Need a line stretched? - Kayak Fishing Adventures on Big Water’s Edge

JrBasser · 08-26-2009, 03:52 PM

Sorry, not a kayak report, but if any of you want to get a line stretched, or even get your kids on some fish, mission bay is full of big bat ray right now. We have killed them the last few nights at various locations. Our biggest was about a 150 lber last night. 25 lb line. 2 hour fight. Broke em off at the rocks

. We'll have the camera tonight!

Billy V · 08-26-2009, 09:11 PM

Maybe I'll give it a shot thursday night.

I know a good place for Bat Action.

TCS · 08-26-2009, 09:36 PM

Are we talking night as in DARK or night as in evening? I might be interested in tagging along with someone else...

JrBasser · 08-27-2009, 11:34 AM

Evening or night? Trick question? Both.

We've been setting up around 6pm and fishing till we get our fix. And a side note, don't use refrozen bait. They will NOT eat it. The best bait/rig has been a 4 oz. weight, a bead, and a 7/0 hook. Weight right down to the hook. Thread on a whole humboldt squid tentacle like a plastic and whip it out there. strips of the mantle has been producing well too, as well as whole frozen or fresh dead market squid, you just might want to scale down a hook size. There's a lot of smoothhounds and leopards around the deeper water near the bridges as well.

08-27-2009, 12:41 PM

cant wait to hear the report
good luck!

joyjiggin' · 08-27-2009, 10:45 PM

Ummm, this is a dumb question, but how would you get something like that up to your yak and not get stung by it's tail??

dorf · 08-28-2009, 08:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joyjiggin'

Ummm, this is a dumb question, but how would you get something like that up to your yak and not get stung by it's tail??

Carefully.

I have had great success in the past with frozen anchovies. Talk about a sleigh ride. Great fun. Unfortunately I am unable to participate because of a move. I have everything packed up for the movers.

Best of luck to you all.
Don't forget your saftey gear (PFD, lights, reflective tape etc.)!

Toad Patrol · 08-28-2009, 09:52 AM

joyjiggin, not that stupid of a question. The barb at the base of a rays tail is a defense mechinism to protect it's internal organs. Since rays, and sharks have only soft cartliage, not a rib cage, they are suceptible to internal injury. If you happen to step on the back of one they react by triggering that barb, usually into your shin or ankle. Keep the ray in the water and carefully remove the hook with pliers, or just cut the line as close to the knot as posible, and the hook will eventually rust out. Don't worry about getting bit, rays have no teeth, only crushing plated in the back of their mouths.
Rays and sharks should be considered a catch and release species only, (they have an important job in the food chain) and are definately a blast to have drag you around, good practice for that big yellowtail or white sea bass you should be catching instead.
Good luck and tight lines,
-Scott

JrBasser · 08-28-2009, 10:12 AM

It isn't thatttt dumb of a question.. except the opening line is sorry this isn't a kayak report but....

To answer your question though, big bat ray I have found to be pretty docile when you handle em right. A bat ray as large as we've been getting I would just cut the tag end and its mouth or remove the hook if it was visible. But to be completely honest, if I knew I was fighting a bat ray and was on it for two hours, I'd have the heebee geebees about pulling it to the kayak. For a sub 50 pound ray, I will grab it by the breathing holes behind their eyes and slide him up onto my kayak between my legs. The large flat deck allows most of the fish's weight to be supported well and keeps them calm. This also keeps the added weight centered and the boat stable. Sometimes when their big enough their wings hang over the sides of the kayak into the water. From there I can get the hook out, get pictures, whatever. When cutting/removing the hook from a batray in the water you have no risk of the fish "turning on you" with those big ass wings 180 degrees to sting you. My method is a little more risky, you have to be swift with it. If you try to pull the fish slowly, he could panic and start flapping his wings. We all see where this could lead. Also, if you lift the weight out of the water slow, it will be harder to lift. You could lose control of the weight and have a batray come sliding into your boat tail first. And yes, I've done it, but got out of the way. Basically as you slide the bat ray up onto the kayak, spin him around so his tail is away from you.

bennofish7 · 08-29-2009, 02:40 PM

Am I missing something? It seems we are talking about Batrays, that have no stinger and/or Stingrays with a toxic stinger.

