Exciting Evening on Richardson Bay

I could make this all exciting and stuff, but I'll cut to the chase. Foul hooked a big bat ray on a storm swim bait clipped to an Ugly Stick lite and spent an hour getting it close enough to see color. Birds were diving, bait was busting, and "real" fish were swirling around me (or maybe more bat rays?), while I'm hooked on to this giant aquatic rodent of the deep.  Meanwhile, I gotta pee like a race horse so I end up with one rod in each hand. Camera battery died as soon as I turned it on so you get spared me trying to aim for a scupper with one ugly stick while the other was bendo like a noodle. OK - both bendos - but you get the idea.

In short, I got pissed off and pissed on in the same hook-up.

Classic!!! Thanks for the visual.
  Randall

Wow...a double bendo!    Hope you enjoyed the sleight ride 

TMI!......and that was a "lost" KodakMoment we can all be glad of!!

Camera battery died as soon as I turned it on so you get spared me trying to aim for a scupper

No sweat bro....this thread would have been worthless with pics.

Subtle or not so subtle descriptive prose,,,,,,great post.

 
That's a pretty good post, even without fish pics in it.
I used to paddle Richardson all the time with the Outdoors Unlimited crew from UCSF.

 

Comedy.... 

and another Bat Ray on the Storms..... 

  AAAaaaARRRrrrRGGggggg.....


 

The swirling around you may indeed have been more bat rays, I've watched them out in Tomales bay in the shallows just go round and round in the shallows with their wing tips occasionally breaking the surface....

LOL.. thanks for sparing us the pics....

This was kind of odd in that I was not dragging the bottom - the lure was mid-to-high in the water column. Somehow I snagged a wing tip on the ray.

There was bait getting chased, no doubt about that. I don't think the lowley batray is driving bait out of the water. Am I right?   

lowly bat ray?..... I go out and target them, gotta respect the fight a hefty bat will put up.

Camera battery died as soon as I turned it on so you get spared me trying to aim for a scupper

No sweat bro....this thread would have been worthless with pics.

probably didn't carry a super macro lense to get a zoom anyway

stoggie

Very Funny!!! 

Bat rays will often use their wings to disorient prey. I dont believe in foul hooking a ray unless it's topside - on the black/brown. If you hooked white that ray wanted your bait.

When the rays are biting you cant keep them off your bait. I have caught them on Krockodile spoons, drop shot plastics and many times on 5" fishtraps.

Mud Marlins are great fighters! Congrats on the double, almost triple if you were able to handle that leak you needed to take.