Biggest ray I've ever seen

Nash · 2014-05-26T21:28:13Z

So I made a day trip over to the coast on Saturday to hit up Sunset beach since I heard the blue bite was on and I figured there'd be some big guys followin em. So I get there and it's crazy low tide, and nothin much was biting. I spent a few hours catchin bait for later and trying, and failing, to snag a monster cow nose that was cruisin around the pier. So the tide starts comin back in and the bite picks back up thank god, and I put out some live grunts and a little blue on my Fierce 8000. A few little runs cleaned me out of live bait, I only landed one little guy the rest pulled hooks, so I was forced to use half of a dead menhaden that a kingfisher man had used for bait earlier in the day. Now I didn't expect to catch jack off this dried up menhaden head, though it did have a little blood left in him. The bait wasn't in the water 10 minutes before something picked it up and made a blistering run, taking about 300 yards from 3/4 drag in the first 20 seconds. I knew this was something bigger than a little four footer pup. I had my fishin buddy (coincidently my dad) glove me up and set to work gettin my braid back. About ten minutes later I had regained a couple hundred yards, losing it all over again 3 times, when it turned around and started heading straight back into me. It had been 20 minutes into the fight and I still hadn't seen a jump (thinking at first it was a big tipper) or a fun that would tell me it was a shark. So naturally, I'm wondering what the hell I hooked into that's takin line so easy and walkin me up and down the pier like my drag isn't locked down. I finally feel her comin up towards the surface and everybody is sayin it's a huge ray. I was like no way, a ray couldn't smoke me like this and I'm in NC, there aren't huge rays up here. So I reel to the edge of the pier so I could see for myself what was wearin me out. Sure enough, about 150 yards dead in front of the pier the biggest ray ive ever seen (even out of pictures) is cruisin on top for about a minute before she heads back down and starts taking line again. It's been 30-35 minutes by now, and I'm feelin the burn and it's hot and I'm just ready to get her in. So I start reall puttin some pressure on her by grabbing the spool and she freaks out. She cuts to the right and crosses the kingfish rig that I've been praying he would stay away from. Now I'm working as fast as I can with the help of my dad and the kingfish dude to get our lines untangled, keep pressure on the fish, and try to keep his line from cutting my line. As we are working she decides to run straight at the pier again, and she got under the pier right as we got the lines free. I reel as fast as I could to catch up with her to keep her from going out the other side where I knew I would lose her. Somehow I managed to stop her and she stuck herself to the bottom like all southerns do. So now I'm takin a breather waiting for her to come back up off the bottom so I can horse her out, and let me tell you I needed that breather! Suddenly I feel he come off the bottom and I put all I've got into bringing her up, trying to keep the rod of the railing to avoid it snapping. Now it's a vertical tug of war between me and this damn ray, and it's gettin tough. I've gotta keep my braid out of the barnacles as pilings while trying to get this big girl up on top. I'm pulling up and try to get a little more leverage on the rod by holding it just above the end of the foregrip, and this might have been my mistake. Just as I'm about to reel back down, the tip of my rod snaps and I'm fighting her on a rod that's two feet shorter and broken. Now all the people who have stopped fishing to watch are goin crazy sayin I can't catch her now and I hours just cut the line. The hell I was! I just grit my teeth and bear back down on her and she finally breaks the surface. Good god almighty she's even bigger than I thought. She was about 7 feet across and probably over 200 lbs! Now that I have her on top I start walking her back towards the beach so I could get some official measurement and picture. I get about 3/4 of the way down the pier when the pier house attendants come out to see what the ruckus was all about. I tell them what's up and what I'm planning to do and they throw a fit. They tell me the beach is was too crowded to bring the beast on the sand, and they tell me to cut the line now or get banned. Now this is the part where I get mad, cause I just spent 45 minutes on this fish and broke a rod catching her only to have someone tell me I can't finish. Long story short, and after a few choice words from the lovely pier attendants, I settled for some pictures of her on top (which don't do her justice) and cut the line as close to the mono leader as I could. Never the less, I am calling her landed, and I did it with 80 lb mono leader, 65 lb power pro, and a broken rod. Can't wait to go back and catch her tiger counterpart when it isn't so busy and beach it right there next to the pier house....

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