Stingrays Beware!

[Tybo]

While we are all familiar with the unfortunate death of Steve Irwin, and are often told to beware of stepping on them, I think stringrays are generally considered fairly harmless. For a very, very common species, you rarely hear of stings or injuries. And considering they are quite easy to catch or even see in any intertidal estuary within Queensland, and most parts of the country.

However I have an unfortunate mate who has now been stung not once, but twice, in the last 5 years by trying to release a line caught stingray.

His first happened 5 years after hooking a cowtail ray and dragging it up on the bank. With his foot on it's head( yeah I know), he preceeded to try and remove his hook. The cowtails tail disjointed and flung over the top of its body, spiking my friend in the top of the foot. Off to the hospital, he claimed the pain was on a scale of 7-8. No barb was located in the wound, it was cleaned, given antibiotics and pain relief. However it didn't end there...

Over the next week the area became inflamed and it was diagnosed as infected. He went in for surgery and parts of the dead wound were removed. After another fortnight, the area was still inflamed and the wound was festering. A biopsy revealed an unknown bacteria was consuming the flesh. A second and third surgery went underway where they removed most of his top foot and patched it with a skin graft. Eventually all, although massively scarred. This is the result:

This Sunday, in the Pine while cast netting for prawns, he once again caught a small stingray. As the ray hit the deck it once again lashed out and spiked him in the side of the (other) foot. An afternoon with his foot in an ice bath, he woke the next day to familiar symptoms as the area became heavily inflamed. He is back in hospital awaiting diagnosis where only time will tell.

The moral of the story: beware of stingrays!

 

[benno573]

Hmm... I have caught hundreds of stingrays in my lifetime and have never come close to being spiked. Placing your foot on the head of the ray would seem to be perhaps not the best method of dealing with the situation...

 

I use a simple trick - using the line flip the ray upside down. I do this onto the back step of my boat, I never bring them into the boat. Their tail cannot flick up towards you at this point, it can only flick up and side to side in their normal swimming position so when upside down you only have side-to-side to worry about. From here you'll be able to quickly see if the hook is recoverable, if so use pliers to extract it, if not cut the line and that's that. Use pliers/thong/ruler to push the ray back into the water. I have also used this method when fishing landbased as well.

 

another thing to remember is the barbs are towards the top of the tail only, not along the full length. It is also a defensive weapon for the ray and they won't go out of their way to attack you. I guess also - it's a hook. They are generally quite cheap and readily available... Is it worth the risk to try and get a 50c hook back?

 

regardless of all that, @Tybo hope your mate has a much less arduous recovery this time around.

[Do$tylz]

F###! THAT!

Those first pics are full on and I can only hope for your mates sake that history does not repeat for him.

Combine this and Ray getting hit by the catty, I'm so glad I have a healthy lean towards using lures thus less chance of hooking these hell bringers of the fishy world.

[Drop Bear]

3 hours ago, Tybo said:

However I have an unfortunate mate who has now been stung not once, but twice, in the last 5 years by trying to release a line caught stingray.

Wowsers. A mate of mine was working on a trawler and a cowtail ray cut hit thigh to the bone up in the gulf. That was before everyone had a camera phone so no pickies but nasty. I hope your mate comes good asap. 

[Gad]

2 hours ago, benno573 said:

Hmm... I have caught hundreds of stingrays in my lifetime and have never come close to being spiked. Placing your foot on the head of the ray would seem to be perhaps not the best method of dealing with the situation...

 

I use a simple trick - using the line flip the ray upside down. I do this onto the back step of my boat, I never bring them into the boat. Their tail cannot flick up towards you at this point, it can only flick up and side to side in their normal swimming position so when upside down you only have side-to-side to worry about. From here you'll be able to quickly see if the hook is recoverable, if so use pliers to extract it, if not cut the line and that's that. Use pliers/thong/ruler to push the ray back into the water. I have also used this method when fishing landbased as well.

 

another thing to remember is the barbs are towards the top of the tail only, not along the full length. It is also a defensive weapon for the ray and they won't go out of their way to attack you. I guess also - it's a hook. They are generally quite cheap and readily available... Is it worth the risk to try and get a 50c hook back?

