Huge Duckbill Ray

I was working outside of SA last year and when I came on leave in June, there was no way that I wasn't going to catch up on my fishing.
In May already I was emailing my regular fishing buddy to organize me some bait.
Unfortunately my regular fishing buddies are people who have office jobs (like myself previously)and from there we have an arrangement that every Friday night we go fishing, unless the South Easter is blowing us off our feet, we fish on Friday nights, not negotiable.
Problem is, I you are fishing crazy and missed out on 3 months worth, you cannot only fish on Fridays, so ended up going almost every night, rain, cold, who cares, I am on the beach and loving it.
Apparently other people all work or are not as insane as me, because every night I am the only guy out fishing.
This particular night, cant remember the exact date, it was late in June, I was on the beach from about 1am with nothing happening, like most the other nights. I was asking myself why the hell am I out here freezing my arse off, night after night.
By the way, I always only fish for eds.
Just as I was thinking, bugger this, I am going home, it is 4am already.....My rod went down.
For those of you who know the Shimano Exage Surf 1468, would probably agree, using the heavy tip, it is quite stiff and don't bend for just anything. That Exage was bent like a question mark, my Speedmaster IV had the drag set quite tight, but it was screaming like there was zero resistance set. I have been using that specific combo of rod and reel for years and never have I seen that kind of reaction from either.
The rod was straining so hard against the rodstand, I had difficulty taking it out.The first few minutes, all I could do was set the drag as tight as I could dare and hold on to the rod. In spite of a very tight drag, it just kept running and taking line off like there was no tomorrow. After a while the run got a bit weaker as the monster tired and I could start retrieving a bit of line, but when I take 5m, he takes 10m back. It started taking me parallel to the beach, up 100m, back, down 80m, back. After about 30mins, my arms were getting really strained. You know when you are tangled in a huge piece of bamboo, that massive weight and when the wave pull it back, how you quickly need to loosen the drag a bit and move with, or your line snaps, like that. If it wasn't for the initial crazy run, I probably would have thought it is a huge weight of bamboo.
Eventually the tables were turned with me taking 10m and him 5m, me taking 20m and him 2m, until we were both dead tired and it started coming in, no fight, just massive weight. When it broke surface the first time in the light of my headlamp and I saw the shiny eye and those huge wings, I was dumb struck. Nobody around to help, it was a mission to position myself and use the wave to push the fish out to the beach....... a whopping 88kg Duckbill Ray. I just managed to measure wingtips quickly, when the water started lifting it and wanted to drag it off. I realised it would pull my rod with and sadly didn't have time to take a pic, just quickly battled fish and pulling water to unhook it. With the water lifting and me pushing, it reversed back into the water and with a casual, slow flapping of its majestic wings, did a smooth glide past and turned for deeper waters.
My forearms felt like they want to break off and my fingers were numbed and paining, but it was an amazing feeling.
I used a Shimano Exage Surf 1468 with heavy tip, Shimano Speedmaster IV reel, Double XX hi viz line of 19,5kg, no leader, 6oz grapel sinker, 3/0 Mustad hook and a Moonshine worm. Fight lasted 45 minutes. Spot, off Baden Powell, between Sonwabi and Strandfontein pavilion. Released in good condition.

((goodp_

Congrats on landing a fish that size by your self!

Thanks Patrick.
Currently in Iraq, home later this month and intend to fish like there is no tomorrow before I leave again.
Hope I never catch anything like that again though, ha ha.

Well done - a pity that you where unable to take a picture certainly sounds like a it was a fish of a lifetime. Good Stuff

well done, especially in that time frame and a 3/0 They are by far my favourite flatfish, and landing one is a privilege

Aquadementia,

That is why I said unintentional catch, I never expected anything like that, I was going for eds.
The no leader and 3/0 was for kob, or if one gets really lucky, a nice steenbras.
It hooked quite solid though in spite of the hook size, it went through the corner of the mouth.
But getting it on and even more, getting it out, was a vloek skoot.
I reckon I only got it out because I was prepared to rush up and down the beach and worked it carefully, not to over strain my line.
But it was torture, I couldn't even bait my hook afterward, had to flex my hands for about 10-15 minutes before they could function properly.
I am really not into in-eds, but I am grateful for it, it was the experience of a lifetime and I was awe struck at the size of it.
For me as a not-so-pro fisherman, it was amazing.
About a week ago my buddy mailed me and said that something pulled his rod and rodstand over and he barely managed to get to the rod before it went into the water, he described the massive weight and power and it burnt him off, got me wondering if the same fish is still making his rounds there. Tight lines.:wfish

amazing that a near 90kg fish will bother to pick up a little bit of worm... guess thats how they get so fat
If you got that right I'm sure you would be a fine non-eds angler in no time (with a bit of coaching) :wfish

Aquadementia,
I think it is quite a popular bait with them, because i have picked up a lot of small, 3-5kg Duckbills on the worm.
It is a tiny piece of bait for such a big fish, but maybe it is a favorite of theirs, I'm just guess because of how often the small ones take the worm.
If you think of the size mouth of a 16kg kob, which looks like a small bucket and they also pick up on worm.
In theory it says the bigger the bait, the bigger the fish, to a certain extent is true. Obviously a small fish cant gulp down a massive bait, but it seems that a tiny piece of bait can attract a big fish sometimes. Guess the fish must just have a craving for that particular bait. Guess it is like when we go in a deli section of the shop to buy rolls and suddenly you see that slice of Black Forest cake and your mouth water for it, you have to buy it, just my silly comparisson, but thats how I just saw the picture in my head.
So I think obviously you cannot catch a Strepie on a 8/0 with a whole mullet because the fish is not capable of that size, but the reverse is that a huge mouthed fish can and sometimes will pick up on a small, mouthwatering piece of bait. Sorry, I'm talking jiberish, it is late here and I'm tired, I'm now over-thinking it. Always trying to come up with new and better theories to go try on a next occasion, ha ha.