Catching ray question

any advice on catching ray ?
catching one has become my sacred quest
I live in kerry

well livin in kerry definatly is an advantage when chasing ray....i caught a 8lb thornie off trabeg beach near dingle ....the rig i used was a pulley pennell rig loaded up with four sandeels and blasted as far into the surf as possible...best to fish from low water up....hope this helps.

Hi mate.I tend to use a pulley rig when fishing in the bay because you stand a chance of stingers so you need at least 60lb mono.You can catch ray from the pier but you are better off anywhere fom the tankard back towards SPA but you must cast into the channel so fishing over low water is a must.As for bait mackeral,sandeel or better still to avoid crabs,a mackeral squid wrap work best.Hope this is of some help.

thanks lads

Try Live prawns , a deadly yet underated bait.

Being realistic in my opinion the best tactics i found for catching ray is a simple paternoster trace with a long snood not even clipped down works much better than a pulley rig for ray and use medium size mackerel or sand eel baits as the best thornbacks i ever caught were when I was fishing.

Also dont use any elasticated cotton just thread the bait through the hook and cast it out.

I tried an experiment one evening and the trace that was simply made up with out any grip lead pulley type rig etc didnt come near the success of what the simple old paternoster did.

As years ago in the Shannon estuary all my big fish were caught using a 4 oz weight lobbed into the channel and letting it flow down with the tide like the uptiding tactic and then when it settles it seems to hold where the current isnt too fast and the fish tend to be in that area.

Keep it simple when fishing as complicating match fishing tactics when pleasure fishing ruins the game...................

Actually meant to say use the elastic for the sandeels as they tend to fly off--------------->

Hi FenitBob,

I live here in Kerry too and spend alot of time chasing Ray around Tralee so here's my two cents.

Rigs: A pulley pennel rig with 2/0 to 4/0 hooks, snoods around 30 - 40lb. No need to go heavier than this even for the stingers.

Baits: You can use crab and sandeel and they will produce excellent results but good old mackerel either fresh or frozen will catch you alot of fish too, plus it's cheaper and easier to get.

Marks: Yup, Fenit Pier along the viaduct and all the usual will produce but if you're looking for numbers of fish then the SPA is definitely where to go. You need a bit of distance here to hit the channel and get the best results. Pick the biggest spring LW you can find. The tides in a fortnights time are ideal... It might be useful to have a recce the day before and find someplace as close to the channel as possible. Following day come down and fish maybe last 2 1/2 hours of the ebb. The ebb to LW can fish very well along here, often better than the flood I find. There can be a fair rip as the tide races out . 6oz grippers will make it easier and it may even dictate casting distances, when the tide backs off though make sure you cast it as far as you can, it often helps sort out the bigger fish.

As for the stingers, while at times you will get them at range, a second rod fish very very close maybe 20 - 40yds (it'll look ridiculously close) is a great tactic. These fish are cruising right in over the warm sand, when the water is clear you will often see them just cruising down the beach, they'll look like huge clumps of weed from the shore except they'll be moving against the tide and doing all sorts of daft things - unfortunately it may be a bit late for them this season but I've had them right up until the end of July at Derrymore so who knows.

Liam

I normally use 50 to 60lb snood on a pulley rig. For one the snood will take part of the strain when casting as i usually clip down to a gemini rig clip or the clip on a breakaway lead. The areas I fish have straps and huss so the thicker mono will deal with this. The heavier snood is less likely to tangle when using long snoods which are helpful in getting the bait as far away as possible from the spikes of the grip lead which can scare off the ray if they land on them. Some use a plain lead for this reason but you miss out on the self hooking properties a grip lead provides. Fresh mackerel can be presented with a lighter hook hold and less bait elastic which does seem to help in picking up fish as long as the crabs or casting leave the bait on long enough to get fish. Mumifying the bait in elastic and squid helps stave off the crabs. Henry gilbey recommends a heavier snood with 4/0 hooks to put off doggies but I don't know if it makes much difference.

When you get a bite give it a while to develop but not to long or you'll gut hook the fish. Pulley rigs with grip definately help produce more lip hooks.

Donagh

Donagh is spot on there, if you're clipping down the pulley rig then step up the snood to the same breaking strain as the rig body and shockleader.

Liam