Piney Point post rains

[Big Mike]

Went down to Piney Point this morning to try my luck. Ended up with a bunch of schoolies. The water was heavily stained and there was some serious lumber floating in the water. I almost hit this guy while on plane.



As I came back towards the dock I saw some splintered wood on a channel pole. As I got closer it was clear it took a lightening strike during one of the storms. Just in case you think about staying on the water during a storm...



I heard rumor of better fish being caught a couple of miles away from me.


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[Mark]

...As I came back towards the dock I saw some splintered wood on a channel pole. As I got closer it was clear it took a lightening strike during one of the storms. Just in case you think about staying on the water during a storm...

Good warning with visual proof.

And remember, most of us carry several lightening attractors (graphite fishing rods) on our kayaks.

[Yakmac]

Great reminder Mike. Gary told me you were going out today and I was anxious to hear your report. Maybe better tomorrow.

Keith


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[mchottie]

WOW! thats some serious 'drift wood' !!!

[ronaultmtd]

Piney Point post rains

Yep...Baitball (Manny) and I were a few miles from Mike...the chocolate milk water was a real challenge- visibility was maybe 2 feet...if Manny had not bailed me out I would have gotten skunked, but he had the hot color swimbodies and gave me a few...thanks to Manny I got my first keeper for the table- a really frisky 25 inch fish...Manny landed a 21 1/2 keeper but decided to release it...mine was deeply hooked and had quite a bit of blood from its gills...it wasn’t going to make it. Manny got the distinct pleasure of foul hooking a CNR and fighting it to get the hook out...

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[Big Mike]

Went back this morning and found a nice top water bite with 16-18” fish. I also found my first CNR of the year. Fortunately got him broken off fairly quickly with only a jighead lost

[HeaveToo]

Stupid question, what is a CNR?

Last year I hooked something at Piney Point. I saw an area that seemed like fish feeding and I casted to the area. I had a hit and it took off.

At first I thought that it was a stingray because of the pull but it never laid down like a stingray does sometimes. It took hard runs and peeled drag. It swam close to my kayak and took off and broke me off. I have some experience with stingrays from when I worked as a first mate on a charterboat and I don't think that this was a stingray based on the fight. The line break was not clean either, kind of rough looking, and the line was regular mono and not fluorocarbon or braid.

It bit a jig head with a DOA minnow on it.

Any thoughts on what this could have been?

[Big Mike]

Cow Nose Ray. They are very abundant from now until September and you will see them swimming in large packs, occasionally splashing the surface and frequently cruising with fins out of the water. When you hook one they take off on a steady run with zero head shake. With enough perseverance you can get them to the yak but then you’ve got a 20 pound ray to deal with in your cockpit. I’ve snagged them as they swim into the line/lure but they also bite lures as well. If you see them it’s best to relocate. If you hook one point your rod straight at it and break the line, otherwise your tying up 10-15 minutes of fishing time.. We like to say the best way to find them is to put a $15 X-Rap on and they will find it

[ronaultmtd]

$15.00 Crystal Minnows work just as well...and they seem to always hook the bigger CNRs...CNRs was one of the primary reasons I switched to single barbless hooks on my hard body lures...try removing two treble hooks from a 40 pound angry ray boatside after chasing it down and fighting it on dozens of long sustained runs...these damn things wear out drag washers...

[HeaveToo]

Familiar with the havoc that they cause.

I was anchored in the Catalina 30 sleeping peacefully in Bretton Bay. One of those darn rays slapped my hull with is wing and scared the living hell out of me because it was right by where I was sleeping.

I also caught one that was about 6 foot from wing tip to wing tip once. That damn thing pulled me all over the place.

[WHBD]

Are these CNRs edible at all? I've had some sort of ray where the wings have been filet'd out and it was pretty dang good...

[Big Mike]

You’re opening a whole can of worms with the “can you eat rays” question, and one of very large threads in the past. The short answer is yes you can eat CNR. However a ray is not a skate and what you are eating in a restaurant is skate. CNR meat isn’t the white kind of rope looking meat you get from a skate.

Cleaning and prepping a CNR to eat is no easy task, and remember this is an animal that pees through it’s skin. Avoiding having an overpowering smell and taste of ammonia is a challenge I chose to ignore.

[manlystanley]

Stupid question, what is a CNR?

Last year I hooked something at Piney Point. [SNIP] .....

Any thoughts on what this could have been?

Does not sound like a CNR. They just pull, in a constant trajectory. Besides that, I'm not sure.

Best Regards,
Stan

[manlystanley]

Are these CNRs edible at all? I've had some sort of ray where the wings have been filet'd out and it was pretty dang good...

Now your bringing up a sad topic. I caught this HUGE ray off of Sandy Point while surf casting. Darn thing took forever to bring in. I had heard, they not taste good, so I gave it to a guy who wanted to use it for chumming--or something. Then I told my wife, and she gave me all kinds of 'feedback'. She said that she would have figured out how to cook it. Seeing that she makes things like: "Catfish head stew" I believe that she would have tried......

Best Regards,
Stan

[WHBD]

You’re opening a whole can of worms with the “can you eat rays” question, and one of very large threads in the past. The short answer is yes you can eat CNR. However a ray is not a skate and what you are eating in a restaurant is skate. CNR meat isn’t the white kind of rope looking meat you get from a skate.

Cleaning and prepping a CNR to eat is no easy task, and remember this is an animal that pees through it’s skin. Avoiding having an overpowering smell and taste of ammonia is a challenge I chose to ignore.

Gotcha. I'll have to look up the process and see if it is worthwhile. Do skates frequent the bay and it's tributaries on a regular basis?