Fair, I was just considering for data points especially since not many are shown to be caught on ray.
Duly noted. It's funny, I've tried bat ray as bait before, but have not done well on it. It sure holds on the hook good and is really a dense piece of bait. I might have to give it another try.
How do you cut the bats up to put on the hook? Rectangle? Square? Diamond cut with hook at pointy end? I think a bait rigging article might serve people well on here trying new baits or even hooking them differently.
I like it for 2 reasons: 1, because it stays on the hook so well, and you can use a single steak until it gets bit, you break it off, or you're done fishing. It can soak much, much longer than a mackerel and stays on the hook better. And 2, it weeds out a lot of other species, so when you hook up you know it's not a shovel or a bat ray, however judging by the current data it's only catching 7s and whites, may or may not weed out soups but we'll see.
For a while, I was cutting the wing into strips, parallel with the spine. Essentially as big as you can cast, so maybe cutting the cuts closest to the shoulder in half since they're longer and thicker than the wing tip.
However, the last ray I harvested, I just cut and saved each wing whole, which gave me more time to contemplate a good cut and maybe cut as much from the wing as I need for an upcoming trip. My last trip, I made a cut from wing tip toward the body, making for a piece that's 10" long and 1" wide or so. That way, it has a long profile which may get more attention from the opportunistic 7. Still too early to tell if that's the key, but I think it's a good idea, since the wing tip isn't substantial as a cut on its own.
The rays I've been harvesting have been about 18-24" in wingspan. It seems like the right size where I don't have to harvest too many small ones or handle the waste of a large ray. That one slot bat ray's meat could last a dozen trips or more, at least for a single person who is using cast-able pieces. I caught 34 small/medium size mackerel the other night and I imagine it may only take 4-6 trips to run through that.
Maybe next bat ray I harvest I'll do a pictorial, but it'll be a few months.
