Species: Painted ray, 5.14kg/11.3lbs
Specimen Weight: 4.536kg
Irish record: 7.8kg
Location: East Cork
Bait: sand eel and crab claws
Rigs: long and low, size 2 hook.
Report:
fished an east cork beach in hope of a ray or two and got three . first one about 4ish lbs, second one was less than 2lbs then spotted another very timid bite so left it develop. the fish seemed to disappear so went to change bait. lifted into a heavy weight and knew i had something decent on. as i got it in the shallows it kited off to the right and tangled with the mainline on the second rod and i started panicking as i was on my own. grabbed the scissors and cut the leader to free it up and brought it ashore. quick weight, few pics and back it went. it sat there for about 4/5 mins before it eventually flapped its wings and swam off. after putting it on the ruler i forgot to measure it but it looks to be in the high 70's or low 80's in the pic. hard to judge properly as the ruler isn't straight.
came in at 5.14kgs or 11.3lbs. my first specimen fish