# Some thoughts on Skates



## Maxwell (Sep 20, 2004)

I know at lot of folks don’t like skates. They take your bait and chase away the other fish you really want. But, during the slow summer months I do miss having something really pulling drag. As a shoreline fisherman in the Bay, skates are the only game in town that I have found that will give you a good fight. There may be something else out there, but I havn't found it yet. I like it for the pure sport of fishing and that’s why I go out. Just a thought.
Max


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## Talapia (Apr 27, 2003)

Maxwell said:


> I know at lot of folks don’t like skates. They take your bait and chase away the other fish you really want. But, during the slow summer months I do miss having something really pulling drag. As a shoreline fisherman in the Bay, skates are the only game in town that I have found that will give you a good fight. There may be something else out there, but I havn't found it yet. I like it for the pure sport of fishing and that’s why I go out. Just a thought.
> Max


I am a catch and eat type guy and I hate
loosing expensive bait and tackle to those
things.


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## Singletjeff (Mar 27, 2005)

I'm all about Pullage.......If it pulls I'll catch it


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## NTKG (Aug 16, 2003)

Maxwell said:


> I know at lot of folks don’t like skates. They take your bait and chase away the other fish you really want. But, during the slow summer months I do miss having something really pulling drag. As a shoreline fisherman in the Bay, skates are the only game in town that I have found that will give you a good fight. There may be something else out there, but I havn't found it yet. I like it for the pure sport of fishing and that’s why I go out. Just a thought.
> Max



i think its a bit of a myth that they scare fish away. i heard some people telling me that while on the peake a couple of weeks ago.


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## cygnus-x1 (Oct 12, 2005)

Talapia said:


> I am a catch and eat type guy and I hate
> loosing expensive bait and tackle to those
> things.


I have to concur. Especially when you are on a pier and the guy with a skate on has no sense of manners or what he is doing it can really cause problems.

I would prefer to eat what I catch so I don't just go out just to get pullage. I know I am probably in the minority on this one but thats how I feel.


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## Green Cart (May 14, 2002)

*Cow Nose Rays...*

What a waste of time  A soon as I catch one and I verify that, in fact, it is a cow nose ray, I tighten my drag all the way, point the rod down, start walking back, and reeling until my line breaks at the shock leader knot. There is no point in trying to reel one in all the way just to save your rig because 9 out of 10, your line is going to break anyway.  

As for the myth that the cow nose rays scare the fish away, I believe it because I have caught as many as 8 in a row. I read somewhere that a plane can see thousands of them. If I remember correctly, some P&S said that they could walk across their backs.  

So I usually cut back the number of rods, switch to other fishing methods to avoid catching them. If that does not work, then I go home.

No wonder Maryland is making a study of what to do with them. Maybe if DNR offers $5 bonus for every catch, more of us will fish for them  

I rather catch nothing than catch stupid cow nose rays because it is a waste of time replacing the shock leaders, putting a strain on my fishing equipment and myself for what!


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## Lipyourown (May 11, 2005)

I concur with Greencart, also they probable smell like ...sharks and scare bottom feeders away.


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## Surf Fish (Dec 16, 2005)

Me too. Bust the line and get it over with.


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## Dogg Fish (Jun 2, 2006)

I consider them a nuisance but they are fun for novice fishermen to catch, at least for the first time. I'm taking my girlfriend for her first pier fishing trip this weekend and I bet she'll get a kick out of bringing one up. My kids sure did. As for food, my ex-wife once hauled one up at the choptank, and cut off its wings and threw them in the cooler. (she was a tough broad.) She found some recipe for them, cooked it up, and it was damned good. There's a lot of meat on those suckers, too.


