Jonas Green 6/4 - Rain and Rays

[jsquare]

Launched at Jonas Green for my first kayak fishing expedition of 2015. Had a slow start this year but it felt great to be out on the water. Put in around 2. Gentle NE winds left the river pretty calm and protected. Had the place pretty much to myself due to the cool weather and passing heavy showers. Tried a variety of lures and caught small stripes and a few perch.

The cow nose rays are in there thick. They were flopping around all over. Snagged 4 or 5. Didn't win any of those battles with my 4 lb test line, but did get a few sleigh rides.

Great afternoon and the rain did not dampen my spirits a bit.

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[Mark]

Glad you got out.

Sorry to hear that the CNR were there to greet you.

[J.A. Veil]

I was fishing two Severn tributaries yesterday at the same time you were out there. I found a bonanza of pickerel (11 caught and many others attacked my lure without hooking up) and 7 white perch. I did troll between two tributaries but had no encounters with rays.

[rob-kayak]

Certainly nice and calm in the picture... I could take any kind of cold and rain like that !

Obviously... been reading these forums for years...

Is it me... but are we getting more Cow Nosed Rays this year ??
Sounds like it from all the veterans.

Would love to hear what DNR has to comment about these observations.

[Mark]

... but are we getting more Cow Nosed Rays this year ??

In a way, yes. June is when they have their babies. We are fishing in their nursery here in the Chesapeake.

[kevinfry]

Calling all bowfishers! !!!!

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[On the fly]

Hey mark time to send Raptor out

[Shady]

We had similar results today...

I hooked one on my ultralight and being my first encounter with one, I tried to endure. Well, 90 minutes later, with Sun as my witness, the thing surfaced and broke the hook of my roadrunner in half.

Later on, on my way back to the beach, I hooked another and this time was on a rod and line more up for the job.. Pulled it to the beach within 10 minutes and cut the wings off right away and on ice.

Threw a few pieces in a Hawaiian marinade for three hours and then grilled it up. The texture is unlike any fish you've ever eaten, sort of stringy and chewy. To me it seemed a lot more like pork chop. My wife and I ate it along with some veggies until we were full. We both agreed that it was pretty good, but the texture is a little weird. These things sure do have a lot of meat on them!

[Mark]

Hey mark time to send Raptor out

No CNR in his immediate future unless he finds one in Lake Champlain.

Of course, I wouldn't count him out on that.

[jet]

How do you get the skin off the wings?

[Shady]

The wings have hard cartilage in the middle. So, first, I cut along the cartilage to get two "filets" off of each wing. Then I used kitchen shears to cut the meat into manageable strips, clamped down one at a time to my fish cleaning cutting board and let the knife follow along between the skin and meat like I would any other fish.

[sega]

You all are going to call me crazy/an idiot, but I really want to go out and target these guys. I know a lot of guys have pretty strong feelings about these guys (and by that I mean they loathe them) but I'm down to catch anything that's going to make my big reels scream. I'd also like to take a couple home and try them. If anyone has any tips please shoot me a pm! :-)

[Shady]

Troll your heaviest cheapest crank bait in front of the beach at Jonas green. Midst of the time you'll be snagging a wing. Trust me, you will only want to keep one at a time, there is so much meat on one.

[jsquare]

Shady that is awesome. If I get the opportunity I am going to try and eat one of those things this year.

As far as catching them, you can see the commotion they are making in the shallows and snag them pretty easily. If you actually want to hook one in the mouth, use cut bait. Though I did catch a very eager ray on gulp once.

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[Dimo]

Jsquare and John, I've been at Severn targeted perch a couple times and nothing has hit near structure using a variety of spinners, small grub jogs with spoons, rtf. Wondering what worked for you guys?