# Critters from the surf..



## tradhunter98 (Dec 29, 2021)

Only got to make one trip this year. All casted cut bait. My personal best red, some decent sharks and more stingrays then I’ve ever seen.


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## marlin (Dec 30, 2021)

Those are some nice fish. Congratulations.


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## Big7 (Dec 30, 2021)

Time to eat !! ? ?


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## Ihunt (Dec 31, 2021)

That ray is about as big as they get.


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## Railroader (Dec 31, 2021)

That's some nice work there, man!!!

I miss surf fishing, used to live it!!!


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## Fisherman001 (Dec 31, 2021)

Railroader said:


> That's some nice work there, man!!!
> 
> I miss surf fishing, used to live it!!!


Why did you quit, did you move away further?


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## Railroader (Dec 31, 2021)

Fisherman001 said:


> Why did you quit, did you move away further?



Ain't quit necessarily, I just took up hunting again...


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## AthenianExile (Jan 25, 2022)

tradhunter98 said:


> Only got to make one trip this year. All casted cut bait. My personal best red, some decent sharks and more stingrays then I’ve ever seen.View attachment 1125475View attachment 1125473View attachment 1125474View attachment 1125476View attachment 1125477View attachment 1125478



Any advice on the shark leader?


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## tradhunter98 (Apr 3, 2022)

AthenianExile said:


> Any advice on the shark leader?


I use a 400lb swivel, 5’ of 500lb mono, another swivel with a snap for the weight and 12” or so of double #15 wire to a 10-16/0 hook. Depends on the bait.


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## NCHillbilly (Apr 3, 2022)

Nice catches,that was a mack daddy red!! I landed one stingray about 1/2-3/4 that size. Once. Took me forever, and I was tuckered out. It would suck down to the bottom now and then, and was durn near impossible to get moving again with the tackle I had. I cut the line now.


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## Dr. Strangelove (Apr 3, 2022)

Looks like y'all had a great time! We used to go to Hatteras 1st or 2nd week of October, I miss it. Guess it's been 20 years now (jeez!) and everybody has gotten too old or too married or too busy with work. Might have to float the idea out to the old gang and see who could make it.


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## Anvil Head (Apr 4, 2022)

My Brothers and I used to make the annual trip to Hatteras about this time of the year to try and bushwack the magnum blue runs. Caught a lot of bulls, sharks, and tons of rays. Was our laffin' place for a lot of years. My PB best bull was 52# on a chunk of fish head. We were having a hard time getting bait past the sharks in the breaker slots. Miss those days off running the beaches chasing the bird clouds.


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## GTMODawg (Apr 4, 2022)

Anvil Head said:


> My Brothers and I used to make the annual trip to Hatteras about this time of the year to try and bushwack the magnum blue runs. Caught a lot of bulls, sharks, and tons of rays. Was our laffin' place for a lot of years. My PB best bull was 52# on a chunk of fish head. We were having a hard time getting bait past the sharks in the breaker slots. Miss those days off running the beaches chasing the bird clouds.




This time of year (spring) or in October (fall)?  Or both?  It ain't to far a drive.....


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## Railroader (Apr 4, 2022)

Y'all making me wanna dust off, spool up, make rigs, and head for the beach...


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## Anvil Head (Apr 4, 2022)

You can want or you can go .... I got a lot of wants too. Hatteras just not what it used to be.


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## tradhunter98 (Apr 4, 2022)

Dr. Strangelove said:


> Looks like y'all had a great time! We used to go to Hatteras 1st or 2nd week of October, I miss it. Guess it's been 20 years now (jeez!) and everybody has gotten too old or too married or too busy with work. Might have to float the idea out to the old gang and see who could make it.


You may not remember it but you gave me my very first surf rods, that summer I hooked and and fought a shark for 30-40min, then lost him. That lit a fire. 10 years later it’s still burning.


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## Steve762us (Apr 6, 2022)

NCHillbilly said:


> Nice catches,that was a mack daddy red!! I landed one stingray about 1/2-3/4 that size. Once. Took me forever, and I was tuckered out. It would suck down to the bottom now and then, and was durn near impossible to get moving again with the tackle I had. I cut the line now.



Ray are better eating than any shark out there...filet out the wings & deep fry,


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## NCHillbilly (Apr 6, 2022)

Steve762us said:


> Ray are better eating than any shark out there...filet out the wings & deep fry,


I have a buddy who punches "scallops" out of the big ones with a sharpened steel pipe.


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## Batjack (Apr 6, 2022)

Steve762us said:


> Ray are better eating than any shark out there...filet out the wings & deep fry,


We were fish'n on Cape San Blas one night catch'n nothing but skates, just pilling them up to use for chum. Along about daylight a couple of Koreans came along with beach wagons and offered us $2.00 a piece for them. Told us they skin the wings, take a cookie cutter and sell them as scallops. I kept 1 and tried it that night up against some fresh bay scallops I bought that day.... no one could tell the difference.


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## Steve762us (Apr 6, 2022)

Batjack said:


> We were fish'n on Cape San Blas one night catch'n nothing but skates, just pilling them up to use for chum. Along about daylight a couple of Koreans came along with beach wagons and offered us $2.00 a piece for them. Told us they skin the wings, take a cookie cutter and sell them as scallops. I kept 1 and tried it that night up against some fresh bay scallops I bought that day.... no one could tell the difference.



Not the first time I've heard that...

