ray conservation tips

I just saw piece about fish being lost from weedy areas in the Shannon Estuary so I thought I'd try and give what experience I have. First thing is a shock leader knot with 20lb line in weedy areas. I use a spider hitch type knot that gives near 100% knot strength and use a pulley rig. Keep constant heavy pressure to bring the ray to the surface and if it does get stuck angle it or go after with waders on (if you know the area is safe for wading). If that doesn't work don't pull for a break but leave the line slack for a few minutes and reel in fast. The ray will usually float to the top.

Rays can sometimes get disorientated on release and end back up on the beach especially on the ebb and in dirty water. I find it best to wade in if safe and lob the fish a good few yards out. Doggies can also do this especially on beachs with even a small swell. I also release all rays even if gut hooked. My theory being if they swallow down hardback crabs they can deal with hooks. Saying that I try my best not to gut hook them.

Donagh

It's great to see fish been put back. But one point to make, avoid lobbing back rays if it flips over and lands on it's back, while still in shallow water, it will struggle to right it's self and my die. Best pratice is to hold it in the water for a minute or two facing into the flow of water to give it a chance to get it's bearing.

Fair point. I have done as you describe at the mark I normaly fish in cloudy water on the ebb and found ray stranded up as the tide went out. Maybe I didn't give the fish long enough to recover due to trying to get another cast out. What I do in this case now is give it an extra few feet by lobbing like a plane so it lands right side up. I've seen Henry Glibey do something similiar. On sandy beachs I'll wade out but in the estuary some of the marks have drop offs making this dangerous.

Donagh

If I can't get close enough to the water on a beach I spin 'em, like you would a frisbie :-) His tummy mighn't feel too good after it but it works a treat.

From the pier a similar technique works well. It's a neat trick I first saw locals on Fenit doing years ago. Rather than drop them from a height the boys used to spin them "vertically" which meant minimum surface area to impact when the ray hit the water down below.

Liam

Lol it was a kerry man who showed me that frisbie technique he came by the name of Dominic Martin a legend in his own right does he still fish he used to fish with Richard Kelter years ago around 20 of em used to hop out of a small blue van those were the days when the fish were around back in the days of the Limerick SAC big comps in the estuary when you could get 60 anglers at a competition

When unhooking gut hook rays the only tool to use is a gemini disgourger.

1. Use pliers and scissors to extract the bait off the hooks.
2. The discourger can be placed directly on to the top hook of a penel now and push into the gut and away from the gut wall.
3. The discourger can then be slide down the line and the same is done with the bottom hook.

The hook is rarely in the stomach itself and even the deepest hooks are taken out in seconds with no or very little bleeding. The fish recovers in seconds after this operation.

FISHING WITHOUT A GEMINI DISGOURGER WILL KILL FISH NEEDLESSLY.
GET ONE

Donagh