This morning I had a session on the beach and introduced my son-in-law to the joys of hooking large fish. I had already told him that should I get a ray I would hand him the rod and he could play it out. Just for once the best laid plans worked beautifully.
Second cast my rod buckled and the reel started vacating line at an alarming rate. I simply disengaged the bait runner and the ray hooked itself and I duly handed over the rod. There was a nasty set of breakers running and the chances were always stacked against the fish being landed, however, Chris had fifteen minutes of true excitement until the hook pulled in the breakers.
A few minutes later my other rod had an all too familiar take and this time I enjoyed a twenty minute fight with a ray we put about forty pounds. I did land this fish and after a picture session, it was returned to the water.
My son-in-law was absent during the latter part of the fight and when he joined me to take a picture with his cell phone, he told me his own rod had been subject to a take he considered bordered personal abuse and the line screamed from the reel. He told me the fish headed straight out to sea, it then broached and he thought it landed on the line and once more they parted company.
It's always the big one that gets away and as I was somewhat occupied, I saw none of it. I did tell him I noticed a large splash about 100 metres from shore but I took no notice of it. Enough excitement for one day, we headed for home.
I have shown my wife the basics in using my video camera, as such she duly recorded the entire battle I had with the ray I was hooked up with. When I got home I uploaded the movie to my computer and ran it through to check the footage.
Well I couldn't believe my eyes. I have my ray in the breakers at my feet but then I noticed in the distance a commotion on the sea's surface. I played this frame by frame and then froze one picture and downloaded it as a still ... this is the result.
Chris said it was a big fish, I told him he was wrong, this is a bloody big fish.
Re: Ray of Sunshine.
Posted by The druid on 11/3/2015, 2:58 pm, in reply to "Ray of Sunshine."
Great experience Hangler, savour it while you can. Super picture, but what's that handle sticking out under your right arm?
Re: Ray of Sunshine.
Posted by Hangler on 11/3/2015, 4:57 pm, in reply to "Ray of Sunshine."
Hi Druid, the handle is the gaff. I was ready to beach the fish I was playing, pictured below, taken on my son-in-law's cell phone.
The fish my son-in-law had a temporary meeting with was much bigger than this ray, which I put at about forty pounds.
Hi again, Druid. The question you have raised is an interesting point. If I were fishing a sandy beach, where the depth of water shallows out to the shore, then no I would not use a gaff. The beach I fish, whilst not what I would call steep, does shelve considerably, and breakers are a huge problem when trying to land a large flatfish.
The biggest problem by far is the undertow. It is one thing to have a large ray trying to get free, it's another thing entirely when the undertow is doing its very best to pull the fish back to deeper water.
Where I fish it's rather like the opposite to the ninety-mile beach: there you watch for the seventh wave as it can be a big one, where I fish with patience you can wait for a smaller wave, then once it is in the shallows, the gaff finishes the job.
I always endeavour to gaff the fish in the wing, trying hard to miss the gut cavity. I have never experienced a fish that didn't swim away, whether happily or not is anyone's guess. Where I fish, on most days a gaff is vital. The breakers are the area where you at most risk of losing the fish, therefore the gaff eases the percentages a little more in the angler's favour.
My son-in-law is a relative newcomer to the sport so his description of the take and what happened next fitted perfectly with a large ray. I believe the part you can see in the distance is the wing of an eagle ray. These give an entirely different fight to a stingray, I have studied this in some depth.
I stingray is dogged, brute force and ignorance and they generally tend to hug the bottom - this is where a softer rod can help. Rather like a fly rod, it can absorb the extra pressure put on when the ray makes short but sudden runs near the surf, a firmer rod is not so good at handling this.
An eagle ray is a different proposition. At times during the fight they can become very active and it's not unusual for one to actually take off and heave their bodies out of the water. In the case of what my son-in-law hooked, his description was perfect for a large eagle ray: a long, very powerful run, then come up to the surface.
I am 99% sure it was an eagle ray and the speed and power of events shook my son-in-law rigid.
This is a film clip I put on YouTube last night, this happened about ten days ago. You will see the difficulty the breakers bring into play and where a gaff is essential. I urge you to look at the rod during the latter stages of the battle, you will see the rod absorb the powerful lunges.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR6iEjAJZ9k
The rod I was using is an Okuma XF1503SFM, a cheap rod as surf rods go, from memory it cost me $140.00. However, this handles a large ray far better than the other rods I have at double the price. The Okuma rod may not last long, especially with the work I put it through but should it snap tomorrow, it owes me nothing. In the last three weeks it has landed five rays over thirty pounds up to forty-five and several smaller models.
Sorry about the sound on the clip, that morning the wind was really blowing.
on 11/3/2015, 2:06 pm