Matt · 08-29-2009, 02:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JrBasser

It isn't thatttt dumb of a question.. except the opening line is sorry this isn't a kayak report but....

To answer your question though, big bat ray I have found to be pretty docile when you handle em right. A bat ray as large as we've been getting I would just cut the tag end and its mouth or remove the hook if it was visible..

If your whole intent is to catch and release..............why not use a circle hook??

Spyder · 08-29-2009, 03:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bennofish7

Am I missing something? It seems we are talking about Batrays, that have no stinger and/or Stingrays with a toxic stinger.

Um, yes they do..............

http://jaffeweb.ucsd.edu/pages/proje...Ray%20page.htm

bennofish7 · 08-31-2009, 09:30 AM

I guess I'll be a little more careful handling them from here on....
Thanks for the clarification.

JrBasser · 08-31-2009, 01:49 PM

Yes they definitely do have a stinger.

I will be down there tonight with a couple friends looking to tie into a monster if anyone is interested. We'll be fishing right by the bridge at the bahia parking lot.

My brother with our Double Hook up result: His fish is the bigger one on the right.

chefchatten · 08-31-2009, 03:10 PM

^^^^^^^Just wondering why you took that shark ond those rays? Do you eat them?

JrBasser · 08-31-2009, 04:13 PM

Nothing was taken. They were landed. we have a promar lobster net we use as a cradle when we land the big rays. The rocks here are a shallow slope and small rocks so we can carry them up safely and remove the hooks, get a quick picture, then carry them back down to the water. In fact this process is usally done so quickly we don't have time to remove the eel grass and hook from the fishes mouth before pictures /\.

And Matt, we actually haven't had any big rays swallow a hook. They kind of run and chew, run and chew. run and chew. Of the two hooks we've been using, Mustad 7/0 stainless hooks and gami 4/0 circles. we have not hooked a fish outside of the corner of the mouth on either. The circle hooks only really help with the smaller baits where you have by catch. The shark above was caught on a carolina rig with a circle hook. The two bigger rays above were caught on the rig I mentioned earlier with the bigger hooks. In my post about cutting the hook out, I was referring to what I would do on the kayak with a big ray. And If I were on the kayak, I would not be intending to catch and release rays, therefore may not be fishing circle hooks.

JrBasser · 09-01-2009, 06:58 PM

So we gave it a go last night for NO luck. But long story short, I know where I'll be lobster opener!

08-26-2009, 03:52 PM	#1
JrBasser Senior Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 260	Need a line stretched? Sorry, not a kayak report, but if any of you want to get a line stretched, or even get your kids on some fish, mission bay is full of big bat ray right now. We have killed them the last few nights at various locations. Our biggest was about a 150 lber last night. 25 lb line. 2 hour fight. Broke em off at the rocks . We'll have the camera tonight!

08-26-2009, 09:36 PM	#3
TCS Senior Member Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 478	Sounds fun Are we talking night as in DARK or night as in evening? I might be interested in tagging along with someone else...

08-28-2009, 09:52 AM	#8
Toad Patrol Junior Join Date: May 2007 Location: Pt Dume, Malibu Posts: 8	Stingray risks... joyjiggin, not that stupid of a question. The barb at the base of a rays tail is a defense mechinism to protect it's internal organs. Since rays, and sharks have only soft cartliage, not a rib cage, they are suceptible to internal injury. If you happen to step on the back of one they react by triggering that barb, usually into your shin or ankle. Keep the ray in the water and carefully remove the hook with pliers, or just cut the line as close to the knot as posible, and the hook will eventually rust out. Don't worry about getting bit, rays have no teeth, only crushing plated in the back of their mouths. Rays and sharks should be considered a catch and release species only, (they have an important job in the food chain) and are definately a blast to have drag you around, good practice for that big yellowtail or white sea bass you should be catching instead. Good luck and tight lines, -Scott

