I have recently started spearfishing in the Canary Islands. And have a completely legal area right on my doorstep. However, there never seems to be anything of size around. I shot a four foot Angelshark, but since then I haven't seen much, until today there were about six big Atlantic Stingrays around a meter across, but I didn't know if I would be allowed to shoot them, and the thought of killing one made me feel bad even though I was really proud of myself after my first big catch. Could anyone please enlighten me. Also could anyone suggest any techniques our landscapes to look for as I am struggling to find fish. Many Thanks Starsky
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Spear fishing and Rays
- Thread starterStarsky25097929
- Start date
Thread Status: Hello
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Hi Starsky.
I dont know the laws around the canaries but if you want to shoot rays try and hit them at a slight angle where the body and wing join (they have a very hard bony plate across their backs) and the wings themselves are soft and get thin towards the tips (if it goes off then it may rip off. and keep away from the thorn on the tail(only the thornback species). but asside that the wings of the ray are very tasty.
Personaly i only go for Grouper so i'm always looking for rocks with small caves and holes but i do go for rays on the odd occasion, and that means patroling up and down the sand flats looking for the tell tale marks in the sand. but i must say you are in the right forum for advice, lots of good people out there.
I dont know the laws around the canaries but if you want to shoot rays try and hit them at a slight angle where the body and wing join (they have a very hard bony plate across their backs) and the wings themselves are soft and get thin towards the tips (if it goes off then it may rip off. and keep away from the thorn on the tail(only the thornback species). but asside that the wings of the ray are very tasty.
Personaly i only go for Grouper so i'm always looking for rocks with small caves and holes but i do go for rays on the odd occasion, and that means patroling up and down the sand flats looking for the tell tale marks in the sand. but i must say you are in the right forum for advice, lots of good people out there.
I shot a pair of stingrays when I was a kid. one very small, about the size of a big dinner plate, and one very large, little over 5ft across. they both tasted NASTY. I have never shot one since.
Hi Amphibious
Did you cook it? i dont enjoy shooting them(rays ) only one if i want to eat it. No fun in shooting something that wont Move before you shoot and then turns into a monster afterwards. its a bit like kicking a sleeping bull terrier in his soft bits and waiting around for his reaction. :hmm :hmm :hmm .
Did you cook it? i dont enjoy shooting them(rays ) only one if i want to eat it. No fun in shooting something that wont Move before you shoot and then turns into a monster afterwards. its a bit like kicking a sleeping bull terrier in his soft bits and waiting around for his reaction. :hmm :hmm :hmm .
I cooked the first one, I took the second in to to a local SriLankan restaurant, as the owner told me his chefs could prepare it well. didn;t care of either so haven't bothered shoot any again. although I see dozens of them every moring hunting trip around here. I do enjoy shooting flatheads and sole. no challenge in shooting them, but finding the little buggers.... now thats a different story...
The secret to Ray wings is not to overcook it because the meat breaks down very easy and turns into bad tasting potato puree'. as for the sole i Know the feeling, especialy around the sand flats here they disapear under the sand and all you can see is one eye poking through the size of a pea. but there is the distinct no wave flat bit if they hav'nt been still for too long starsky. and they dooooooooo taste gooood. my god all i talk about is eating some one please help me!!!! 
Cheers guys, I really appreciate the feed back. I am still in two minds as whether or not to shoot them though as they are so pretty it would be like shooting Bambi. I think I might look out for them 'Sole' though thank you Groupermadness. The Angelshark I got was swimming when I hit it but I have seen them just lying still on the bottom, and I can never quite bring myself to do it. There is one other thing where I fish I usually go out about 100 meters and dive down to about 10 meters as I only have a cheap pair of snorkelling fins, do I need to go out much further to get the big stuff or am I just in the wrong area. There is loads of life where I fish its just that they are all really small. Many Thanks Starsky
Most of the fish I shoot are .5 to 1 lb, fast and spooked easily. Great sport, very challenging, taste great, lots of shooting. Occasionally I get other fish up to 10 lbs, but not usually.Starsky25097929 said:
Don't be afraid to shoot the small stuff if it's fun and tastes good!
Peace,
Erik Y.
Starsky,
Why are you even struggling with this? It is one thing if you are hungry but it sounds like you are just itching to shoot something big. The key to being a good fisherman is setting and maintaining good standards. All too often I've heard "yea, I'll shoot one of them if there is nothing around bla bla bla."
If you are new to this sport then you have to learn to sometimes come home empty handed. It is a fact of life. Don't comprimise your standards though. You might want to find a new location that supports more marine life.
The first few years of fishing are the most important ones. This is when you should develope your ethos and establish your relationship with the ocean.
Good luck!
Why are you even struggling with this? It is one thing if you are hungry but it sounds like you are just itching to shoot something big. The key to being a good fisherman is setting and maintaining good standards. All too often I've heard "yea, I'll shoot one of them if there is nothing around bla bla bla."
If you are new to this sport then you have to learn to sometimes come home empty handed. It is a fact of life. Don't comprimise your standards though. You might want to find a new location that supports more marine life.
The first few years of fishing are the most important ones. This is when you should develope your ethos and establish your relationship with the ocean.
Good luck!
Starsky25097929 said:
why on earth would you shoot a huge angelshark?? did you eat it?
are you going to eat the rays... or is this just prize hunting. just wondering...
Mata para comer tio!
Hi, yes I did eat it, four of us had quite a few meals out of it and I still have the wings left in the freezer to do something with. So far everyone seems to be concerned with me wanting to shoot a big fish, yet I have eaten everything and whatever we catch that is too big goes in the freezer or gets divided among friends. I do not wish to go out killing everything (sometimes I comeback empty handed purely because I have enjoyed myself so much diving down and looking at the fish I simply forgot to shoot anything) all I want is to have a couple of fish like some of the pictures I have seen on here. Two 5lbs fish are nicer on a plate (and easier to cook) than 10 half lbs fish. Thank You everyone for replying.
Starsky,
In Florida we don't shoot rays, but if we see one we'll roust him up off the bottom and follow. They often bring in the cobia.
Attached is a pic of my 2004 FSDA State freedive team, with my buddy Ed and his 40 lbs cobia that he shot off the back of a sting ray. Unfortunately it wasn't a category in the tourney that year.
Do you have any structure or wrecks that might hold bigger fish there?
I commend your desire to shoot the bigger fish in a species, that's usually where the challenge comes into it.
Chad
In Florida we don't shoot rays, but if we see one we'll roust him up off the bottom and follow. They often bring in the cobia.
Attached is a pic of my 2004 FSDA State freedive team, with my buddy Ed and his 40 lbs cobia that he shot off the back of a sting ray. Unfortunately it wasn't a category in the tourney that year.
Do you have any structure or wrecks that might hold bigger fish there?
I commend your desire to shoot the bigger fish in a species, that's usually where the challenge comes into it.
Chad
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or in the case of reef fish the challenge comes from having the will power to leave the big ones alone and harvest younger fish (not breeders). something to be said for a monster fish that has survived long enough to earn the right to be left alone...
Thank you, to be honest I don't really know what is out there, I don't have a dive buddy and sometimes spook myself before I get too far out. About 150 meters from the shore there's a sea mount or whatever they are called so I usually have a swim around that to practise my diving technique and then have a swim over the sand flats as well
if they are like bonefish and permit, they follow the rays looking for small crabs that have been kicked out of the sand by the ray, on really really really clear days, i walk the shore and spend ages looking for rays that are moving in shallow water, and fish behind them with bits of cut squid, allways get good bites that way (but in the water i never see any fish around rays)
