Spotted Eagle Ray on Rapala by JP Bartholomew
I had been invited to spend a weekend down the South Coast at a place called Cracker Bay just outside Hibberdene at a mates cottage right on the beach; an opportunity I could not turn down. I had fished the avie at Cracker Bay after unpacking and settling in with the family but with no luck. Friday night went and it was Saturday already, early morning had arrived and I was on the beach around 04:30. Being summer the sun rises early, as it is the best time of the day to fish for those predators lurking in the shallows with a pushing in tide. I had my 11ft Loomis X/Heavy fitted with a Sustain 5000 and Gosen 25 lb Braid with a 1 meter Fluoro Carbon Leader 30 kilo strong.
Knowing where I wanted to fish I quickly removed my plug and started my onslaught for the Giant Trevally or any of the Kingfish family. I love fishing for Kingfish it’s my passion and one of the great dirty fighting gamefish, which I have the utmost respect for and is always a great challenge trying to beach them before being savagely dragged and cut off on the reef. I had caught a nice Bluefin Trevally of about 4.5/5 kilo range, it was a slow morning and not much else was happening. I returned to the cottage with most of the family still fast asleep. I told myself I’d try later that avie again just hoping for that silver, pure muscle of a machine, the sought after Giant Ignobilis….!!
After spending time with the family and enjoying a nice banana fresh cream and syrup waffle at the famous Waffle Inn in Margate. It was time to burn off some lunch {and waffle}. My daughter and her boyfriend decided to take my 6 year old son Tristan to catch crabs on the beach with a torch when the sun went down. Eager to get back on the beach I decided to take my rod and just throw a Rapala Max-Rap 17 cm in length in Chartuse and Orange in colour fitted with 3 treble hooks. I went onto the beach very causally; no fishing bag, no shirt, wearing denim shorts… Wow a new fishing outfit for me, but I was comfortable and it was just to flick around and see what species I could pick up.
Watching the kids go off chasing crabs around I started to flick into the white water, as the tide was pushing in, I stayed in line with the cottage. I started flicking the Rapala Max-Rap all around the bay, towards reef and structure and open sandy patches seen with the naked eye. Having been flicking the stick bait around for a while I stopped and rested, helping catch crabs for my boykie. Slowly getting bored of that I thought I’d have a couple more casts before going up to start the braai for supper. I threw my first cast towards a reef with the idea of swimming the Max-Rap over the ledges slowly. I’d successfully managed to land my Max-Rap just in front of the structure. Before I knew it I got smashed by something that just kept stripping my braid off my Sustain 5000 and kept going and going. At this point I could not tell what I had on, there were no head shakes so that ruled out a big kingfish as well as Kob. I was gob stopped for the first time I had no clue what had picked me up.
I kept my eyes on my braid so I could see where this fish was heading, as well as keeping a watch on my braid. I started to get to my backing which told me that the species I had on the end of my line had stripped 290 meters and was already heading for backline. Then for the very first time I got to see what I had on the end of my line… this huge white kite looking specimen jumped right out of the water peeling off a wave, it was airborne for a few seconds… I had a flat fish, a ray of some sort and on stick bait, a Rapala Max-Rap 17 cm. Wow… this was new to me and a ray on artificial lure… wow, I was doubly shocked!! My daughter, her boyfriend and my son came running when they saw how badly my rod was bending. My son was shouting “Daddy have you got a fish on!” “Yes” I replied to him… he was so excited he ran to the cottage to call his mom, “Mom come quickly daddy has a fish.” My wife came down to the beach to see all the excitement, and a few other weekend dwellers joined the suspense filled party.
I was excited to have a ray on the end of my line something totally new for me. I had to try and turn him around before I lost all 350 meters of braid. Before I could even start retrieving line back, the ray suddenly turned and started heading back towards my direction. Lifting up my rod quickly, I rapidly started retrieving some line. I was into the 30th minute of holding onto this ray, I had for some reason looked at my watch just before I got picked up and it was almost 17:00 in the avie. The ray showed no signs of giving up and the more I retrieved line the more he pulled me. I had a feeling I had serious fight on my hands and if I was to win this fight, patience would be the best option for me to land this ray onto the beach; and being my first I had no intention in losing this Boykie…..!! I slowly started retrieving more and more line back and was feeling much more confident in landing my first ray. Still not being able to identify what ray it was, I kept at it, pulling and gaining more braid back until I finally had him sitting in the shore break. And he sat using the waves to his advantage. He was a feisty fighter, not giving me slack to try and beach him! I was under powered; if I had a 14ft rod and a Sustain 8000 50lb I would have been able to land him fairly quickly.
