caught my first diamond stingray

[BenCantrell]

One of my species fishing friends was in town over the weekend, and he had a few targets that I could help with - horn shark, longjaw mudsucker, and chameleon goby.  Friday night we fished a spot in MB where horn sharks are caught, and sure enough he got one on his first cast.  I got my hopes up that I'd catch one as well, but it didn't end up happening. However, the last bite of the evening was this 17 lb diamond stingray, which was a fantastic consolation prize.



Here's a few other pics from the night. I'm sure you can reverse engineer the spot if you're so inclined.











On Saturday we skunked out at the chameleon goby spot off Shelter Island, but the longjaw mudsucker spot delivered. My buddy caught his first, and I caught the biggest one I've seen.



We also saw a lot of juvenile rays at this spot - round, butterfly, and diamond.  They were comically easy to catch by putting a piece of shrimp in their feeding path and waiting about 15 seconds.  I caught one small diamond and then left the rest alone. 



Here's our combined species list from the two days:

• spotted sand bass
• barred sand bass
• horn shark
• gray smoothhound
• shovelnose guitarfish
• thornback
• round stingray
• butterfly ray
• bat ray
• diamond stingray
• bay blenny
• largemouth blenny
• opaleye
• longjaw mudsucker
• California killifish

[Latimeria]

That's quite the variety and a hell of a longjaw mudsucker!  Something I have not caught yet.

Personally, I'm even surprised to see the smoothhound.  I can't even remember the last one I caught let alone seen!

Well done as usual, Ben!

[Pinoyfisher]

Really successful outings Ben! That 1st spot is really good horn shark spot for sure!

[BenCantrell]

Thanks guys!  One other thing I want to add... we had dinner at the Barefoot Bar & Grill where they have the saltwater pond stocked with local fish. They had five horn sharks in there, and they were up by the waterfall tearing off clumps of mussels and chowing down on them.  I think next time I try for horn sharks I'll kayak out at low tide, load up on mussels from the bridge pilings, and then use them for bait from shore when the tide comes back in.

[Pinoyfisher]

When I used to spearfish regularly, I'd smash mussels and urchins to chum up the waters them swim away. I'd go back a few minutes later to see what got suckered in and they're would always be horn sharks mixed in with the other critters.

[itsyaboysears]

That’s the spotttttttttttt! Some huge Horn Sharks and rays there. Also I caught the biggest smoothhound I have yet to seen be caught before there. Congrats on the diamond, onto the horn!

[vdisney]

Good variety and great pictures Ben...........thanks for sharing

[lightline21]

One of my species fishing friends was in town over the weekend, and he had a few targets that I could help with - horn shark, longjaw mudsucker, and chameleon goby.  Friday night we fished a spot in MB where horn sharks are caught, and sure enough he got one on his first cast.  I got my hopes up that I'd catch one as well, but it didn't end up happening. However, the last bite of the evening was this 17 lb diamond stingray, which was a fantastic consolation prize.



Here's a few other pics from the night. I'm sure you can reverse engineer the spot if you're so inclined.











On Saturday we skunked out at the chameleon goby spot off Shelter Island, but the longjaw mudsucker spot delivered. My buddy caught his first, and I caught the biggest one I've seen.



We also saw a lot of juvenile rays at this spot - round, butterfly, and diamond.  They were comically easy to catch by putting a piece of shrimp in their feeding path and waiting about 15 seconds.  I caught one small diamond and then left the rest alone. 



Here's our combined species list from the two days:

• spotted sand bass
• barred sand bass
• horn shark
• gray smoothhound
• shovelnose guitarfish
• thornback
• round stingray
• butterfly ray
• bat ray
• diamond stingray
• bay blenny
• largemouth blenny
• opaleye
• longjaw mudsucker
• California killifish

Sweet! congrats, on that diamond stingray!

[SevengillTheVC]

Dude don’t you know stingrays are illegal to catch? Gah this forum, that’s why I don’t post any of my megalodon catches here!!! On a serious note I haven’t seen a smooth hound in ages either