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## MANDINGO (Apr 4, 2004)

*Y Bother*

If I Go Fishing Im Out To Catch Edible Fish That My Family Will Eat.losing Bait And Tackle Is No Fun And Can Get Expensive. 9 Outta 10 Times Can Add Up Quick. Id Rather Catch 100 Spot Or Small Dink Rocks Than 1 Skate. Ya Want Pullage Grab My Bunker ..lol Just Kidding Ya


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## NTKG (Aug 16, 2003)

with 20lb line a shock and good knots you should be able to bring in most rays(not the carhoods and carpets like down south) pretty much straight in and quickly. The one i had on at romancoke the other week didnt have much of a chance on a heaver. 

i dont know about the scare fish away part, i've definatley seen lots of fish swimming around rays, other brown fish .... and also i've been on piers where theres a blitz of blues or spanish and a huge school of hundreds of rays come through and it doesnt affect anything. in the spring down south in va all along the ocean front you see tons of them migrating and the fishing is not affected by them. if i remember right rays that are swimmin up top like that arent feeding either

dont know though, teo was just telling me shark is an excellent shark repellant so there could definatley be a connection there...

neil


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## Lipyourown (May 11, 2005)

in the bay, I think they scare the BOTTOM feeders, not the mackeral and blues that can out swim them. Yeah, a quality heaver whips em in 10minutes tops...I don't break em off, I land them and get my rig then let em go.


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## lazy fisherman (Jul 1, 2006)

MANDINGO said:


> If I Go Fishing Im Out To Catch Edible Fish That My Family Will Eat.losing Bait And Tackle Is No Fun And Can Get Expensive. 9 Outta 10 Times Can Add Up Quick. Id Rather Catch 100 Spot Or Small Dink Rocks Than 1 Skate. Ya Want Pullage Grab My Bunker ..lol Just Kidding Ya


No personal experience, but I've heard that Skates taste pretty good. Next time you catch one, maybe you should keep it and eat it. That might change your opinion. Of course, if they just break your line, there's not much point from an eating point of view.


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## Dogg Fish (Jun 2, 2006)

I'm not kidding, Skate meat is really tasty. Tastes more like veal than fish, but I suppose it depends on how you cook it. I mostly fish for sport. But it strikes me as odd that so many fishermen who are so focused on the food value of their catch throw back or cut the line on 20 or so pounds of very good meat when they catch a skate. All you do is cut off the wings, that's where the meat is. (Of course, watch out for the stinger on the tail; best to kill it by stabbing it in the head first) Someone I know who goes to a hell of a lot nicer restaurants than I do told me that Skate sometimes appears on menus of expensive seafood restaurants like McCormick and Schmick's.


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## Talapia (Apr 27, 2003)

We know you can eat some skates...and if the
kind they had in the bay were the edible
(good tasting) ones they would be in jeopardy
of being put in hot grease. The ones that
we have in the Ches Bay are not the ones
that are used for eating. Wrong type.


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## Dogg Fish (Jun 2, 2006)

Talapia, I can't claim to know a lot about it, but I know one thing that most P&Sers don't know. That's because I actually ate quite a bit of meat from a big skate my ex caught, cleaned and cooked from the Choptank pier about five years ago. It was absolutely delicious, and I didn't have any adverse physical reactions to it.


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## Talapia (Apr 27, 2003)

Dogg Fish said:


> Talapia, I can't claim to know a lot about it, but I know one thing that most P&Sers don't know. That's because I actually ate quite a bit of meat from a big skate my ex caught, cleaned and cooked from the Choptank pier about five years ago. It was absolutely delicious, and I didn't have any adverse physical reactions to it.


Folks like different things...I wish that I liked 
the bay variety!


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## Dogg Fish (Jun 2, 2006)

Isn't there an official P&S rule that all threads must continue until everyone comes into complete agreement on the topic?


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## clamsnout (Jul 1, 2006)

*Skates vs rays and edibility*

Most people seem to separate the skates from the rays. Skates have thicker tails and no tail spine to sting you. At least at AI they often have rosebush-like prickles on the back that can jab you pretty good when handling or cleaning for the table. Skates can be eaten, I have skinned and seperated the meat from the cartiliage and it can be floured and fried or made into 'skatecakes' after poaching. I find them hard to skin so don't eat them much. In general I agree with others that they are more of a pest than anything else. Same with the doggies.

http://www.nyseafood.org/dc.asp?dc_id=52&node_id=407&document_id=3400&func=view_doc

