Your stingray story revives memorory here-back when collich boy in SFO had buddy whose dad was member of San Rafael R & G club,thus free access to their fishing pier just around the band N.of San Quentin spec.housing facility.. One fine day he hooked a big ray off the end there,took both of us and could have used some help, too big to hoist so unhooked him with the 12 g. BTW: at aimoo:Cast boolits, my handle is "onceabull"--Mrs has been talking reality check lately !!!--Idabull

You're always a bull here, Idabull. Amazing how many of us cast shooters have in our salad days slung 1750 grain leaden projectiles into the bay in search of stingrays. They can pull like a horse! Regards to you and the Mrs. If you care to send me an update my E-mail is scrumbled@aol.com

What Curmudgeon has said is true. After the group effort of landing this beast up and onto the pier with the gaff rope, the fish had to be dealt with. I remember cutting off the tail with the dreaded stinger with my Camillus Navy knife from the surplus store. Still have the knife, but an inch shorter now due to early throwing experiments. We put the ray on the floorboard of the Cushman motor scooter, he covered the whole thing with both wings dragging on the pier surface and his snout up against the exhaust pipe of the engine. He stunk pretty good by the time we made the bait shop. He lost a bit of weight due to abrasion on the way to the bait-tackle store at the base of the pier. Without his tail and what ever else he lost from the trip, he weighed in at 67 pounds. After weighing, we threw the fish back in the water, because there were no chinamen around that day to trade for cigarettes. This was early catch and release ethics. There were plenty of rough and rowdy opportunities for kids growing up in California in those days. Someday I'll tell of smuggling fireworks on the bus from Oakland to Berkeley. First money I ever made.

Idabull, I'm sure that stingray you guys caught on the Marin side of the bay was a relative of the one that Curmudgeon caught. Lots of those small Lepoard sharks too, and netting for crabs. We caught the shiners with those ugly pile worms, and used them for bait for the elusive Striped Bass. No one would eat the mussels from the bay in those days, now they are gourmet food.

The gaff that we used to land the giant stingray was a huge treble hook with about a pound or two of lead cast around the shank. Attached to a stout rope it was the only way to land a large fish from the pier which was 10-20 feet off the surface depending on tide. ON TOPIC we are.

Best regards from duke.