Tag Archives: night fishing

I have mentioned before that our local harbour has a lot of sting rays. There are 2 varieties, Short tail and Eagle rays. Eagle rays are more numerous and can be spectacular to catch. They will leap from the water – they put up a massive fight. Short tails just tend to stick to the bottom and can be almost impossible to move.

I was fishing at night – about 8pm – and all of a sudden my reel started to scream, and there was no prize for guessing that I had hook an Eagle ray. It took about 300 metres [330 yards] of line – I wound in most of that in and off it went again – and this was repeated over and over.

Kayak fishers will cut the line quickly with these beasts because they pull so hard you either loose a reel full of line – or if you can apply enough drag to stop these things you can capsize a kayak easily. I wanted to get this fish to the W500 –initially because I didn’t want to lose all my line. and later because I just wanted to see how big it was.
It took me about 1-1/2 hours to get it to the kayak. I had my cell phone with me and tried to get some photos, but because it was so dark, and I was holding the line with one hand to hold the rays head at the surface of the water, it was very difficult. I only really got head shots of the thing. Continue reading →