True rays like the cownose have thin whiplike tails and usually a nasty stinger than can cause a real painful hit. I have never eaten a true ray. The common ones around here are cownose and butterfly. Butterflys get huge (6 feet across) and have a smooth nose unlinke the well named cownose. DNR wants us to eat them so they leave the clams and osters alone:

http://www.chesapeakebay.net/info/cownose_ray.cfm


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## bryanorosz (Jan 6, 2005)

Skate wings on sale at Wegmans grocery store...! 
:--|


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## Sandcrab (Mar 20, 2002)

*Anyone can hook em - the trick is to bring them in...*

Saturday AM 40" cownose ray took me (and my 15 lb test Trilene Big Game line) for a 45 minute run before it was over and I took the hook out of his mouth on the beach.. I was exhausted after that... Other than the ray, nothing but small blues to report... 

Ray not weighed - probably 50-60 lbs... I have caught and landed larger at SPSP.

Sandcrab


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## Fishbreath (Nov 11, 2004)

So, lets say you hook a ray (cownose variety found in the bay) and you land it. How do you remove the meat from the wings? How do you filet the wings once you cut them from the body and how much of the wing do you actually cut from the body of the ray? 

How do you cook it??


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## lazy fisherman (Jul 1, 2006)

clamsnout said:


> Same with the doggies.


Interesting about the dogfish. That's what the English use to make their famous fish and chips. A case of use what you have, maybe? But then, sharks in general are considered very good eating. 

Haven't caught a skate, ray, or whatever you want to call 'em yet. When I do, I intend, in the interests of science, to cook it to the best of my ability. I'll give a report. Unless it's a 50 lb stingray thrashing around like crazy. In that case I'll just run away.


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## cpn_aaron (Apr 11, 2006)

Never eaten a cownose, only Southern (also called common) rays and they taste just like scallops. This breed of ray is a delicious specimen used by some cheap restauranteurs to dupe people inot paying scallop prices for cheaper ray flesh.
Cleaning rays is actually very easy. Compared to a fish the rays size the fish is much harder and longer to fillet. 
To fillet you cut the wings as close to the body cavity as possible. Near the spine of the animal is the thickest and juiciest cuts. 
Once seperated, each wings is best cut into pieces that your fillet knife can easily handle. I have a 12" Henkle blade and it can handle a piece that is ~10" wide. I run the knife on each piece along the cartilage in the wing. This will provide you with one piece with only skin and one peice with cartilage and skin. Then repeat filleting cartilage side down for the other wing to remove the cartilage. This cartilage filleting is just like pulling a fillet off the carcass of a fish. Slide the blade smoothly and close to the cartilage and it seperates easily. 
The skin is equally easy to remove as long as you follow the typical procedure to remove fish skin from a fillet. The most important thing to remember with a skate is to constantly keep your knife sharp. As soon as it pulls run the knife over the sharpener a bit and it will slide like butter and the fish will be filleted quickly and cleanly with nice steaks of ray meat.


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## Joey (May 27, 2001)

I have to agree with you Maxwell. When I first started fishing, cownose were a nuisance and cost plenty of money in lost or broken gear. Now I see catching rays as a test of angler skill and preparation not for a cow but a unicorn.  

As mentioned before, With the right line and properly tied knots you shouldn't have any breakoffs. This passed weekend I hooked up a cownose while perch fishing with shad darts on light tackle gear. Had him in roughly 5 minutes and released shortly. This will probably be one of the more memorable catches of this season for me.


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## Fishbreath (Nov 11, 2004)

Thanks Cpn_aaron. Got me thinking I may have to try a southern ray next time I hook up with one.


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## Sandcrab (Mar 20, 2002)

*I tie my own rigs on 100 lb test leader material..*



Joey said:


> ...Now I see catching rays as a test of angler skill and preparation not for a cow but a unicorn.
> 
> As mentioned before, With the right line and properly tied knots you shouldn't have any breakoffs.



I tie my own hi/lo rigs on a 4' length of 100 lb test leader material. It helps with the abrasion from the fish's mouth near the hooks and enables me to have something to yank them out of the water with! The cownose didn't stand a chance! 

Sandcrab


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