South Bay Stingray, Gaway Bay, 7sept 14

[stevecrow74]

People:myself and the wee woman

Duration:3hrs 4pm-7pm

Tide:high-dopping

Weather:clear and calm

Bait:mackerel

Rigs:fethers, flowing trace, animal rig

Results:coalies, mackerel, stingray!!!

Report:

Unable to fish the club comp, gig night before and back probably wouldn't let me climb down ladder at spiddle, a last minute decision to take the boat out at 4pm resulted in a happy days fishing, launched out locally from me and out to the channel, as a few other lads out fishing at anchor so movd up another couple hundred yards and dropped anchor, dropped down feathers to pick up mackerel, but ended up of a shoal of coalfish, after about a dozen coalies and a couple of mackerel I lifted anchor and moved out of the channel in search of bait.
On way to a possible mark I saw a few shoals of Mack so made a detour to them, cut the engine and slowly drifted through them, within a minute we had about 40 Mack, moved off them and then drifted through the South Bay in search of what ever I could find, not uncommon for the odd grey gurnard to show up or a tub gurnard like the one herself caught the last time we were out, but nothing other than the odd mackerel, and as time moved on we over a little closer to home, and dropped anchor at a spot I know can throw up the odd tope or two.
Using the shamrock animal rig I baited up with 3 small mackerel, and then baited feathers on the other rod and waited... And waited... Crabs...mackerel... More crabs... Final bait up before heading in within the next 10 mins.. Nothing.... That was until I lifted my rod and wondered why it wasn't doing what it was supposed to be... Oh wait a second.. In the words of Jeremy Wade "Fish On".. At first I though it was a good sized tope, didn't feel like a ray at all, but the tide was running out of the channel past me so that might explain that.. It wasn't till I got the fish to the surface I realised that not only was it a ray, but a stingray, and a massive one at that!!
With the help from herself it took a good 10 minutes to lift it and get her into the boat, taken two baits, so with pliers and t-bar the hooks were removed and a couple of pics later she was gently thrown over the side of the boat to live another day..could easily be 40 lbs but possibly more, need to get better scales!

[johnwest]

That's a great fish, I didn't think they ventured further than Tralee Bay. If you're going to make a habit of catching them I'd consider more robust footwear! Remember Steve Irwin.....

[the weasel]

Thats a fine fish and some nice photos and report to go with it.