from time to time the river bumps and big debris comes down and jars them loose. I hope they get it back, it looks like a nice motor on it.
Just to show the comparison and what 113,000 looks like. On my way home I stopped at Scudder's Falls and took the below picture. In the upper left hand side near the branch you can see the osprey's
nest. The river is up and angry. Below is from October 30, 2023 when I ventured out to fish. I'm not sure what kind of numbers she was running that day but it just shows what extra water in the tub looks like. I think these flushes are good for the river, better now then in the spring.
