Identification?

[bassguy84]

What is this?VID_20200626_201902_exported_8707_1593224923077.jpg

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

[bassguy84]

I messed up hope this workshttp://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/5ef6b081...6_201902~3.mp4

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

[J.A. Veil]

I think the video shows the wing tips of one or more cow-nosed rays. The rays can be 3' or more across. They move into Maryland Chesapeake Bay waters during late May or early June for mating and hang around for part of the summer. I have seen more of them this year than in the past few years. Yesterday I observed one in shallow water in the Severn River.

Over the years I have hooked dozens of them. Usually the hook snags in one of the fins. Occasionally, I have hooked on in the mouth.

[Mark]

Before I became acquainted with rays, I saw something similar to your video in shallow VA tidal waters. I though, aha...tailing redfish. I quickly cast in that direction and soon had the telltale pull of a CNR. It only takes once. I learned quickly.

[bassguy84]

It was very interesting. I saw it at the same cove around the same time two nights in a row. It rushes the cove with a wake over its back like a dolphin or a shark. Do they move like that? I am also pretty far north in Curtis creek. Whatever it is it had to travel all the up and around. Pretty cool to watch, not sure how bad i want to loss my perch gear hooking into one.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

[Mark]

It was very interesting. I saw it at the same cove around the same time two nights in a row. It rushes the cove with a wake over its back like a dolphin or a shark. Do they move like that? I am also pretty far north in Curtis creek. Whatever it is it had to travel all the up and around. Pretty cool to watch, not sure how bad i want to loss my perch gear hooking into one.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

Yes, they move like that.

Finding their way into Curtis Creek is nothing extraordinary given they likely have traveled all the way from Florida or perhaps even the Gulf to visit us here in the Chesapeake.

They can be a nuisance to us but their lengthy migration is remarkable.

I've become pretty good at spotting them and not casting in their direction.

[bassguy84]

Thanks for the info. Pretty cool. I never knew/thought of the migrations of things coming up the bay. Typically did fresh water until the last couple years. About to cancel my vaca to Florida and just kayak all over MD for ten days. Thanks again.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

[mike o]

Mark the one year when we actually had red fish in the upper bay I think I saw red fish tailing and did not cast to them because I thought they were cow nose rays. We did catch some reds there the following week.

[ronaultmtd]

Redfish reproduce and grow pretty quickly...by having slot fish DNR Regulations, it saves all the “breeders,” totally different than Striped Bass “trophy season” that kills the breeders, so there is reason to believe redfish will be back from the massive fish kills of the sub-zero winter a few years ago. Just look at the Speckled Trout resurgence- a member of the drum family...close cousin of the redfish...And the CNR invasion is bay-wide, they are just about everywhere...

[Mark]

Mike,

They are very similar in appearance.

Here's a tailing red in TX:

LMS_6148.jpg

It will get your heart pumping.