small eyed ray Mayo

Took a spin up to Mayo yesterday to a rock mark in the hope of connecting with a few thornies. Weather was perfect with just a slight breeze blowing into us , and we'd be fishing an hour of the rising tide and then the dropping tide , my favourite conditions for this spot. Doug (from A Shore Thing in Westport ) took us offroad to the mark when I realised I'd forgotten my tripod , not a bother because Doug has recently had a triple rod holder fitted to the front of the L200 . Crisis over we got the rigs out , both of us using bluey,mackerel and sand eel baits on 2/3 hook flappers and pulley rigs . The breeze was making it hard to detect bites so it was more or less a case of seeing what was there if anything when reeling in. On my 2nd or 3rd retrieve I felt a bit of weight on the line but i didn't say anything coz these past few months it usually just means weed . Once It got closer though I knew it was a fish and when it got withing landing distance I knew for certain it was a small eye and lost control of myself screaming for Doug to help me land it . I don't mind admitting to a few whoops when I finally laid hands on it , I was ecstatic . Cleanly hooked under the lower pad using a drop down pulley rig on a bluey bait. Excitment over we went another 3 hours without a bite except for a big spider crab for Doug , but the sun was shining , the craic was good and we had a ray of hope.

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Nice one pete Im well jealous Would love to catch one of those..
I didn`t realise they were up that neck of the woods!!? Is there many around mayo??

Don't think they're too common up here at all. Had one about a year and a half ago at maybe about 4 pounds and 2 days later Doug pulled one out of the bag at 12 pounds a cracking fish by any standards and even better for a shore caught one in this part of the country(you'll see the picture in his shop ) , they wouldn't be a target fish here but we do have some great thornie fishing in this neck of the woods

Maybe they`re slowly spreading north.Hopefully they`ll spread the whole way round to my neck of the woods
Nice looking fish,well done again

nice one peter.. please let this be the start of the fishing as it has not been great around my marks lately.. you wont get one of them in killary... fare play... go on the small eye.....

well done lovely to see a small eyed ray so far north,i don't think I have seen a report of one on the west coast before,great start to the year

well done .nice report

lovely looking ray sounds like a great mark for when things liven up a bit

Lovely catch that far up the west, well done . If they are there in Mayo makes me wonder are they up my own neck too

Nice one on the ray

Its always nice to catch something unexpected nice one!!

it,s nice to catch anything even sweeter when its rare of the shore