Texas City Tackle Time 2013

[FirePro911]

A good friend and I went out Wednesday the 3rd fishing. The intention was to fish the Galveston beach front, then the Jetty's, then the green can outside the Coastie Station. Once back at the green can, my plan was to try and catch a monster Stingray for the Texas City Tackle Time. I brought the Tank, a Penn Senator II 113H I modified with a Tiburon frame, stainless dual dogs, 5 stack CarbonTex Washers Pro Challenger stainless 4.0 gears, stainless yoke, ceramic ABEC bearings, Billet Aluminum T-bar handle upgrade.

The water was beautiful and we headed out at 5AM. We headed out of the Galveston Jetty's and around the South Jetty towards the beach front. We started fishing the Pleasure Pier and was catching small 2 pound Jackfish, keeping a few for bait. Picked up a 5 foot Blacktip which we released as the day was early. Also picked up a nice Stingray which I kept for fish frys.

Pleasure Pier drifting


Blacktip


Stingray


We then headed down to the 61st Street Fishing Pier as the bite turned off at the Pleasure Pier within an hour.


Not one bite there, so we headed back to the Pleasure Pier before heading back to the South Jetty. John did pick up a nice 5 1/2 foot Atlantic Sharpnose at the Pleasure Pier, which went into the box. Then we headed to South Jetty to fish sharks for awhile.

We were picking up Atlantic Sharpnose. I was using one of my hotrod Garcia 6600 C4's, plus we had the Garcia 7000i C3, with 65lb braid on a Fishing Tackle Unlimited King Katcher II 6' 30-50lb Rod, out with a small Whiten on it. I had one of the leaders that the lady at Boyds Bait Camp makes and they are pretty nice setups.


The 7000i had already picked up two small Sharpnose and the Whiten was pretty beat up.


Then the 7000i started screaming, running out like a freight train, I picked it up and tried slowing it down, but it only ran out faster. I slowly tightened down the drag to no avail. I told John that I was getting spooled. I finally got it slowed down and stopped with the drag. I then told him that I was going to hold it and not make what was on the end mad. He brought in the other rods and the anchor, so glad I installed a windlass now. lol!

Once anchor was up, he headed towards it and I got back my line. I just got finished installing ceramic bearings, dual bearing worm gear set up, CarbonTex Washers and polishing everything inside it. Though I am pretty sure the CarbonTex Washers are now shot as we could see black particles coming out from the spool. Going to open it up today to see. lol!


We basically got dragged for a full 4 1/2 hours for this fight. Gotta see if I can get a pick of our track off the GPS. She pulled us out from the Jetty about a 1/2 mile, then back towards it, then to the West towards the Pleasure Pier, then back to the Jetty, then down 3/4 way to East Beach, the back to original spot, then back down to the old Light house area where the fight finally ended. We forgot to bring a pistol, so we knew we had to gaff her, which was not going to be fun.

We didn't see her until right at the end, as the reel just couldn't bring her up for a look. As clean as the water was, she stayed down enough not to be seen. Around the 3 1/2 hour mark, I had to finally tighten the drag all the way down and she still was pulling line off. We couldn't believe she was able to still fight and pull at that point because of the full drag and CarbonTex washers. So for the next hour, I was apply more drag and stopping power with my thumbs on the spool and fingers holding the line against the foam part of the rod. She still forced me to let go as she pulled away.

I was playing the string like a guitar the whole time, twanging the line to either get her off the bottom or keep her off the bottom. She didn't like that and would shake her head and pull away harder. At one point close to the end, I just held the line to the stopping point to pull her up from right below us in 24 feet of water. I would slowly pull her up, rod bent over double and I could hear it cracking, but at 4 hours into it I had to do something to tire her out some. She would still run out on us, but was slowing down at least.

We would get over the top of her to do it again and again. Finally we got her up and saw her, that was when we wish we would have brought a pistol.


She had what looked like a small Ling shadowing her.


At this point she still ran line out, but it was slower. I would get her up again only for her to run again. My thumbs are burned up from apply more drag that the reel could handle. She finally started to make small circles at the top of the water. She ran twice more but on the third try, I was able to hold her and that is when the rod really started to make noises. She would pull me against the side of the boat as she tried to make several more runs. At one point she turned over and we figured we had her beat. But she then righted herself and caught me by surprise and off she went, burning the crud out of my thumb.

