24 LB Stingray - South Causeway

Thursday night at South Causeway NSB I landed a huge stingray, but not before a drag pulling fight I'll never forget. As soon as it hit my live bait which was a Spot, the baitfeeder was singing. And even when I clicked off the baitfeeder, the main drag was still singing. It ran out several feet of line before I could even start pulling it in. I had to tighten the drag quite a bit, and start pulling up my rod and reeling in the slack as I let my rod down. It was heavy and I was going against the tide current, which didn't make it any easier. After about 8-10 minutes of pulling and reeling, finially got it up to the pier and saw it was a big stingray. I took it over to the wall next to the parking lot, where I could scoop it out with a landing net. It was weighed with the net, and the scale read 25 LB. The net weighs 1 LB 5 oz, so I figure the stingray was about 24 LB! I took a quick picture, though I was unable to get it turned over to get a top view of the ray. It was much easier to just leave it in the net so I could release it back. You definitly don't want to be careless while handling large rays. This ray didn't flop or whip it's tail at all, but that doesn't mean it won't happen. Always expect the unexpected. That night I had two more hooked, and they felt exactly like the big stingray. Though these two broke off my line during the fight.

Location: South Causeway, New Smyrna Beach
Tackle: Gamakatsu 6/0 octopus circle hook on a Carolina rig w/ 3 oz sinker

Species: Southern Stingray
Weight: approx 24 LB
Bait: live Spot