Learning from the late Maryland pioneer J. Rob Davis on our first trip was a special experience. Assisted by the help of his son, of the same name, we were lucky to have great weather and our patient host finally got us in front of enough rays that we hit a few.
Our host:
My gear:
I just couldn't seem to hit those buggers at first, despite being pretty good in my youth at hitting riverside carp.
Had chances at a few in the 90 -100 pound range before we started hitting them. Huge rays!
Brent got this 60 pounder first and unwisely had the line tied directly to his reel instead of a float! Rob looked at me in horror as we realized Brent could not release a float. That bugger almost pulled his bow, and him, in the drink before we could get another arrow into it. Good thing it wasn't one of the 90-100 pounders!
I finally connected with a cow nosed ray when a pair came by the bow of the boat, and I struck the trailing ray. Finally got one on the boat, and broke the curse!
The wind picked up and things were harder to see. I put an arrow into a big Southern, but it pulled out when we were trying to get another arrow into it. I was bummed and really wanted a southern.
I finally manged to hit one, and we got it onboard as the wind really started making visibility very hard once we flushed the ray the first time. Almost blew my Sunset Hill bucket hat into the drink during the battle, but I managed to catch it with one hand as it was flying away.
Victory! I managed to boat the Big-2 in Eastern ray hunting.
We had good amount of meat now to eat. Each wing holds a top and bottom fillet. The meat is pretty tasty. Very delicate and not fishy at all. I can't wait to go back some day and try for the 100 pounders again.
Filleting:
Nice fillets:
What a super day and great memories!
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