 

 

all the above...

common sense appears to be a superpower these days, for some 

[aussie123]

37 minutes ago, Drop Bear said:

Wowsers. A mate of mine was working on a trawler and a cowtail ray cut hit thigh to the bone up in the gulf. That was before everyone had a camera phone so no pickies but nasty. I hope your mate comes good asap. 

And that is why we carried tomohawks on our boats to lop the tails off.

Large rays can be very dangerous when you are working and concentrating on other things.

Turn them into a bobtail and they can never hurt anyone ever again

[Tybo]

2 hours ago, benno573 said:

Hmm... I have caught hundreds of stingrays in my lifetime and have never come close to being spiked. Placing your foot on the head of the ray would seem to be perhaps not the best method of dealing with the situation...

 

I use a simple trick - using the line flip the ray upside down. I do this onto the back step of my boat, I never bring them into the boat. Their tail cannot flick up towards you at this point, it can only flick up and side to side in their normal swimming position so when upside down you only have side-to-side to worry about. From here you'll be able to quickly see if the hook is recoverable, if so use pliers to extract it, if not cut the line and that's that. Use pliers/thong/ruler to push the ray back into the water. I have also used this method when fishing landbased as well.

 

another thing to remember is the barbs are towards the top of the tail only, not along the full length. It is also a defensive weapon for the ray and they won't go out of their way to attack you. I guess also - it's a hook. They are generally quite cheap and readily available... Is it worth the risk to try and get a 50c hook back?

 

regardless of all that, @Tybo hope your mate has a much less arduous recovery this time around.

Totally agree. I don't even bother with nasties, I just cut the hook. Even scorpion cod and happy moments, I don't give them the chance to ruin my day, they can have the hook.

[Tybo]

5 minutes ago, aussie123 said:

Turn them into a bobtail and they can never hurt anyone ever again

I've hooked some of these too, obviously doesn't seem to worry them. Still I don't bother, they're just a waste of time, I just cut the hook.

[aussie123]

45 minutes ago, Tybo said:

I've hooked some of these too, obviously doesn't seem to worry them. Still I don't bother, they're just a waste of time, I just cut the hook.

It does not hurt them at all.

Probably one out of every 5 that I would catch had been docked previously.

Some of these black rays would be over 6 ft round and very dangerous when they start whipping their tails around so best method was to jump on the tail and dock it off above the spike.

[benno573]

2 hours ago, aussie123 said:

It does not hurt them at all.

Probably one out of every 5 that I would catch had been docked previously.

Some of these black rays would be over 6 ft round and very dangerous when they start whipping their tails around so best method was to jump on the tail and dock it off above the spike.

 

Really? Do they tell you it doesn't hurt?

[Do$tylz]

11 hours ago, benno573 said:

 

Really? Do they tell you it doesn't hurt?

Yeah bro. You just get in the water with them and they give you a hug as thanks.

 

[Ovington]

Sounds like he should avoid stingrays for the rest of his life they must have something against him. Also after bring hit by a stingray barb you should put the wound in the hottest water you can handle not cold water. Hot water is supposed to help denature the venom and ease pain better.

[The Mad Hughesy]

dayum that's gruesome!

17 hours ago, Tybo said:

I've hooked some of these too, obviously doesn't seem to worry them. Still I don't bother, they're just a waste of time, I just cut the hook.

a waste of time!? as a sharking fanatic i must disagree  but I've been plagued by them before when chasing whiting

[Tybo]

36 minutes ago, christophagus said:

dayum that's gruesome!

a waste of time!? as a sharking fanatic i must disagree  but I've been plagued by them before when chasing whiting

I guess growing up we always chased whiting and flathead, and as you said stingrays are pain when fishing the flats. I always thought of them as sort of vermin. The humble stingray does put up a good fight though, forever tricking you into thinking you have something decent, that is until you see that brown shape come up.

[Terrova]

7 hours ago, Ovington said:

Sounds like he should avoid stingrays for the rest of his life they must have something against him. Also after bring hit by a stingray barb you should put the wound in the hottest water you can handle not cold water. Hot water is supposed to help denature the venom and ease pain better.

This...

 

This This This! 

 

[Drop Bear]

On 3/2/2017 at 1:13 PM, Tybo said:

The humble stingray does put up a good fight though, forever tricking you into thinking you have something decent, that is until you see that brown shape come up.

As a kid I was gutted a few times when this happened.