Land-based leviathans

For years, a large Shovel Nose Ray has evaded me. I hooked what I thought were a couple of big ones in Mozambique a few years ago and then caught small brown shovelies in India, but never a big one. The smaller species are great fun on light tackle; seen cruising in the shallows, a small bait can be sight cast in their direction and, when the line pulls tight, a solid scrap ensues as long as the tackle is balanced. Here on the west coast of Australia the White Spotted Shovel Nose Ray patrols the waters of the long, deserted beaches, picking off crabs and other tasty morsels churned up by the waves. 

A solid White Spotted Shovel Nose Ray that took a liking to a a Tailor head

The interesting thing about fishing the Western Australian beaches is that there is a good chance that some particularly large fish might snaffle the bait. Tiger Sharks, huge Stingrays and other big shark species can be encountered, particularly when the sun dips below the horizon.  The last big Stingray that took the bait fought hard for over an hour and was undoubtedly a monster. Probabably a big, black Bull Ray. Using my heavy Shimano beastmaster, 80lb power pro braid and Saragosa 18000, I leaned hard on the fish and eventually had it close to the beach. Repeatedly, it came into the surf zone only to become stuck in the deep gutter where extraction was virtually impossible. It would, perhaps, have been a few more minutes before a wave would help the fish up onto the beach, but, after an hour and ten minutes, the line parted.

Fantastic sunset on the west coast 

The first large Shovel Nose Ray that I had a good look at was cruising the clear, shallow water up in Exmouth. It was a beautiful fish around two metres long with vivid white spots against a light brown skin. Lit up by the bright Australian sun it, of course, had no desire to feed. Maybe night would be the time to catch them and we fished hard up there, but never came across another Shovel Nose. That only happened down here in Dongara after putting in a quite a  few hours on the local beaches. Milton had lost one the previous week after fighting the big fish for 45 minutes, so I was keen to fish the same water.

After being bust off by the big Ray on the previous session, it seemed sensible to stick to using Tailor fillets and heads for bait. On the beach we fish, the near gutter is deep and close, so only a short cast is needed to get the bait into the prime feeding zone. After half an hour of sending the Tailor head out, the rod arched over in its tube and the fight was on.

White Spotted Shovel Nose Ray, Dongara, Western Australia

It was a spirited tussle, some good solid runs and dogged head shaking before the large fins could be seen breaking through the white, frothy waves. With some help from James a very lively Shovel Nose was landed just above the breakers for a couple of photos. Many locals swear by the eating quality of these fish, but to kill such a beautiful creature seems a great shame.

James with a decent Lemon Shark

James, who is a keen fly fisher, was keen to get stuck into a few of the Australian fish while working over here on the west coast. Things had been pretty quiet for him, with the better specimens avoiding capture, until one evening a very solid fish picked up his bait. To start with we were baffled as to what it might be - sharks were ruled out since there was no wire trace - but from the fight it was putting up we guessed it might be a big Mulloway or even a Shovel Nose. However, after the fight had continued for a while, the croaker option was ruled out and we started to wonder whether it might be a big shark conveniently hooked in the scissors. Some twenty minutes later a Lemon Shark of around 110kg lay beached on the sand with the hook only just wedged in the side of its mouth!

Good Spinner Shark for James

James continued his shark success a couple of nights later with a lovely Spinner Shark that, for its size, went pretty well. It was on one of those evenings when the fish are really playing the game and every cast seemed to rouse some interest. Before James hooked the Spinner Shark my bait had been well and truly nailed by a very large fish which had run for the horizon. The 80lb braid sped off the reel as the drag on my Saragosa 18000 was cranked higher and higher, with what seemed like little effect. After thirty or forty seconds at least 200 metres of line had been emptied from the spool and, unluckily for me, the hook popped from the fish's mouth. I was left wondering whether a spooling might have occured or whether I could have somehow stopped the big shark before it took the remainder of my line.

Shovel Nose Ray that took a squid bait

It didn't take long until, once again, my rod curved over as another big fish ate the Tailor head bait. And, again, just like the previous run, line vanished at a dizzy rate and I started to fear the worst when the fish was showing no sight of letting up after 250 metres. But, suddenly, I was able to stop wondering about the outcome when the line went slack as a sharp reef cut the braid - and that was that. It was still early and we fished on. James caught the Spinner and I went on to get a decent Shovel Nose Ray, so we went home fairly happy. Since that night, we haven't hooked into anything nearly as big as the two fish that escaped, apart from two more giant Stingrays. Like the last time, I fought the Ray carefully for over an hour and it felt larger than the previous one, but the gutter once again stopped me landing it. The steep ledge of sand that runs the length of the beach makes it almost impossible to bring a big Ray through the waves, but I'll keep trying!

Since the last Stingray busted me off, James and I met with success and finally landed one of these monsters after another, epic hour-long battle. This time it was James' turn to fight the fish after it took a fresh Mullet head from just behind the breakers. A slow first run without any head shakes indicated that the hooked fish was a Ray - and a big one at that - because James could do nothing to slow it down. An almost locked drag had no effect on the monster as it continued to plough out to the star-spangled horizon where the sun had set an hour before.

Unlike the last few big Rays we have hooked, this one didn't kite to the left and head north, but kept on a course straight out to sea. This meant James didn't need to the leave the comfort of his esky and could play the fish from his makeshift 'fighting chair'. Twenty minutes into the fight and the ray had calmed a little: the runs had become shorter and James was starting to tire. It seemed both angler and fish had a long battle ahead. But, with a considerable bend in the rod, neither of us was surprised when we heard a sharp crack as James' prediction that it would be the rod's last outing, came true.

The rod hadn't broken in two just yet, but it was perilously close to doing so. For the remainder of the fight some careful rod work was needed if the big fish was going to see the beach. Patiently, James fought the Ray for another 40 minutes, often an inch at a time, until it finally reached the surf zone. With the aid of the waves, we managed to beach a spectacularly huge, black Smooth Ray. Unfortunately, we had no tape to measure the disc width of the fish so its weight is anyone's guess. But, whatever that Ray weighed, it was an amazing capture, particularly on relatively light tackle.

Another giant stingray estimated at around 250lb + which took an hour and forty five minutes to subdue!

A break from fishing bait threw up a couple of solid Tailor to the surface lures. This time the Maria pop queen was the lure of choice.

An early morning Tailor popped up from around the beach reefs

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