Alright, first off, huge thanks to Tom for putting this together. You let me borrow your gear, showed me how to fish for rays, brought the mackerel for bait, and shared one of your productive spots. You've worked hard to develop your techniques and learn where and when to fish, and the fact that you shared that knowledge with a noob like me is very cool.
Thanks to Sasquatch for letting me use your gear as well, though I don't think I landed a ray with one of your rods. Thanks for not giving me a hard time when I bird nested one of your reels. It was good to meet Jim, Ryan, and Cristina as well. Ruoxi and I had a great time fishing with you guys.
Ruoxi and I showed up at the meeting spot about 45 minutes before Tom and Sasquatch arrived. The tide was at it's lowest. I put out a piece of squid on a #6 circle hook with one rod and threw a swimbait with another. No bites with either.
Tom and Sasquatch arrived and set up two rods each. They used big pieces of cut mackerel on J hooks. It didn't take long before S had a nice ray on.
Here's a shot of Tom's rods and my tiny travel rod in the background. I knew the focus was bat rays, but I kept some squid on smaller circle hooks out in case some other species were moving through as well.
S landed his ray from the photo above. It was cool to see how well T and S handled it. Once the ray was at the shoreline, one person pulled it a few feet up onto the beach, it's wingspan was measured, a few photos were taken, and then it was flopped back into the water to swim away. The whole process only took a minute or two.
S posing with his ray. Not sure what that facial expression is about. All that comes to mind is, "I really wish this was a bigger fish since this photo is going to be on the internet tomorrow."
Tom hooked into another ray while I was taking photos of the one above. He shouted for me to come grab the rod, so I ran down the beach and took the already bent over rod. After a short spirited fight, I landed my first bat ray. Tom will have to post some photos from his camera. I didn't hook the fish, so I didn't want to count it as a new species for my lifelist, but it was a fun fight!
The next fish was caught by S again, and this time it was a butterfly ray. Very cool!
Ruoxi thought the butterfly ray was pretty cool, so I got a photo of her with it.
Tom caught one or two on his gear, and then someone shouted that my travel rod was bent over. I ran over, grabbed it, and then spent the next 10 minutes fighting a medium sized ray. I was worried about my 10 lb line snapping, but it was pulling my drag out too easily, so little by little I tightened the drag until I was able to bring it in.
I had the fish almost to shore, and Tom was ready to grab it once it was safe. I think it was those last few feet that doomed me, probably because the ray's wings began to scrape the sand. I tried to bring it in a little bit more and SNAP, my line gave out. Oh well, it was worth a shot.
Several more people showed up - Jim, Ryan, and Christina. They set up their heavy rods as well. I got a hit on my light rod with 4 lb line. It came in without a fight and turned out to be a salema, my first new species of the night.
Tom's rod went off again, and he had me grab it and set the hook. This time I landed the ray from start to finish, so this is my lifer bat ray. Thanks Tom!
It wasn't a big one, but I was pretty happy to have the monkey off my back.
My 4 lb line rod went off again, and again it turned out to be new species, a round ray. The photo doesn't give away how tiny it was. It was probably only 8" in diameter, haha.
Tom had me grab another of his rods when it went off, and this time it was a bigger fish. The fight was longer, and this time I was feeling a little worn out by the time I brought it in. I can only imagine what fighting a truly big ray would be like.
We got the hook out, and then Tom agreed that it would be safe to lift it up for a photo.
It measured 43" across the wings, and man was it heavy! I'm really happy with how this photo turned out.
One more shot of the release.
Tom caught the next fish, and it was the biggest of the night. It's wingspan was slightly over 50".
It was really cool to see how thick the bigger fish were. They are some super tanky fish once they get this size.
Jim and Ryan had a few fish on, but I'm not sure how many they landed. Before we packed up, I caught one more fish on my travel rod. This time it was a tiny bat ray, not even 16" across. The guys had a good laugh at it.
I talked Ruoxi into putting her finger in it's mouth to lift it up for a photo. I'm glad she did because it made for a good picture.
Thanks again to everyone. It was really good meeting you!
