Last night and early this morning was the rain event of the century. Atlantic City reported 13+ inches of rain in the past 24 hours! In many places, the rain co-incided with high tides. The tremendous volume of water just was not able to drain down anywhere and backed up into the streets, flooding cars and some houses. Our local lake, Lake Pohatcong, otherwise known as Tuckerton Lake, overflowed Route 9 and spilled through the parking lot at the Stewart's Restaurant and into Tuckerton Creek. Many boats sunk in the Mystic Island area. The shopping Plaza across the street from me flooded with 4 to 6 inches of fresh rain water. One gentleman who lives in Tuckerton Beach talks of a water spout making a pulsing whooshing noise that sent him and his wife seeking shelter in the bathroom tub. His house is on pilings and he said that it actually began to twist. It ended as fast as it started and they made out all right, except for being really scared. Several cars stalled in the deep water of Twin Lakes Blvd. Many other horror stories were reported around the state. Our shedder crab supplier lost thousands of shedder crabs due to the overwhelming amount of fresh water in the bay. This means no live shedders for the weekend. With all the fresh water, I will not be able to stock any live Grass Shrimp for this weekend either.

The Mullica River is dumping millions of gallons of fresh muddy water into Great Bay. This means that we can expect some rather lousy bay fishing conditions this weekend. The water this afternoon was a light coffee brown color. After a real heavy rain storm, like the one that just past, it would be very possible to catch fresh water catfish off of Graveling Point. I just can't imagine that there would still be some Weakfish feeding in this area.

If the seas calm down, it may be possible to resume the excellent Fluke fishing that we had three miles outside of Little Egg Inlet. Most anglers fished the area of the Little Egg Tire Reef at loran 26922 & 43100 in approximately 50 feet of water. Other anglers had their successful trips a little further offshore in 60 feet of water. The Atomic Lump is a small rise in the ocean floor about 1 mile East of the Little Egg Inlet Bell Buoy. There are two yellow research buoys on the lump. These buoys will help you to find the rise in the bottom that the Fluke like to lie around.