Biggest Sting Ray I Have Ever Seen, and CAUGHT!
 

I've kind of been hit by sharking fever lately, obsessing over catching a Sand Tiger Shark from the beaches of LBI just because I know it's possible, and I would love to see one up close, with all it's crazy teeth...So last night I hit the beach once again to continue my quest... Went all night without a hit, was ready to call it quits, and then as we were packing it in, my bait-runner starts screaming... I pick it up, give it a couple seconds and set the hook.. Upon feeling the hook burrow into it, this thing ran. HARD. I couldn't turn it's head.. I thought I finally had my 10 ft sand tiger, This relentless battle went on for an hour, maybe longer.. every time it started giving in, it would suction itself to the bottom to rest, during which time, I had no hope of moving it, then it would spool all of the line I just retrieved and more.. I was sweating bullets, and my arms were about ready to fall off, but I finally got him to ride the waves into shore.. And in disbelief, this is what was at the end of my line:

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This beast measured 7 feet from wing to wing and I'm not good at estimating weight, but I know this thing had to go over 250lbs easily!!!! :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

I have no idea of the species, but after a few pictures, this monster was returned to the ocean!

Re: Biggest Sting Ray I Have Ever Seen, and CAUGHT!
 

Amazing you were able to land that beast...Been hearing a lot of reports of Cow Nose Rays being caught, but that is not a Cow Nose.

Great report and thanks for posting it here.

Re: Biggest Sting Ray I Have Ever Seen, and CAUGHT!
 

I can't believe my surf set-up handled it.. I actually had to have my brother pour fresh water on my reel, as the spool was getting HOT quick. Shimano Baitrunners (old model) never let me down and this just proves what they can handle. Also I didn't think my surf rod had that much backbone! And yeah I've caught cow-nose before, but they feel like a snapper compared to this thing!!!

Re: Biggest Sting Ray I Have Ever Seen, and CAUGHT!
 

Great catch ! We had one customer "snag bottom" nite Bluefishing a few weeks ago . I took the rod and it felt like pulling Lobster gear . I railed the rod and hammered the drag and slowly gained on what I thought was dead weight . I called for Kevin to grab a gaff but to our surprise we saw this huge light colored ray around 5' wide . It took off on a run and straightened the Bluefish hook . There are a lot of strange things swimming around with all this bath water around .

Re: Biggest Sting Ray I Have Ever Seen, and CAUGHT!
 

Been seeing alot of them swimming lately near the surface - that looks like something out of River Monsters

WOW - Congrats on a great fight and landing it in the surf

GDubs-:cool:

Re: Biggest Sting Ray I Have Ever Seen, and CAUGHT!
 

YES! Jeremy Wade was seriously narrating this battle in my head! I kept mentioning the show afterwards..

Re: Biggest Sting Ray I Have Ever Seen, and CAUGHT!
 

That is an absolutely huge. A few years aggo we saw thiousands of cow nose rays out in the Chicken and none of the ones we saw came close to that size. Anyone have any idea what kind of ray that is?

Beautiful creature, insane how big they can get. Great effort landing it. That's some accomplishment.

Dakota

Re: Biggest Sting Ray I Have Ever Seen, and CAUGHT!
 

I'm still trying to figure out the species.. I don't even know what to search other than "short tail sting ray"... and as luck would have it, there's already a species that is called the short-tail stingray, so my research is getting me no where, as this is not a short-tail, it just has a short tail :|

Re: Biggest Sting Ray I Have Ever Seen, and CAUGHT!
 

Awesome fish man!

Re: Biggest Sting Ray I Have Ever Seen, and CAUGHT!
 

Your pic was driving my crazy. Had to find species.
Looks like a Smooth Butterfly Ray.
Good job on a great catch & release.