BatRay Adventure MB 10/10

Still much a rookie; i've been fishing for ~3 months and only from a kayak.

On Saturday (10/10) I went out on the Monterey Bay to fish with a buddy and his pops. We paddled out to the 2nd or 3rd yellow buoy and dropped our lines. I was jigging w/a 6 oz. Ahi Assault jig (silver/green). While fishing and chatting w/my buddy and his pops (they were on a tandem)....and.....BOOM....Something hits my line and immediately my fishing pole goes over the side of my kayak. When it (the beast) took my line it almost tipped my kayak; fortunately I released the drag in time & then it proceeded to take out a ton of line. Then it came to the surface and jumped about 100 yards in front of me (near where seals were jumping); i thought i had hooked a seal b/c it started just pulling me all over the place...Crazy shizniz!!! Within seconds I was hundreds of yards from my buddy. I fought it for ~15 minutes. I realized it was not a seal b/c it was down way to long without coming back to the surface. Eventually it gave up and I reeled it to the surface not knowing what the heck it was (monster ling, shark, halibut....). A freaking bat ray!!! I cannot believe how strong it was!!!

Took some pics and then Released the beast <*((((><
-The pics really don't show how big it was...kinda curious about how much it weighed (50lbs. maybe)
-Definitely the biggest fish i've ever caught. Other bat ray stories???

Cool!

Exciting stuff.  You never know what's gonna bite when you are on the ocean.

Awesome! They are a good fight huh? My first trip to the ocean I caught one of similar size. It was so much fun I've been thinking about going back just to target them!

First trip...Wow! Did it pull you around a bit?

I hooked a lot of them this year....I had one at Capitola that had about a 6 foot wing span ,,forever getting line back on that one ...good test on  knots and 20# leader

Thanks for sharing the video

How dangerous is it to remove the hook/lure from their mouth? I hated to do it, but i left my lure in its face b/c I wasn't sure if how dangerous their stinger is....

Thanks for sharing the video

How dangerous is it to remove the hook/lure from their mouth? I hated to do it, but i left my lure in its face b/c I wasn't sure if how dangerous their stinger is....

Its pretty easy.  They are fairly docile animals as long as you stay away from the tail area.  But its best to not try and remove the hooks by hand since they are extremely strong and a quick tug or twist could drive the hook into your hand.  Use pliers and try to shake it off.

I do not know  so I stay away and  cut them loose ....I am only loosing a hook that I would not trust again  anyway .

Thanks for sharing the video

How dangerous is it to remove the hook/lure from their mouth? I hated to do it, but i left my lure in its face b/c I wasn't sure if how dangerous their stinger is....

They don't have teeth that are of any worry.  Watch the tail.

Those batrays are heartbreakers when you think it's a big halibut/wsb/lingcod. I couldn't imagine hooking a big one in 100+ FOW...deepest I've hooked one was ~60ft deep, and it took forever to land it! Thanks for the report.

I always like to unhook stuff, and have caught allot of bat rays while shark fishing, they don't have teeth but they do have bony plates in their mouth for crushing, looks pretty effective for fingers too so I don't reach in there.

The spine at the base of the tail can inflict some real damage and it's painful, I still have the scar, but it's pretty easy to avoid, just know where it is and that they use in intentionally when being messed with,

I had one on deck (in a boat) and was trying to gently turn it over to get the hook out, as I was handling it, it arched it's back and drove the spine up and sliced open my little finger, I knew where the spine was and was being careful (I thought) but never expected the fish to use it with intent.  Hurt like hell, for a long time (hours)

That was the last bat ray I ever lifted out of the water.

Thanks for the reports and videos guys.  They earned their nickname "Mud Marlins".

Here's one from a couple of weeks ago in SC. I split the video into 2 parts---the first 20+ minutes condensed to 2, and the last couple of minutes. It was a real tug of war, and you'll see why if you watch the end.

Here's the first part...



And the second part...

How dangerous is it to remove the hook/lure from their mouth? I hated to do it, but i left my lure in its face b/c I wasn't sure if how dangerous their stinger is....

Just dont do like this dumbass :