I was starting to take a bit of strain, especially in the arms. Having a flat fish and trying to land it is always a daunting task especially on light tackle which I was using but you know the saying: expect the unexpected and boy did it whack me in the face… eish!! Going on 57 minutes and I was still tussling with this muscle machine. He was just sitting there, I could see him at every wave as it peeled; I’m sure he could probably see me and was probably laughing at me. The light was quickly fading to and I was battling to keep my eyes on him, my spectators as well as my wife and kids were all still standing close by; my wife was giving me water and keeping me hydrated. I was walking up and down the beach trying to gain more line and tried many a time to beach him using the waves but he still had had plenty of energy in him. I on the other hand was feeling the strain and pressure not use to this kind of fishing especially with flat fish… I just had to keep going… I felt that I couldn’t let my spectators and family down. How weird to think these kinds of words while outgunned, but for some reason it motivated me more and more. I had to just keep the pressure on and be patient….. 1hr and 10min and I was still running up and down putting pressure on him. Now I was exhausted, I needed to land this beast! It was into the early evening, with the crowd and family behind me I kept at him, pulling him just enough to tire him out, two spectators got torches to assist me which was great of them to do to assist me in this quest to land this flat fish.
I don’t know what happened but I felt him starting to pull off slowly again, I just asked to God give me the strength to land this fish. As I was talking to myself, I started gaining my line back and it felt like the fish had given up on fighting me. I tried a few times to beach him, but then almost out of the blue this wave, a lot bigger than the normal height, started peeling towards me and it was like a voice calling out to me: this is your break! I quickly lifted the rod kept the line tight and, as the wave came through, I ran backwards reeling in very fast to beach this boykie. As the wave withdrew, I had the ray on the beach, one of the spectators assisted me and ran and grabbed it under the mouth for me and dragged it up the beach. Tired, and my arms sore, I just fell to my backside and sat there looking at what was a Spotted Eagle Ray roughly of about 24 kilos; catching my breath and with the crowd clapping at my achievement of a dog fight between me and this beautiful Spotted Eagle Ray that landed up lasting 1 hour and 25 minutes. My wife eventually got me kneeling besides my ray and took some photos of me and my achievement, I eventually gave my rod to my son to hold as I removed the Rapala Max-Rap from its mouth using a pair of pliers. I then slowly pulled him towards the water by his mouth which is the best way to handle a ray without hurting it so always remember that reader’s.
I got this magnificent beauty of a ray to the water’s edge and slowly moved him up and down to get the water flowing through his gills again, because I’m sure he was as buggered as me; if not more from holding out as long as he did . Eventually I could see he started getting more active and flapping a lot more; it was a great sign that he was going to make it and swim free again. I held him for a few more minutes before releasing him back unfortunately I didn’t see him take off due to it being dark but knew he was on his way again to swim freely through the waters of the Indian Ocean once again.
It’s always a challenge when you expect the unexpected it’s just a matter of having the right equipment with you at the time, if not you just have to step up to the plate and take on the challenges put in front of you and do your very best with the equipment you have on you at that moment of time. Fighting a ray for the first time you don’t actually realise the strength and power of these bottom dwellers have until you have one on the end of your rod especially on a very light tackle set up too. Well I hope you enjoy this encounter I had and the privilege of facing a ray one on one; and managing to land it on light tackle. So always remember whatever the challenges you face when fishing, go back to basics think of what you want to achieve and patience plays a major role in you landing your fish onto the beach. Remember always try to resuscitate your fish after a lengthy fight before releasing it, it gives him a better chance of survival and having him swim off and who knows maybe to fight another day. As I always say Let Go Let Grow……and Let Your fish Roam Free……
Tight line’s Guy’s.
Regards JP.Bartholomew.
