Mission Beach 7/27

[jwacky]

Beautiful morning out at Mission Beach. Sun’s out, crowd’s are slowly shrinking… although maybe it’s just due to the currents and everyone is a bit north. Swimming only allowed north of Tower 10 today (!)

Unfortunately, another really slow morning on the bite. Got a large perch early and another first - some sort of small ray.

Got a few hard bites late in the morning but I just can’t seem to hook much this weekend. Maybe due to the currents, maybe just because that’s how fishing goes sometimes. Such is life. All in all no complaints as I work through the “checklist” of things to catch off the San Diego coast.

[Midnightpass]

Be careful… Those guys are pretty agile, and can nail you really quick… And it hurts!…
Butch

[jwacky]

Be careful… Those guys are pretty agile, and can nail you really quick… And it hurts!…
Butch

Honestly, I was not looking forward to this one because I wasn't sure how to handle it when I inevitably caught one. Thankfully the hook wasn’t deep at all and was very easy to undo with pliers at a relative distance. I waited until a few inches of water came in, while knowing that a slightly larger wave would come in shortly after, and unhooked it. I watched it ponder life for a few moments before fluttering off. Beautiful creature, a shame they can inflict so much pain!

[Dry Fly Rie]

Nicely done. An easy way I've found to deal with unhooking rays is to use two pairs of pliers. I grab the tail with a pair of heavy duty needle-nose pliers to keep it from slashing away at me. Then I use my curved-tip hemostats to remove the hook from the front end. Pulling back with my pliers on the tail provides enough tension to allow me to easily remove the hook with my other hand.

Then, I just pick up the ray using the pliers still clamped onto the thicker part of the tail and either drag or toss it back into ankle deep water for the release.

[jwacky]

Nicely done. An easy way I've found to deal with unhooking rays is to use two pairs of pliers. I grab the tail with a pair of heavy duty needle-nose pliers to keep it from slashing away at me. Then I use my curved-tip hemostats to remove the hook from the front end. Pulling back with my pliers on the tail provides enough tension to allow me to easily remove the hook with my other hand.

Then, I just pick up the ray using the pliers still clamped onto the thicker part of the tail and either drag or toss it back into ankle deep water for the release.

Good tip, thanks! Funny enough, I'd just gotten a new set of fishing pliers before the weekend and as I was packing my gear the night before, I was about to keep my older pair in the bag "just in case" but then talked myself out of it not knowing what "just in case" could even entail, haha. Maybe this was the universe's way of telling me to pack that second set! Hemostat pliers might be good to have for those times when the hook is set a bit deeper than I can comfortably reach with more standard size pliers.