Was sitting in a Greyhound depot in Connecticut in 1978, and an old (younger than
I am now ) guy sat on the bench, just down from me. He struck up a conversation, said he was a retired commercial fisherman. Asked if I liked scallops, "Sure, they're great.".  He leaned a bit closer and said, "if you ever get a scallop bigger than a dime, bigger'n your thumbnail, it ain't a scallop."

He said they'd catch skates and rays, nail em to a board, and use pipes with one end sharpened--wider pipe for bigger scallops, narrower pipe for smaller scallops.  Smack end of pipe with a mallet, then run a dowel down the pipe, and out come a pile of scallops.

I don't see why the guy would have made that up, to tell some hung-over college kid--who he'd never see again--sitting in a bus depot.


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## skiff20 (Apr 6, 2022)

If all little scallops are the ones, normally called bay scallops, then are the big scallops, normally called sea scallops, really stingrays or skates?


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## Batjack (Apr 6, 2022)

skiff20 said:


> If all little scallops are the ones, normally called bay scallops, then are the big scallops, normally called sea scallops, really stingrays or skates?


All depends on where one gets them. If from a federally regulated store, 50/50 they are scallops. From a seaside restaurant or roadside stand.. 100% not.


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## skiff20 (Apr 6, 2022)

Batjack said:


> All depends on where one gets them. If from a federally regulated store, 50/50 they are scallops. From a seaside restaurant or roadside stand.. 100% not.


Well that is good to know. I don't really know what a federally regulated store is, but the only place I have ever had the big ones is from a restaurant or a roadside store on the coast. They were good but cost a zillion dollars a pound, stingrays, not so much. Thanks for the info. P.S. I don't really care if this is fact or opinion, I feel sure that most if not all of the ones I bought at the seafood store on the coast are probably fake sea scallops.


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## Batjack (Apr 6, 2022)

skiff20 said:


> Well that is good to know. I don't really know what a federally regulated store is, but the only place I have ever had the big ones is from a restaurant or a roadside store on the coast. They were good but cost a zillion dollars a pound, stingrays, not so much. Thanks for the info. P.S. I don't really care if this is fact or opinion, I feel sure that most if not all of the ones I bought at the seafood store on the coast are probably fake sea scallops.


Federally regulated.. Kroger, Publix, etc.


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## GTMODawg (Apr 6, 2022)

skiff20 said:


> If all little scallops are the ones, normally called bay scallops, then are the big scallops, normally called sea scallops, really stingrays or skates?




If they ain't they ought to be....sting rays are good!  I have always heard that but I know for certain that stingrays are good.  There is also a lot of calamari sold around the world that is obviously ray....long solid chunks instead of tubes.  Still good in my opinion.


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## GTMODawg (Apr 6, 2022)

Steve762us said:


> Ray are better eating than any shark out there...filet out the wings & deep fry,




I agree completely.  Never really cared for sharks.  Bonnet Heads are pretty tasty but the rest seem about the same....


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## GTMODawg (Apr 6, 2022)

It is might near impossible to make certain the fish you are buying is what it is said to be. I read somewhere once that world wide it was the biggest counterfiet activity of all time and it ain't close. Given that most of it tastes pretty good I don't mind and if all they sold was actually what it was called the prices would be such that most people couldn't eat much of any of it.....


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## NCHillbilly (Apr 6, 2022)

Steve762us said:


> Not the first time I've heard that...
> 
> Was sitting in a Greyhound depot in Connecticut in 1978, and an old (younger than
> I am now ) guy sat on the bench, just down from me. He struck up a conversation, said he was a retired commercial fisherman. Asked if I liked scallops, "Sure, they're great.".  He leaned a bit closer and said, "if you ever get a scallop bigger than a dime, bigger'n your thumbnail, it ain't a scallop."
> ...


He didn't make it up, except that he's wrong about all the bigger scallops being rays. Some are sold as scallops that aren't, I'm sure, but I'd say the vast majority of big sea scallops for sale are actually scallops. As for the method he described, that's exactly how my buddy does it.


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## Steve762us (Apr 6, 2022)

Batjack said:


> Federally regulated.. Kroger, Publix, etc.



Oh, I dunno...think a lot of big retailer's fish came out "mis-labeled" when checked, 
genetically.

https://www.montereycountyweekly.co...cle_253f7b39-8656-5ca6-8786-661db547fe7e.html

https://nypost.com/2019/11/05/seafood-lovers-could-be-eating-counterfeit-fish/



https://naturalsociety.com/59-percent-tuna-mislabeled-fake-tuna-anal-oil-leakage/


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## Batjack (Apr 6, 2022)

Steve762us said:


> Oh, I dunno...think a lot of big retailer's fish came out "mis-labeled" when checked,
> genetically.
> 
> https://www.montereycountyweekly.co...cle_253f7b39-8656-5ca6-8786-661db547fe7e.html
> ...


That's why I said a 50/50 chance they are real when bought from a federally regulated store.


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## cuda67bnl (Apr 6, 2022)

Rays taste similar to scallops. But the meats are easily distinguishable by looking at it. Other fish, not so much.


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## panfishvinnie (Apr 6, 2022)

Great fish, congratulations!!


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## mrs. hornet22 (Apr 12, 2022)

NCHillbilly said:


> I have a buddy who punches "scallops" out of the big ones with a sharpened steel pipe.


We've done that. Good eats for sure, but it just aint worth the trouble of cleaning them. Lots of work. H22 nailed it to a bench and took of the skin. Then cut "scallops" out of the wings.


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