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Whitehall bay today

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  • #1

    Whitehall bay today

    Well archeryrob and I head out at 4:45 am to Whitehall Bay. I have a friend that has a house right on one of the back tributaries. He lets us launch off of his bulkhead which can be tricky depending on the tide. We paddled out towards the bay trolling crank baits. We saw some fish surfacing but couldn't tell if they were stripers. As we paddle out to the Chanel in the middle of the bay my right rod acted as it was snagged. I quickly cranked in the other rod and paddled in the direction of where I was snagged. We I got close to where the lure was it moved and the the drag started screaming. Well guess what ?.... I busted my cherry on my first ray !!! image.jpg

    It was a great fight, I finally got it along side of my kayak and got the pliers on the back set of hooks and removed them. That's when it decided to make a dive and snapped my leader. I lost another of my favorite lures. I managed to hook up on a second one and it didn't take long to snap that leader. I decided to tie directly to the braid and do some jigging with a white buck tail and hooked up on a third ray ? I did manage to get the jig back after a fun battle.

    John Veil had posted on another message about all the grass floating around the Severn and we noticed the same today. I think those pesky critters are up to it !
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  • #2
    I live on the Mill/Burley creek side of Whitehall Bay and often take my kayak out from our community water access. I was fishing off the end of Hacketts on Thursday and was catching 18" - 25" rocks on almost every pass. Like you, I latched on to a sizable Ray and fought with it for about ten minutes and then got impatient cranked the drag and started horsing it. Needless to say, I broke the line. It seemed that the more I fought it the stronger it got! I have spoken with a few fishermen who say that as soon as they realize they have a Ray they cut the line. This seems a bit extreme (and expensive) but on second thought I ended up the same as if I had cut the line and wasted 20 or so minutes that I could have been catching rockfish, or at least another Ray. Anyway, I don't know what I would have done if I had gotten it to the yak. I don't think you can lip them? I surely wouldn't want to bring it into the yak. Maybe - I too need a small baseball bat (beat the sh%$ out of it) and retrieve my lure. Maybe, cutting the line is the best move. Does anyone have any other advice? BTW . . . if you want to fish Whitehall again let me know, especially if it is Mon - Wed or Thurs AM.

    Terry
    Terry Hill

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    Santa Cruz RAPTOR

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    • #3
      Hey Terry, we don't get down there much during the week but if you can go on the weekends maybe we can hook up. We launch from Whaitehall creek off of river road. Hacketts wouldn't be that bad of a paddle. Our problem is we live near Hagerastown and its a 2 hr drive to go salt water fishing

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      • #4
        i fish for rays in the south river and use a gaff . i bring them to the beach and gaff their wing then release them. they never fray my leader and all i use is 30 pound mono. a big cIrcle hook and half a bluecrab or fish does the trick

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        • #5
          On the charter boat, we try to get the ray along side, and if we can't use the gaff hook to snag the line and remove the hook, we usually cut the hook off. We have a knife blade mounted on a long pole for this situation. Not huge loss to cut off a chumming rig, obviously more of an issue with a lure.Since I tie most of our bucktails, it doesn't make sense for us to try to recover these.
          We try to get them in as quickly as possible, as they have the nasty habit of taking off laterally and fouling everybody's lines up. Nothing like having to untangle or retie 6 customer's lines. They are a bloody mess and kinda dangerous to net and have on the deck around the clients. They are stingrays, after all.
          I have broken several rods fishing from my small boat, when the ray got up along side the boat and sounded under the boat. Conceivably, if this happens in a kayak, you could turtle. In my canoe, I carry a coil type of lure retriever on an extendable pole, so I could try to pop the lure out. (I'm not usually taking the canoe anywhere near where rays frequent, unless they run up Weems, or Mill Creeks).

          But those suckers do fight hard, like lifting a manhole cover off of the bottom. Like Carp, an underappreciated fighter!

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          • #6
            Originally posted by gkreps View Post
            Hey Terry, we don't get down there much during the week but if you can go on the weekends maybe we can hook up. We launch from Whaitehall creek off of river road. Hacketts wouldn't be that bad of a paddle. Our problem is we live near Hagerastown and its a 2 hr drive to go salt water fishing
            Let me know next time you plan go out and perhaps I can get away and meet you. You are launching less 5 miles (by road) from my house and are definitely closer to Hacketts than I am so it would be an easy paddle for you to get out there.

            Regards,

            Terry
            Terry Hill

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            Santa Cruz RAPTOR

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            • #7
              I will do that Terry, it won't be until the end of June before we get back down. I think we are going to the meet and greet this weekend at Mattawoman and next weekend I will be in OC trying to catch some flounder and anything else I can catch.

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