Got her up again and turned her over and got her next to the boat. I told John to hold off gaffing her as I wanted to make sure she was done. He had tried to gaff her earlier when she first came up and she had too much fight left in her. She exploded, he almost lost the gaff and he almost went overboard as she pulled away. I thought we lost her and when he had yelled, I thought he got hit by the barb. He had reached out to far to gaff her and with fight still in her, it was useless.

This time he set the gaff and held immediately pulled her up to the boat, with her back to the boat and held on tight. I put the rod in a holder and grabbed on with him. She was pretty much done, but put up a small fight anyway. It didn't last long and she went limp. I was then able to put the rope through a blow hole, but could not get it through the other side. So I reached down into her mouth with my hand and grabbed the rope and pulled it through that way tying a knot in it.

I then tied her to the inside cleat to secure her. She then started to have all her babies. We saw at least 5 come out and then one on the deck later. So I lost some weigh in weight there.


It took everything we had to haul her into the boat for the ride back. We could have just left her tied to the side, but bringing her in made the ride back faster as it had gotten pretty tough out during the fight.


As I said, our plan was to head to the green can by the Coastie Station to fish for a large Stingray. We had even thrown the castnet on some big Mullet at the Pleasure Pier, catching 8 of them for bait. But she changed the plan and glad she did when she hit that Whiten. Though my sore, swollen hands wish I had got to put out the bigger reel at the green can. lol!

She weighed in at 180 pounds and so far I am holding first place. My buddy John is on the right.




So far so good, hope she holds first.

[akfish]

Are rays that big good to eat?

[FirePro911]

Nah, to big and the meat is not good like that. But I did catch a smaller one earlier that I filleted the shoulders out of.

[BMITCH]

Nice Ray. Hope you win. What's normally the big ray in years past?
Bob

[Dominick]

Way to go Firepro.  Did you win? 

[FirePro911]

At 180, it is already bigger than last years winner. Tournament ends Sunday at Noon.

Going out tomorrow at 4:30AM to try and get some Jackfish to put up on the Leaderboard, maybe another Stingray.

[Cone]

That's a very nice ray Firepro. I saw a ray once on a dive while spearfishing. I'm not going to say how big it was because everyone would think I'm lying. I was pretty good at estimating size in the water. I'll just say the one Jeremy Wade caught on River Monsters was much smaller. It actually scared me when I realized what it was. No one would bring that thing in on a rod and reel.  Bob

[BMITCH]

Good luck firepro, hope it holds up!
Bob

[Tile]

I am curious to see the innards of your 7000i after this fight.

[saltydog]

I will believe you on the size of rays swimming around,we used to watch the big atlantic stingrays and manta rays swim under the draw bridge in Panama city FLA. some were the size of cars swimming through.Good ray for the tackle he was caught on and lots of good shark bait.

[Alto Mare]

Great fishing report firepro, thanks for sharing it with us.
Sal

[Bryan Young]

That's one big ray.  So, do you eat that thing?  I've seen rays being prepared on Iron Chef.  That is the only place where I saw it.  We used to catch rays all the time in Hawaii and just unhook. 

[Dominick]

That's one big ray.  So, do you eat that thing?  I've seen rays being prepared on Iron Chef.  That is the only place where I saw it.  We used to catch rays all the time in Hawaii and just unhook. 

Bryan the key is how to skin and cut the wings.  After skinning, the wings have a nice white filet on each side of the wing cartilage.  Then either bread, cornmeal and flour, or other breading than fry.  I haven't had them for years.  I do not have my mother's patience.  Dominick

[saltydog]

I love eating stingray,just fillet wings slice into thin strips and put into your favorite dry fish batter.Just like frying clams.Tasty especially with a cold one and cocktail sauce.

[FirePro911]

Well, I held at 2nd Place today. Saturday morning a guy came in with a 192.5 pounder.


Our Firefighter Union also sponsors the Kids Division in Tackle Time.


How would you like to get hit by this barb? After bleaching it, I attached it to the Plaque. lol!