08-31-2009, 04:13 PM	#16
JrBasser Senior Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 260	Nothing was taken. They were landed. we have a promar lobster net we use as a cradle when we land the big rays. The rocks here are a shallow slope and small rocks so we can carry them up safely and remove the hooks, get a quick picture, then carry them back down to the water. In fact this process is usally done so quickly we don't have time to remove the eel grass and hook from the fishes mouth before pictures /\. And Matt, we actually haven't had any big rays swallow a hook. They kind of run and chew, run and chew. run and chew. Of the two hooks we've been using, Mustad 7/0 stainless hooks and gami 4/0 circles. we have not hooked a fish outside of the corner of the mouth on either. The circle hooks only really help with the smaller baits where you have by catch. The shark above was caught on a carolina rig with a circle hook. The two bigger rays above were caught on the rig I mentioned earlier with the bigger hooks. In my post about cutting the hook out, I was referring to what I would do on the kayak with a big ray. And If I were on the kayak, I would not be intending to catch and release rays, therefore may not be fishing circle hooks. Last edited by JrBasser; 08-31-2009 at 04:26 PM.

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08-26-2009, 09:11 PM	#2
Billy V Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Bay Ho Posts: 1,382	Maybe I'll give it a shot thursday night. I know a good place for Bat Action.

08-27-2009, 11:34 AM	#4
JrBasser Senior Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 260	Evening or night? Trick question? Both. We've been setting up around 6pm and fishing till we get our fix. And a side note, don't use refrozen bait. They will NOT eat it. The best bait/rig has been a 4 oz. weight, a bead, and a 7/0 hook. Weight right down to the hook. Thread on a whole humboldt squid tentacle like a plastic and whip it out there. strips of the mantle has been producing well too, as well as whole frozen or fresh dead market squid, you just might want to scale down a hook size. There's a lot of smoothhounds and leopards around the deeper water near the bridges as well.

08-27-2009, 12:41 PM	#5
NextBite Guest Posts: n/a	cant wait to hear the report good luck!

08-27-2009, 10:45 PM	#6
joyjiggin' Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Huntington Beach Posts: 109	Ummm, this is a dumb question, but how would you get something like that up to your yak and not get stung by it's tail??

08-28-2009, 10:12 AM	#9
JrBasser Senior Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 260	It isn't thatttt dumb of a question.. except the opening line is sorry this isn't a kayak report but.... To answer your question though, big bat ray I have found to be pretty docile when you handle em right. A bat ray as large as we've been getting I would just cut the tag end and its mouth or remove the hook if it was visible. But to be completely honest, if I knew I was fighting a bat ray and was on it for two hours, I'd have the heebee geebees about pulling it to the kayak. For a sub 50 pound ray, I will grab it by the breathing holes behind their eyes and slide him up onto my kayak between my legs. The large flat deck allows most of the fish's weight to be supported well and keeps them calm. This also keeps the added weight centered and the boat stable. Sometimes when their big enough their wings hang over the sides of the kayak into the water. From there I can get the hook out, get pictures, whatever. When cutting/removing the hook from a batray in the water you have no risk of the fish "turning on you" with those big ass wings 180 degrees to sting you. My method is a little more risky, you have to be swift with it. If you try to pull the fish slowly, he could panic and start flapping his wings. We all see where this could lead. Also, if you lift the weight out of the water slow, it will be harder to lift. You could lose control of the weight and have a batray come sliding into your boat tail first. And yes, I've done it, but got out of the way. Basically as you slide the bat ray up onto the kayak, spin him around so his tail is away from you.

08-29-2009, 02:40 PM	#10
bennofish7 Junior Join Date: May 2007 Location: carlsbad Posts: 10	Am I missing something? It seems we are talking about Batrays, that have no stinger and/or Stingrays with a toxic stinger.

08-31-2009, 09:30 AM	#13
bennofish7 Junior Join Date: May 2007 Location: carlsbad Posts: 10	I guess I'll be a little more careful handling them from here on.... Thanks for the clarification.

08-31-2009, 01:49 PM	#14
JrBasser Senior Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 260	Yes they definitely do have a stinger. I will be down there tonight with a couple friends looking to tie into a monster if anyone is interested. We'll be fishing right by the bridge at the bahia parking lot. My brother with our Double Hook up result: His fish is the bigger one on the right.

08-31-2009, 03:10 PM	#15
chefchatten Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: 92107 Posts: 36	^^^^^^^Just wondering why you took that shark ond those rays? Do you eat them?

09-01-2009, 06:58 PM	#17
JrBasser Senior Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 260	So we gave it a go last night for NO luck. But long story short, I know where I'll be lobster opener!