We're on summer hours with Friday afternoons off. Just begs for fishing. So we checked the radar and it looked like it might quit. We launched out of Willowby about 3 PM. Tried dragging a flounder rig for a while along the bridge and only came up with 3 undersize. Saw others doing the same. About 6 PM threw out a jig with a fish bite and started getting nibbles. Switched over to a bottom rig with squid and pulled in about 20 nice sized croaker. Caught them all on the inland side off the south end of the first island north of Norfolk.

Thought I had the biggest fish of my life on. I fought it for 15-20 minutes and it just kept making runs. Finally I got it to the boat and I'd hooked about a 30 pound ray in the wing. My arm is still sore today.

It's been a long dry Spring, so it was good to put some fresh fish in the frying pan.

rays suck to eat but man are they fun to fight especially the biguns
I used to catch alot of big ones off the little pier behind tcc portsmouth

I wonder if the wings could be used as bait for anything..maybe I'll give that a try next time I catch one

I haven't tried to eat them, but maybe ought to give it a try. Bobby Flay at the Food Channel was at a bed & breakfast in Virginia and they were serving the wing meat from rays. They claimed it to be a delicacy.

I have also heard of people eating wing meat. They say if you bread it and fry it, it tastes just like calamari.

I think I'll pass.

I've heard people cut the wings with cookie cutters and try to pass them off as scallops

We went fishing Saturday evening around 8pm and hooked three rays by Willouby Marina. Weren't fishing for anything big so we lost them along with our hooks, good fight though. We did catch quite a few Croaker and Spot.

nice..glad to see there are some Spot biting...

If you look on a seafood menu you will see sea scallops and bay scallops. One is shark or ray meat cut in a circle the other is a shellfish. Not sure which one.

If you have ever eaten artificial scallops you have eaten meat from a ray.

I have done that before. Sand sharks love it...nothing else hit on it. I'd try it again.

[quote=WestAilsworth,Jun 6 2005, 12:22 PM][quote=onewyr,Jun 4 2005, 10:32 PM]rays suck to eat but man are they fun  to fight especially the biguns
I used to catch alot of big ones off the little pier behind tcc portsmouth
[/quote]


I wonder if the wings could be used as bait for anything..maybe I'll give that a try next time I catch one

[/quote]

Delicacy - fancy word used to describe food that's probably disgusting and shouldn't be used for anything other than fishbait

yeah man, I keep hearing about rays wings with cookie cutters, breaded = artificial scallops (the kind you load about 10-15 on your plate at a chinese buffet) > I always thought it was some sort of artificial crab, but I'm hearing different now, I caught a big ray, thought about keeping it for food, smelled an awful smell coming from it, thought of bait, smelled the smell again, and threw the "I thought I had something big" back in the water

Oh well,, I'll pass as well on the scallop taste, but bait sounds good maybe